Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Tahoe Rim Trail and Flume Trail, Lake Tahoe, Nevada

August 28, 2002

After the interesting ride I had at Tahoe four days ago I wanted to go back and finish what we had intended to do that day, and to also get more video footage of the lake and Flume Trail. I generally prefer to ride alone once I know a place and how difficult it is. It was another perfect day and except for a bit of forest fire smoke, the lake and skies were again quite spectacular. I took the shuttle (with only three others) to Mount Rose and headed down the Rim Trail towards Spooner Lake. Early on I came around a corner and there was an uphill "stair" I had no choice but to try and clear. I sort of fell to the side and broke my left front shifter. Fortunately it was stuck in the small front chain ring or I wouldn't have been able to do the ride I ultimately completed. Except for the Flume Trail I got along fairly well without the middle front ring. The upper Rim Trail was easier than I remembered and I finished it fairly quickly. I continued on to the lower Rim Trail up the infamous switchbacks. At nearly 9,000 feet and with an 800 foot elevation gain over 2 miles, up rocky, very technical, sandy switchbacks, the first part of this trail was killer! I walked a lot of it, but I managed to pass a few people on the way. At about 2.5 miles the lower Rim Trail begins a mildly challenging, sandy downhill to Hobart Road. Hobart Road to the south end of Marlette Lake is very steep and sandy, and I almost wiped out a few times. On the last Flume Trial ride the camera fogged up and we went at a fairly slow pace because it was crowded and Dennis was still dazed and had no front brakes. So I decided to do the Flume Trail again. When I got to the top at Tunnel Creek Road I felt pretty good so I turned around and came back down the Flume Trail all the way to Spooner Lake. Although the trail was nearly empty, I couldn't go as fast as I wanted because I was stuck in my small front chain ring. It is probably just as well since I might have gone too fast and killed myself. I did slip on one of the narrowest exposed areas of the trail (see the video). 

At a little over 6 1/2 hours this trip took about the same time as the last trip. However, this time I did an additional 14 miles (2.5 of which were a killer), for a total of about 34 miles, with about 2,500 feet of climbing. And most of it was at well over 8,000 feet elevation. I felt surprisingly good at the finish and I even had no trouble with the long uphill grind out of Marlette Lake on the way back to Spooner Lake. Last time we had to take a break. I'm not very fast and my technical skills leave much to be desired but at least I can go all day. Except for the uphill switchback grind this was an extremely enjoyable ride! I still had some camera fogging problems but because I rode the Flume Trail twice I have plenty of useable footage. Here is the route map. Here is the official State Park Map (does not include the upper Rim Trial).

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