Markleeville is the seat of Alpine County, which has fewer residents than any other county in California, and the town feels like a mountain hamlet that has never been in a hurry. A few hundred people live along the East Fork of the Carson River, with a courthouse, a small museum, a general store, two or three cafes and the rest hidden in pine and aspen. At around fifty-five hundred feet, in the eastern Sierra, the air is clear and cool, and the sound of the river runs through the village.
The place was created by the mining boom of the 1860s, when silver was found in the nearby hills, and the town was named after Jacob Marklee, an early settler. The boom was short, and by the 1880s most of the miners had moved on, leaving ghost camps and shafts in the woods. Today, the main business is recreation, with hiking, fishing, skiing in winter, and the hot springs of Grover Hot Springs State Park, a few miles to the west, where a pool fed by natural springs sits in a meadow below high peaks and is open all year.
Cyclists know the town for the Death Ride, a one-day event held each July in which thousands of cyclists climb five mountain passes in a single day. In the same way, motorcyclists enjoy the passes, because the roads are lightly trafficked and demanding. From the west, the ride over Ebbetts Pass descends in a sequence of tight bends along the river, and here the road widens, becomes smoother and sweeps into the valley. Monitor Pass, to the north, is another wonderful road, with big sagebrush views toward Nevada.
Supplies are limited, so bring a full tank. The town has a small station, but the larger town of Gardnerville is about twenty-two kilometres to the east in Nevada, and has everything you need. Weather can change quickly, with summer storms, cold nights and snow in the cooler months, so pack extra layers. Late September is a lovely time, when the aspens along the creek turn gold and the crowds are gone. At night, the sky is dark and clear, and the Milky Way is often visible.