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Today on Outdoor Nevada, we continue to explore the Carson City area.

I hit the mountain bike trails, fish the Truckee, walk the hills with a geologist and ride the rails with an archaeologist.

That's all today on Outdoor Nevada.

♪♪♪ (John Burke) You know, the state of Nevada is quickly becoming a mountain biking mecca and for good reason.

Now, Carson City, Nevada has a lot going on all its own, but when you discover these jaw-droppingly beautiful mountain bike trails here, you're in for a ride like no other place.

Carson City is not only Nevada's state capital, it's a certified bronze, bike-friendly community by the League of American Cyclists.

This is based on total bicycle network mileage, bike-friendly laws and the community's involvement in a Unified Pathways Master Plan.

Today, I'm hitting the Kings to Ash Canyon Trail.

This trail is seven miles long, and it winds through pines and aspens.

It's designed for mountain biking and open to hikers and equestrians.

The trail was built by the local advocacy group Muscle Powered, and boy, they did a great job.

You know, part of my job is built on adjectives.

These trails are epic, undeniably great, unbelievably beautiful-- that's just a start.

Right now I'm going to meet up with two local biking enthusiasts who can tell us a whole lot more.

Meet husband and wife duo Nate and Beth.

Not only are they riders, they're coaches for the local high school mountain biking team.

How beautiful is this?

-Fantastic.

-Pretty good, right?

-Yeah.

-How long have you guys been riding?

Let me start with you.

-Probably between eight to ten years.

-And this goes back in your family, doesn't it?

(Nate Harrison) Yes.

My folks got into mountain biking back in the late '80s, and they got my brother and I into doing it.

So we've been riding-- you know, since I was probably in fifth or sixth grade, I've been on a mountain bike.

-I don't think when people think of Carson City, they necessarily think of this level of mountain biking.

I mean, this is epic.

How would you rank it?

-So I've ridden all over the place in the western United States.

I honestly say that I tend to compare the trails that I ride in other places to these trails and how do they hold up.

Ash to Kings Trail, which is right behind us, is probably my favorite trail of all time.

That's not to say there's other trails and other areas that are-- you know, they're different terrain-wise and climate and everything so they're unique in their own way and comparable, but this one being in the backyard is just absolutely fantastic.

-I haven't done as much riding as you but I've done a little bit, and this is as good as it's-- this is like the gold seal for me.

This is really great.

Let's talk about etiquette for people that want to come out and ride bikes, because there is an etiquette within the community; tell me about it.

(Beth Harrison) For sure, and especially once again, this last year the sport has grown so much.

It's so important that people are just kind and friendly on the trails, and one of the big things is right of way.

You know, we run into a lot of hikers, we run into equestrians out here, and as a mountain biker, it's your responsibility to always give right of way to those people.

A lot of times they'll yield and give it to you.

They say come on through and, you know, you just give them a big smile and thank them.

But it's really important that people learn that because that does cause some disputes on the trails sometimes, you know.

-If I'm going uphill and somebody is coming downhill, what do we do?

-Ideally, they yield to you.

You're working harder.

-So if I'm going uphill, they yield.

-You're going uphill, they should yield on a bike.

If it's a hiker and/or an equestrian, you still yield no matter what.

-What's our elevation here?

-It's around 4,500 feet.

-4,500.

It feels so clean, the air.

-Yes.

One of the things, you know, I think this area, they say there's over 300-plus days of sunshine a year, and that's definitely the case.

Winters are pretty mild, relatively speaking, and summers we do get hot but it's not ridiculous.

It's not like the southern part of the state.

-I am pro-Carson City; I am pro-these trails.

This place is-- I'm running out of adjectives.

I need an adjective to describe this.

Give me a word.

-Just fantastic.

I mean, we go to other places and our kids on numerous occasions have looked up and said Mom, I miss our blue skies.

You know, we have just-- it's just beautiful here.

-It's just beautiful.

So "fantastic," and I need an adjective from you.

-Epic always sounds so cliche but, you know, I feel like we've got epic trails.

The community is really good.

You know, it continues to get better and better, and I think that "epic" is probably a good word to put on it.

-Well, it's my fault but we've been doing far too much talking and not enough riding.

What do you say we hit the trails?

-Let's do it.

-I'm following you guys.

Let's go.

-All right.

♪♪♪ Hey, Nate!

You know what, it dawned on me.

