This ride takes you through open farmlands of corn, wheat and beans, where on a clear day the vistas can be inspiring. In winter you can see snowcapped Mt. Lassen and Shasta looming off in the distant north and the Coast Range to the west.
This friendly ride takes you through the tiny town of Nord, where most of the traffic you encounter will be almond-hauling trucks or farm tractors. This is a great ride during almond harvest because the trucks are uncovered and the unhulled almonds blow off the top to fall by the roadside. More than once we have filled our jersey pockets to bulging with our vegetarian "road-kill".
This ride is also a good ride to combine with either the Sacramento/Chico River Roads ride and/or the Keefer Road loop. Use Meridian Rd. to connect with the Sacramento River Road ride or Anita Rd. to connect to the Keefer Road loop.
To get to the start of this ride, weave your way through town to get to Cussick Rd. The best routes to take are Lassen Ave. west until it dead ends into Cussick, or take 11th Ave (NOT 11th Street, which is south of Chico) to Holly Ave. north, which turns into Cussick shortly after crossing the bridge at Lindo Channel.
From Cussick make a left on Bell Rd. and follow it all the way out until it dead ends into Hamilton Nord Cana Hwy. Make a right and follow this road through Nord while it makes a couple of short turns that get you across the railroad tracks.
A couple miles further on the Nord-Cana Hwy brings you to Wilson Land Rd. (if you were to keep on Nord-Cana Hwy for a few more miles you would come to Anita Rd – the road to use if you ever decide to combine this ride with the Keefer Rd. Loop.) Turning right on Wilson Landing takes us past farmhouses and silos until we once again come to Meridian Rd. A right turn on Meridian takes us back to Bell Road and back to Chico.
