Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

"The Punisher"
Tahoe Rim Trail: Kingsbury Grade down Mr. Toads Wild Ride
Lake Tahoe CA/NV, July 29, 2006

Last week I did a new ride at Lake Tahoe called "The Punisher". At about 25 miles long, with over 5,100 ft of climbing, all between 7,500 - 10,000 ft., and culminating with the technical downhill known as Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, it is indeed a punisher. I'm a bit cautious on any new ride, somebody was a bit sick, and we took it fairly easy last week. So I was anxious to return to see what I could do now that I knew what to expect. DrWheels agreed to accompany me and we had a fantastic ride, on a perfect day, taking nearly 2 1/2 hours off the previous time. We took far fewer breaks, I managed to ride a lot more stuff than the previous week, but we still took a lot of photo stops. But with many miles of constant, seemingly endless climbing, it was just as hard as I remembered.

However, I was particularly pleased with my downhilling, the best I've ever done. With the exception of the 3-4 short, but super gnarly sections at the top of Toads, which most mere mortals have to walk, I made every rock, root, switchback, drop, and combination except one! The trail gets progressively less gnarly on the way down and I thought I'd passed all the tough stuff. So I raised my seat way back up to XC position. When I unexpectedly hit a gnarly drop the seat was too high, I almost did an endo, and I had to dab. Since I knew what to expect, I could do the lower twisty, swoopy stuff at a much faster pace, and it was a lot of fun. DrWheels is a lot faster, both up and downhill, but he went at his own pace and stopped periodically to keep contact. Thanks for a great ride DrWheels! Below are a few photos. Forgive me but I never tire of Lake Tahoe riding scenery.

Here is the elevation profile, courtesy of Dan'ger and here is a map of the route (Toads is Saxson Creek).

Click on an image to enlarge it

DrWheels getting ready	Carson Valley  4,000 ft. below	View from Carson Valley below	On the trail	On the trail
Star Lake, 9,100 ft.	Lake Tahoe below	Nice trail work	Glacial cirque and tarn	Lake Tahoe below
Below 10,900 ft. Freel Peak	Near 10,000 ft.	Tough on trees this high up	Boring scenery	Me steeper, gnarlier than it looks
Scenic trail	DrWheels among flowers	Steeper, gnarlier than it looks	On the trail	Me on toads

Click on the image for a larger photo

Click on the image for a larger photo

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