Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Tahoe Rim Trail: Mt. Rose to Kingsbury Grade
Lake Tahoe NV, 8 Oct. 2005

With the riding in the high country above Lake Tahoe about to end I wanted to finish with one last memorable epic ride on two of my favorite sections of The Tahoe Rim Trail:  Mt. Rose to Tunnel Creek and Spooner to Kingsbury Grade. This route also follows the always spectacular Flume Trail. Arnold (FloppyRN) was the only one to answer the call so we left one vehicle at Kingsbury and drove the other vehicle to Mt. Rose about 40 miles away. The overnight temperatures had been well below freezing at night recently and the night before it had rained a bit. So we were a bit concerned about the weather. However, the cloud cover kept the temperatures in the low 40's at the start and the temperature stayed between 50 - 55 the whole way.

According to the maps the route would be about 34 miles, equaling my longest ride ever. However, after we crossed Mt. Rose Meadow and started climbing, Arnold said he wanted to take a photo. I instinctively reached for my camera on my chest strap, and it was gone. I immediately remembered laying it on the car while putting on my pack, so we had to add an extra two miles and a bit of climbing to go back and retrieve it. I'm always slow to warm up and that was a difficult decision for me. However, after about an hour into the ride it didn't seem to matter, and it lengthened the ride to 36 miles, a new high for me.

We had a great time, the skies were blue most of the way, and the sun made it feel quite warm out. It was nice to do the Flume Trail while still fresh, since I usually get to it after 20 or more miles. We reached Spooner Lake in pretty reasonable time and then we had to ride up a paved highway for about a mile since the Rim Trail is closed to bikes near the Lake. Every time I've done that initial five mile, 1800 ft. climb, which starts at 7,100 ft., at the beginning of the Spooner - Kingsbury ride, it's been right out of the parking lot cold. And it has always killed me. This time I had a 24 mile warm up so I was curious to see how it would go. It wasn't easy by any means but it wasn't too bad and we made it to the top a bit faster than when I do that section by itself. However, we both started feeling it about a quarter of a mile from the Bench at the top, now 29 miles into the ride.

But once we reached the Bench we knew we had it made. The rest of the ride to Kingsbury is filled with scores of rock "stairs" and we had a blast on them. For a change it was nice to go down them while knowing that we did not have to come back up them like I usually do. My Stumpjumper seems tailor made for this terrain and it was a lot of fun. I made a lot more stuff than usual, both going up and down. When we reached Kingsbury Grade we both felt surprisingly good for a 36 mile ride with nearly 3,700 ft. of climbing and all between 7,000 and 9,000 ft. Thanks Arnold for a great ride. 

Click on an image to enlarge it

Arnold on Mt. Rose Section	Arnold on Mt. Rose Section	Unknown rider on Mt. Rose Section	Lake Tahoe	Lake Tahoe
Arnold on Mt. Rose Section	Flume Trail	Arnold on Flume Trail	Arnold on Flume Trail	Lake Tahoe
Arnold on Flume Trail	Arnold on Flume Trail	Flume Trail	Arnold on Flume Trail	Arnold on Flume Trail
Marlette Lake	Arnold near Marlette Lake	Marlette Lake	Arnold near the Bench	Arnold on the Bench
Arnold near the Bench	Arnold on way to Kingsbury	Arnold on way to Kingsbury	On way to Kingsbury	Arnold on way to Kingsbury

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