Mountain biking is just as much fun alone as it is when you have two great people, two great friends to do it with.

It's really cool.

-Yes.

You know, one of the other cool things about mountain biking is it's a sport that you can do it your entire lives.

We've got teenagers that ride.

My folks, my dad is almost 70, he rides still.

So it's something that you can do pretty much your whole life and, you know, really gives you an opportunity to get outside, meet some great people and see some really cool things.

-What are we waiting for?

Let's go.

Woohoo!

Throughout Nevada there are great trails, and each area offers something different.

You could be racing through the open desert one day and whipping past aspen trees the next.

Nevada has a lot of trails to offer and I, for one, am going to ride as many as possible.

♪♪♪ I really enjoy fishing.

As a matter of fact, whenever I have the chance to cast a line I do it, and that's why I met up with Jim, a professional angler.

We went out on the Truckee River for a day of fly fishing.

The Truckee River begins and feeds off Lake Tahoe.

It flows 110 miles to Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation.

This river is one of the heaviest fished rivers in Nevada-- 60- to 100,000 anglers per year fish the Truckee.

You can fish for rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, mountain whitefish and large-mouth bass.

What do you like about fishing?

I mean, I know that's a pretty simple question, but why do you do it?

(Jim Litchfield) I think that it gives me a really good active reason to get out and enjoy the outdoors.

I really love the ability to escape.

Even in an urban environment in downtown Reno, the Truckee River flows right through our community.

It flows through the community and you can escape the hustle and bustle and get down into the channel and just really enjoy it, you know.

And then we're here east of Reno, and we're less than 25 minutes away from downtown.

You could be sitting at a blackjack table in 25 minutes.

You're fishing one of the best fisheries in the country.

-If you weren't fishing on the Truckee but you stayed in Nevada, where else is a good spot?

Where would you go?

-To fish?

-Yes.

-Well, all the way down the east side of the Sierras, you have-- going east-south from the Truckee Meadows, you have the Carson River and the Walker River, and then you're actually entering California technically it's not Nevada, but it's just simply less than an hour away from Reno and Sparks is Pyramid Lake, and there we have a native species that has been reintroduced and is one of the largest species of trout in North America, the Lahontan cutthroat trout which is native and indigenous to Pyramid Lake.

-Well, you've been fishing all over the world.

How does Nevada rank in your book?

-Well, I think for the quality of fish and the challenging nature of fly fishing itself, it ranks really high.

Again, as we've discussed, the Department of Wildlife has done such a great job of managing the fishery and advocating for the sustained flows that we've had throughout the year, and it sounds a bit obvious, but fish need water-- and once you hold right here, just pull in and hold-- and as they have water, they will grow and they'll flourish and reproduce and be very happy fish.

It's going to get shallow here, so I don't want you to lose your fly.

We're going to go right to the bottom of this ripple and start fishing again on the right side.

What's fun about the Truckee is the action on the river.

You have moments of floating and sections of rapids.

I liked it because it keeps you on your toes.

You know, having someone like Jim makes the experience all the better.

He knows the river.

He can embrace the art of fly fishing.

Sometimes when you're fly fishing you have a choice to make and most of the time for trout fishing, you're fishing with insects.

Insects typically have a few life forms, one of which is the nymphal stage which represents often about 80% of the bug's life span, and what we're doing here is we're actually fishing with the nymph stage of the insect, representing the insect.

The other one is the adult which is associated with dry fly fishing.

-No, you keep going.

-You don't want to try it?

-I want to see this.

-Now, you're trying to think like the fish.

-Yes.

We're trying to basically just feed the fish, so we're trying to represent what the fish is eating, how they're eating it and when they're eating it, and that's why I'm casting it multiple times through in slightly different spots each time.

-Because I've noticed sometimes you're thinking it's on the banks, sometimes you're thinking it's more in the middle.

-And that's the beauty of it.

You know, you just really don't know.

You make a best guess, educated guess of where they are, and from there, you just kind of hope.

What you'll find is it's kind of not dissimilar from a buffet in a casino in that the big difference is instead of moving through the line for the fish to pick off the bugs, the fish will sit in one spot and let the bugs come to them.

-Is that right?

-They will.

So what I'm doing here is I'm trying all these different spots to see if I can find a spot that the fish is in the lane.

-And you're making the casting look easy because there's no weight on this, really.

