Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

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

July 1, 2006

After waiting out a cool and wet winter and spring I've been anxiously awaiting the melting of the snows in the Sierras. However, my first two Sierra rides ended up in temperatures at or above 100 degrees. So as soon as I heard some of the Tahoe high country trails were open I headed up. I have about four main Tahoe rides and Spooner to Kingsbury round-trip, on the Tahoe Rim Trail, is one of my favorites. At only about 25 miles it is the shortest, but it is probably the most difficult. It starts out at 7,100 ft. and you climb immediately out of the parking lot for five miles up to about 8,800 ft. I'm slow to warm up and catch my second wind, and my knees usually need at least an hour to warm up, so this is a killer. I question my sanity on this ride more than any I've ever done. 

Patrick (DrWheels) and Kip (T horse) agreed to ride with me. Kip was the first guy I ever met on the trail, on the very first solo ride I ever did. He's pretty good but very mellow and we've ridden together dozens of times. As always in Tahoe during the summer the weather was perfect, about 70 degrees, dry, and clear blue skies. Since I'm slower than the other two and I was extremely nervous and apprehensive about my first ride of the season up this very difficult trail, I headed out a few minutes before the other guys. The first 15 minutes brought back all those painful memories, but they soon subsided, and I did fairly well, finishing the entire climb about 20 minutes faster than ever. It was still pretty tough though, especially the last two miles, which gets steeper, rockier and much more difficult as you near 9,000 ft. 

After a brief rest at the top and a few photos we headed down the other side to the most fun part of the trip, about seven miles of rolling, rocky singletrack with scores of rock stairs and drops. In an attempt to get ahead and set up for a few photos I zoomed down off the top on some narrow singletrack through dense vegetation. It was pretty easy so I had my pedals in the 6 and 12 o'clock positions. Unfortunately, a rock was hidden under the vegetation, my pedal hit it, the bike stopped, and I was thrown quite a ways into some gnarly old shrubs. If not wearing my armor I would be pretty cut up. Patrick got a bit ahead of us and he had a potentially serious fall. As we caught up to him he was dragging himself and his bike up a steep rocky slope he had fallen over while attempting to go up a series of rock stairs. But he only needed a few minutes to collect himself. He was in a bit of a hurry so he went ahead and we eventually met him coming back just before the turn around point. From there he continued on back by himself. T horse and I came back at a fairly leisurely pace since all those cool drops and rock stairs were now mostly uphill. But we persisted knowing that the painful five mine uphill at the start now awaited us as one of the finest five mile downhills I've ever done! Great riding with both of you guys.

Click on an image to enlarge it

Patrick  suiting up	Early climb	Kip climbing	Steep and rocky	Kip nears the top	At the top
Lake Tahoe	Kip and Patrick	Patrick	Other riders	Me ready  to drop	Me dropping
Me	Patrick	Patrick	On the trail	Kip	Kip near halfway point
Kip	On the trail	On the trail	On the trail	On the top	Kip on the top
Kip heading down	Kip heading down	Kip	At the top	Snow plants	Me

[ Home ]