John Trent, aka The Mountain Mutt*
September 4, 2007

The reaction was common when it comes to Peavine Peak. A trail runner in the Silver State 50-mile race in May had just finished spending the better part of six hours running up and down Peavine.

Tired and dusty, Carl Freeman, a runner from Kensington, Calif., was amazed at what he had just experienced.

"That," he said, as he took a drink of water at an aid station at Boomtown Hotel Casino, not far from Peavine, "is one incredible mountain. I just thought it would be a bunch of sagebrush."

Peavine is one of those mountains that has a way of creeping up on you. Although it guards the northern and western edges of Reno, this 8,266-foot peak is all about going vertical and going vertical in a hurry.

Runners in the Silver State 50, for example, climb from about 4,500 feet at the start to near the top of Peavine in a little less than six miles.

"It's a lung-buster, that's for certain," said Reno trail runner Eric Hicks, who regularly trains on Peavine.

Yet Peavine is so much more. Peavine is dotted with road – some of it marked, some of it not. There is single track on its lower flanks and jeep road leading to the top. In between is some of the most gorgeous scenery the area has to offer. Located in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, Peavine offers trail opportunities for all ability levels.

"Peavine is one of the area's truly great assets," said Dan Brown, owner of Bicycle Bananas bike shop in northwest Reno and a frequent mountain biker on Peavine. "It's right in our own backyard. You can drive to it from downtown Reno in just a matter of a few minutes."

The highlights of Peavine are many.

Mule deer, though not as plentiful as 20 years ago due to man's encroachment on the mountain's lower reaches, are still easy to spot in packs of 10 or 20 during the winter and through the spring.

The aspens are also worth a trip to the top. Marked with the carvings of Basque sheepherders from more than 100 years ago – as well as visitors of more recent vintage – the aspens are so memorable that Harriet Burgess, former head of the American Land Conservancy, called them the most "beautiful" she had ever seen when much of the mountain moved into the public domain in the late 1990s.

Of course, finding access to Peavine's trails is one of the more challenging aspects to enjoying this desert mountain beauty. Development has crawled up the flanks of Peavine, and, as well, there are still parcels high on the mountain that are in private hands.

Your best bet is to access Peavine's trails via the Keystone Canyon trailhead off McCarran Boulevard. From Virginia Street, turn left onto McCarran and follow McCarran past Keystone Avenue. The Keystone Canyon trailhead will be to your right at the Victory Lane Exit. Starting from the Keystone Canyon trailhead, following a variety of single track that take you in a western direction, you can ride all the way to the top of Peavine and back down for a fun, challenging 20-mile mountain bike ride.

Great Basin Bicycles of Reno has an excellent website with maps of many of the best Peavine trails. Go to www.greatbasinbicycles.com.

* John Trent has been partaking in the trails of the Sierra since he was 11 years old, when he got lost on the road leading from southwest Reno to Hunter Lake near the Mountain Rose Wilderness (yes, eventually he did find his way home, but not after getting really sunburned and running out of water). Since then, he's run the Western States 100-mile Endurance Run from Squaw Valley, Calif., to Auburn, Calif., eight times – seven of them in under 24 hours. He's a former Outdoor/Recreation editor for the Reno Gazette-Journal who still regularly writes and reports on outdoor recreation. He lives in Reno with his wife and two daughters.