So what is the key to your cast?

-So in fly fishing, the fly line, the thick line that has the kind of plastic coating, is all the weight to deliver the fly.

So you want to have a fly line that's kind of working in concert with your fly rod.

-But you're aggressive with throwing it out there.

-Well, yes, you got to get it to do it.

You got to have-- it's kind of like a buggy whip.

You got to get this fly rod to load and unload, flex and unflex, and in doing so, then it'll deliver your fly.

We're kind of spinning in circles with this current.

♪♪♪ That's amazing the way you say that.

You're trying to feed the fish, and you're plopping it in different areas.

-And over and over again because-- the fish, there's a rhythm to them, right?

They're seeing those bugs come by, they're going to eat.

They come back down and get in their spot.

Sometimes they lose their place in line.

So I think there's kind of a natural rhythm to it, and my fly might go through in a perfect spot in a perfect representation of the bug that they're eating, but they're on their way up or their way down.

They're not ready.

So I can go through here multiple times and actually come back one time and I'm in the right spot at the right time and the fish is doing their part and I'm doing mine, and all of a sudden, everything happens and I look like I know what I'm doing.

We got a couple of bites, but we didn't land anything, and you know what?

I'm okay with it because each time I go out, I get a better understanding of the land and the art of angling, plus I got to spend a day with a friend.

Hey, that's a win-win.

Thanks, Jim.

♪♪♪ Carson City's landscape is diverse: Aspens, pines, high desert, rivers and streams, mountains and valleys.

It's got a bit of everything.

It's a geological wonderland, and that's why I met up with Tom, a Carson City resident and geologist.

Hey, Tom.

-Hey, John.

How's it going?

-How are you?

Good seeing you.

-Good seeing you too.

-I heard a lot about you and this area, man.

I can't wait to explore.

-Yes, there's lots to look at.

-Do we head this way?

-Yes, this is the trail here.

Let's go.

-I'm ready.

-All right.

The best way I can describe Tom is as a free-spirit geologist.

He's academic and he's a storyteller.

He's a character in all the best ways.

I really enjoyed listening to him.

Who knew the geology and the history of the area was so deep.

We seem more in tune with the history we can see in pictures and has a human connection, but Tom looks at things a little bit differently.

He opened my eyes and my mind.

What is it you love about geology and these rocks here?

(Tom Gray) It gives you a view of deep time, deep time like these rocks, 165 million years old.

You can see there's little pieces in it.

You can almost imagine little separate rocks within the big rock, and that was pieces that were blown out of a volcano and kind of pasted together while they were still hot.

They have recorded all these little secrets that unless you had the training, you probably couldn't read that language.

So just being able to see-- and ultimately it gets back to the Earth.

I love being in the outdoors, and this is a way for me to see deeper into that and appreciate oh, my gosh, this is just so complicated, so rich.

It's such a rich story.

-Well, I can tell you without the training that you have, I can't read it like you can, and that's why I'm so glad that you're here.

Where are you taking me?

What are we going to see when we get up there?

-So we're going to do this trail and go up to Stegosaurus Ridge.

Now, there's no stegosaurus fossils up there but they're about the same age, those rocks, actually, surprisingly.

But we're going to see rocks that give us information on an ancient set of volcanic islands.

-This place was a lot different millions of years ago, wasn't it?

-Yes.

I mean, so many people know that the Earth was for much of its history covered by oceans-- well, it is today still-- but even land masses today were covered with oceans, and Nevada was that way for many, many, many million years, and then along comes the Jurassic Period which is the age of these rocks, and suddenly they're not marine ocean rocks, they're actually rocks that were formed on the land.

So this is the first episode of Nevada being above sea level.

-Wow, this is really it.

-Yes.

This is where it all came.

-Okay.

Let's go take a closer look.

Tell me about your impressions of living in Carson City.

-Carson City is such a great place.

It's the state capital, and I worked here for many years in the Environmental Protection Bureau.

And it's just so close to Tahoe, it's close to the Southern Sierra, and it's right next to all of Nevada.

It's part of all of Nevada.

-Perfect for a geologist.

-Yes.

-Okay, it's not Mount Everest, but how far have we gone here so far?

-We've gone about a mile and a half and just another half mile, quarter mile to the top.

Now, this is Stegosaurus Ridge up here.

Can you kind of see like the plates on the back of the stegosaurus?

