Sprawling 500-mile route that could connect California’s 15 ‘lost’ mountain towns

California’s “lost” mountain towns are about to be found. An ambitious 500-mile single track trail is being pieced together reaching from Northern California to Western Nevada, with plans to link 15 far-flung communities once fueled by the Gold Rush, logging, and mining. The mammoth Lost Sierra Route would snake through some of the Golden State’s most dramatic and overlooked mountain country, creating a town-to-town adventure stretching from the Truckee-Tahoe area to the rural northeastern Lassen County. The project, dubbed the Connected Communities initiative, is spearheaded by the non-profit Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship, and will give hikers, bikers and horseback riders an interconnected pathway through relic towns that time almost forgot. The enclaves on the frontier include Jonesvil