Wheeled Migration

Chaffin Family Orchards is the most dynamic sustainable farms in Butte County. They are our hosts for the first day of Wanderlust!

Located on 2,000 acres at the foot of Table Mountain,

Chaffin is home to hundreds of animals that help graze and till the land.

Generations of care have made Chaffin Family Orchards the inviting place it is.

Heirloom Mission olives, stone fruits, citrus, chicken, eggs, grass fed goat, beef, & sheep create the menu of CSA options from the farm.

We will also visit the (and take a swim in) rarely seen Table Mountain Lake. A relic from the days of Del Chaffin, the farms founder- and Butte Counties first hydro-powerplant.

Chaffin is the site of America’s oldest olive trees. This is where we will sleep our first night, and the site of our first nights concert!

Check this out to learn all about Chaffin Family Orchards. And take a look at Chaffin featured on Peak Moment for a deeper look at this farm.

Chris will be hanging out with us all day at the farm. If you’ve got questions he’s got answers and great stories.

It’s a relaxing 19 miles to Chaffin on our first day. We’re looking forward to sharing this gem of Butte County with you.

See you on the bike!

Would you like some more? WM is now including your first day at Worldfest as part of our Wanderlust tour package!  That’s a half day to play in Grass Valley or Nevada City.. or to ride those gold country hills.. Plus a full evening of music.

See MaMuse at their first performance, just off the road. We can promise that will be memorable. And the Worldfest experience. We’ve got the shuttle home ready for you that evening.

Do you want to ride Wheeled Migration? We’re working to see you on a bike tour. Send us an email or watch this blog for discounts and opportunities for support. We’ll go ride all day.

We are pleased to announce Max Kee from Chico’s GRUB cooperative is joining on to help reduce Wanderlusts wastestream. Max is rolling out Thanksgiving Services for our tour to ensure everywhere we descend upon is left with a loving attention to the environment. He cleans our Karma.

Max does all sorts of stuff. Ask him for tips on:

• composting
• farming
• vermaculture
• alternative home design
• recycling
• and how to find a bounty in scarcity.

Max is at the very core of Wheeled Migration. He helped route our first tour in 2008 and, among other things, Max coined our name.

“I am proud to be on the Wheeled Migration and to share my love for the land that supports us, the communities that host us, and the roads that guide us with you in a unique way.”

We’re certain you’ll like him. Thanks Max!

Max Kee with Karisha from MaMuse.

We’re back from routing Wanderlust. It’s going to be spectacular!

Our first day will feature 32 miles of Butte County’s rolling hills and countryside as we approach the Sierra Nevada foothills.

We will enjoy an afternoon and evening of entertainment at Chaffin Family Orchards. Chaffin is a farm of immense history where you will discover groves of rare heirloom citrus and Ark of Taste stone fruits from an era when fruit was bred for taste, not food miles. Turn of the century olive groves and thick trunks of old fashioned fruit trees grow in concert with nature.

The evening program includes performances by MaMuse, the Railflowers, and Evin Wolverton.

Riders will have the opportunity to visit award-winning Quilici vineyards (pictured above), a small boutique winery bottling just 1,000 cases-a-year. They specialize in handcrafted, estate wines grown, produced and cellared at their family home. Riders will also enjoy a delicious, locally-grown meal provided by Roots Catering.

On day 2, riders will Wake up to a tasty breakfast grown on the land they slept on and make their way through the beautiful Sierra Nevada foothills. Riders will have the opportunity to visit Lodestar, local olive oil producer, where the Johansson Family has been carrying on the 100-year history of olive production in Oroville since 1993. Soil, climate, and skillful knowledge have produced world class olives at Lodestar Farms, but it’s passion that creates the world-class olive oil.

The tour will continue winding down country roads through small-town Bangor and past Oregon House to set up camp at Bullards Bar Lake.

A brunch stop along the way, at cozy Lake Francis (pictured above), offers riders refreshment before riding over Bullards Bar’s impressive dam and making the last ascent into camp. You can look forward to a tasty twist on the American hamburger dinner made with grass-fed, free-range Chaffin-raised beef.

Bullards Bar spillway

On day 3, riders will wake up to a pastry breakfast with tea and coffee amid huge pines and enjoy a brief workshop on safe cycle riding before their lovely morning descent through the Tahoe National Forest. Oregon creek and a covered bridge a century and a half old await at the bottom of the hill. Dropping into the Bridgeport river canyon, riders can enjoy a dip in the Yuba before climbing forested Pleasant Valley Road into Grass Valley.

Routing scribbles helped us produce this ride for you

The Wanderlust Bicycle Tour!
July 12-15, 2010

(Registration closes July 5!)