-For sure.

That's what they call it, Stegosaurus Ridge?

-Yes.

-What can you tell me about that?

-So remember when we talked about the volcanoes and the 165 million years ago?

Well, this is the same rock.

So you can almost imagine volcanoes.

This is the first rocks that stuck up above the ocean in Nevada, in this part in western Nevada, so that's a pretty cool.

While ichthyosaurs were swimming around down in Berlin, there's a volcano here.

-That's incredible.

So much was happening, and, you know, over time you look out at this and it looks like nothing has ever happened, but to somebody like you, that's just not true, right, because time is different to you.

-Oh, I see everything here as process.

Everything is changing from what it is or what it was to what it will be.

Rocks take a long time to do that, but they're doing it.

You know, one rock falls off here, one rock falls off there, an earthquake lifts the hill two inches.

You do that over 165 million years, and you can make mountains.

-Now, let me ask you this: There's some lore, there's a story that has to do with-- I don't know, a bag of gold or something?

-Oh, yes.

-What is that?

-So there was a Wells Fargo stagecoach.

This was 1885, in the height of the bonanza, the mining in Virginia City.

It was coming down from Virginia City to Carson City to deposit bullion and coins in the bank.

So they were cruising along, and suddenly four bandits held them up, made all the passengers get out.

There was this lockbox that had, they say, $62,000 worth of gold.

-In those days.

-In those days.

-Which is a lot more today.

-That's a lot.

I don't know what, I haven't done the math, but a lot.

The sheriff rounds up a posse, and they come out.

In pretty quick order they find these guys.

They never found the lockbox.

It's just a short period of time-- where did the lockbox go?

-So the lore goes that somewhere up here is a box of gold.

-Yes, unless someone found it.

-We would know that by now.

-Well, maybe... -What do you say we go look for it?

-Okay.

Let's go.

-Let's go get rich, what do you say?

♪♪♪ It does make you want to look behind every rock, doesn't it?

That's one of my favorite things about Carson City-- the history.

Not only the Nevada history, but the planet's history.

Who would have ever thought that on this one trail system the rocks would tell a tale from the Jurassic Period, and maybe, just maybe, somewhere in those rocks is hidden a box of stolen gold.

Carson City is an amazing place.

It's been a great place to visit, and I've met some amazing people.

Carson City, you do not disappoint.

♪♪♪ Just on the outskirts of Carson City is VT Railway, a stretch of railroad tracks running through the Carson River Canyon.

I met up with local archaeologist Mike Drews to ride the rails and learn a little more about Carson City.

See, I can enjoy Nevada, but when I really understand the history, man, I can really enjoy it more, can't you?

-Oh, absolutely.

-You hear so much about the Hoover Dam and all the manpower and ingenuity that went into it, and it's all true and it's all valid.

But sometimes in the state of Nevada, we forget that same attitude brought us these rail lines.

(Mike Drews) Oh, yes.

When you think about the sweat that went into building the Hoover Dam, the Central Pacific Railroad grade, the Virginia and Truckee Railroad grade, the miles of mine shafts up in Virginia City, all hand done.

-That never ceases to amaze me.

-Those guys were tough.

♪♪♪ I wouldn't want to feed one.

-A regular person would come out here who didn't know better, see this and go that's kind of cool, but being here with you, I see and I can hear, and I think of the guys that are blasting this with dynamite right there.

They were right there digging this out with elbow grease, making it happem.

What would you like people to know about Carson City?

-It's the authentic West.

Carson City has done a great job of preserving their historic architecture, the historic downtown.

Carson City was the-- Virginia City drove the economy, Carson City was real business.

That's where things happened.

Some of the money from up there trickled down into Carson.

People who were supporting the Comstock were down in Carson and that flavor is still there.

Carson City has done a great job of preserving open space.

This is all either BLM or Carson City open space now.

It's not going to be developed.

-Well, I don't know how Carson City is rated, I can only tell you it's underrated.

There's really a peaceful beauty to this ride, and when you take the ride with someone like Mike, he allows you to see things for what they were and how they got us to this point in time.

I really love being able to visit and spend time with people.

They each have a story to tell, and I'm honored to listen.

♪♪♪ Support for Outdoor Nevada comes from Jaguar Land Rover Las Vegas, inspiring the spirit of adventure with confidence in any terrain or condition.

Information at jlrlv.com.