Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

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

July 9, 2005

Take me to the video. As soon as the Tahoe Gathering announcement was posted on mtbr.com early this year I suggested the "B" group do a Spooner to Kingsbury round trip on the Tahoe Rim Trail. Yesterday I started out with Tim (UncleMTB), Jim (Lamerider), Bob (AussieBob), Ed (Fast Eddy), Eric (Pimpbot), Anita (Lemonhead) and Dave a TROG. I'd done this ride once before, last summer, and although it was pretty tough, I thought it was one of the best I've ever done. However, the one thing I particularly remembered was the grueling five mile climb, starting straight up from the parking lot at 7,200 ft. In the summer I routinely do rides 2,000 ft. or higher than this, but for some reason both times this climb has kicked my butt. If Jim had not come all the way from Atlanta just for this ride, I might have turned back.

So most of the group went ahead while Jim stuck with me. Bob was quite inspirational. Every time we thought we had dropped him he popped up right behind us. When we finally reached the bench overlook at the top of the climb it had gotten very cold and gray and the wind was howling about. I didn't hear much of the conversation due to the wind but I heard Tim say "hypothermia", "lightning" and "we're going back". And then he and Anita headed back down the climb we had just come up. The rest of the group had gone on, Jim and I were prepared for cold weather, and I knew that about a half mile ahead, and mostly out of the wind, awaited 19 miles of the finest singletrack I'd ever ridden. So we pressed on, ultimately made it to Kingsbury, turned around, and rode back to the starting point. Once we got out of the wind and the sun occasionally came out, the ride was quite pleasant. We had a blast going down the scores of rock "stairs" and the ride back to the bench overlook was much more enjoyable than I remembered. My skills have a least improved because I made just about every drop and all the downhill switchbacks I once had trouble with.

On the way back we ran into the leaders of our group, who had been re-doing some of the fun sections. Some headed back via a fireroad and I believe some went on to Kingsbury for a pickup by Tim. Shortly thereafter we ran into the notorious "A" riders, most of whom flew by. I recognized many faces from mtbr but could remember few names. Bill (MTBBill) stopped for a few minutes to chat about helmet cams. Once we reached the bench overlook it was still fairly cool and the wind was still howling. However, the skies were quite beautiful so we took a few photos. Then we bombed back down those fantastic five miles about as fast as I've ever gone on singletrack. Thanks everybody for a great time and a special thanks to Jim for sticking with me!  And kudos to Anita for braving a ride as the only female among a bunch of old men. Here is the route map.

Click on an image to enlarge it

Getting ready	Eric	Getting ready	Bob	Jim	Jim
Jim	Jim	Jim	Jim	Lake Tahoe	Is he having fun?
Me too	Kingsbury end 'o the line	Jim	Me	Jim	Jim
Meeting on the trail	Jim	Me	Will I make it?	Made it five times	Me
Only snow on the trail!	Jim	On the trail	Near the bench	Literally on the bench	Heading home

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