Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Tahoe Rim Trail, Lake Tahoe, Nevada
Spooner to Kingsbury to Spooner

August 5, 2006

Today I had a great accidental solo epic at Lake Tahoe, doing Spooner to Kingsbury round-trip, plus several extra miles. At about 24.5 miles it is my shortest Tahoe ride. But until I started doing the Punisher a few weeks ago, I always felt it was the toughest because it starts at about 7,200 ft. and you climb straight out of the parking lot for the first five miles. I'm very slow to warm up and it usually kills me and my knees for the first hour. But after doing the Punisher for the past two weeks, which involves more than twice as much climbing, I was curious as to how it would feel this time. It was still pretty difficult but I reached the top (The Bench) about a half hour faster than usual so I was quite pleased. I was pretty excited about climbing so well and I was really looking forward to why I put up with that climb - about seven miles of really fun up and down narrow singletrack with numerous rock "stairs" and drops. Unfortunately, however, there was quite a bit of smoke in the direction I was to go. A local just pulled up to me and he said the fire looked to be about four miles away and I'd surely hit it! About that time one of those big water bombers flew seemingly just a 100 feet over my head on its way toward the smoke. I'm pretty stubborn and in my entire riding career I have never quit a ride. So I decided to be cautious and forge ahead like a Wolf, keeping my nose alert for smoke and my ears listening to the water bombers flying overhead.

I got about 3/4 of the way to Kingsbury and the smell of smoke, as well as the sound of many water bombers seemingly too close by, caused me to give up my quest and head back. Looks like my streak was about to be broken. But after several miles I encountered two locals who stopped and chatted with me about Tahoe forest fires and they decided to do as I did, go on until it did not seem safe. Since I was no longer alone I figured I'd follow them and if they came racing back toward me I'd turn around and get out of there. But fortunately, a few miles later on I encountered a rider coming from Kingsbury and he said the fire was just the other side of Kingsbury. Now that I could relax I had a great time and moved at a much faster than normal pace. I'm usually a bit conservative while riding solo but when I encountered the gnarliest section on the whole trail, several consecutive good size, narrow drops with pretty good drop offs to the side (which I'd only made for the first time on my last ride), I decided to go for it. As I hit the last drop I yelled "yes!". But as the words were coming out of my mouth my front wheel dug into the sand and I did a spectacular endo, landing on my face. Fortunately it was just sand and I stuck out my elbow pads, which broke most of the fall. Despite not being the least hurt, I was a bit shaken and I took some time to just sit for a while.

Despite the extra 6, 7, 8 or I don't know how many miles, this was the best and fastest I'd ever ridden this trail. I usually hate the return because most of the drops and stairs are now uphill. But his time I seemed to have the energy and willingness to try them. And I actually made quite a few. Looks like those Punisher rides have really paid off and it's nice to know even an old man can continue to improve. Since I was solo I didn't take many photos. Below are a few.

Click on an image to enlarge it

Smoke on the water	From the bench	Where I'm  headed	Fun trail	Fun trail
No problem	No problem	No problem	Lots of these	End of  the line
Always scenic	Always scenic	Steeper than it looks	Fell at the bottom	Pretty narrow

From the bench, click the image for larger photo

Smoke on the water, click the image for larger photo  

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