Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Tahoe Rim Trail - Tahoe City

I don't have a lot of details on this ride. I was a passenger in the truck to the trailhead, and I just followed during the ride. The ride was mostly in the woods, so there wasn't a lot of landmarks to describe. I will tell you this though...it was a lot of fun!

I think we started near a Nordic Ski center, just to the east of Tahoe City. There is a whole network of trails here. This lower section would be a great place to bring kids or beginning mountain bikers. Jeff F. was our guide, and we made frequent turns at the intersections. Eventually we made our way up to the Tahoe Rim Trail, somewhere between Tahoe City and Brockway Summit.

As it turned out, it was an excellent loop for single speeds. The hills were never too steep, and the terrain was pretty smooth. Kristy also let me borrow her 29er, so this was a great trail test of the bike. I was looking for rocks and other obstacles to test the bigger wheels on. It definitely did excel on clearing the challenges. I did however feel like it was slower in the turns compared to my 26er single speed. But like I said, the trail was so smooth that I think a 26er or 29er would be equally fun.



The Girls flanked by Jeff's. Jeff F. was manning the camera.


The best part of this loop is the descent down to the Truckee River. It's very twisty and full of switch backs as you descend down the mountain. Fast enough for a thrill, slow enough to be safe. Much of your speed is dictated by how good you are at turns.

We ended the dirt portion of this ride near Squaw Valley, and rode the Truckee River Bike Path back to Tahoe City. This may be the most crowded spot up at Lake Tahoe. Most likely because of its proximity to interstate 80.

As we got closer to Tahoe City the river was log jammed with rafters, and the bike path was packed with riders of all sorts. You know that dream you have where everyone rides a bike? I rethought this dream after riding this section. Some people just don't belong on bikes! I think Darwin was close to selecting a few of the helmetless riders for extinction.

Sorry for the lack of details on the trailhead, but I think you could probably find some better descriptions elsewhere on the internet. Not to worry though, as you can't really go wrong just exploring this area.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Beautiful trail. Wish we had a bit more variety and elevation here.
I am with you on who should and shouldn't cycle. But helmets were invented to help thin the herd, don't you think? :^)

~ lauren said...

are these lunch rides?

who watches the kids while you guys ride?

oh man, that ride is so fun! i haven't been on that trail in years.

Jeff Moser said...

Anything you see here up at Tahoe is a weekend ride. Unless we're taking the day off...

Still working on the tandem to get it kid ready, so he can go too sometimes. Need to get the crank shorteners.

We trade off...friends, grandmas, babysitters. That way nobody gets burned out. Although we just fired the babysitter after last weekend!

Chris said...

Looks like an nice bike trail. I agree though that they usually attract all sorts of shitheads.

~ lauren said...

uh oh, fired the babysitter? what happened?

Jeff Moser said...

She doesn't know she's fired, but we're not asking her back.

She forgot to water the garden, which in itself is not horrible...kids forget stuff. The garden was all wilted and sad when we got home. She also cranked the AC down to 70 degrees and left the back doors wide open.

But the big thing was that we found out she let three kids play in the house after we told her not to. And she told our son not to tell us because HE'D get in trouble!

We wondered how much worse off he would've been if we'd just let him stay home by himself!

Marcus said...

Dang! What a bad babysitter.
That part you went down was called "The Wall" There are sooo many good trails around there... I used to do variations of that ride and we always packed a lunch and ate it along side the river and people watched as the rafters/bikers flowed by. Lots of Darwin action. Some drinking related, some just plain ol' buffoonery. 100% entertaining.