September 26, Armstrong Pass to South Lake Tahoe

Final day of riding.    Drove up to the top of Oneidas road, paved, for another point to point ride.  Climbed 4 miles on sweet, mountain biker designed single track to Armstrong Pass.  Ron, a friend of Lisa's, works for the forest service and designed these fun, swoopy, trails.   The grade was amazing.  Everytime we came upon a rise, we would look up the hill to where we thought the trail would climb, Washington style, and the trail wasn't there. Had to look lower to find the nicely climbing trail.  Again, the scenery was amazing with the granite boulders and trees.  The last mile was quite a grunt.  The sign at the start of the trail said 3 miles to the pass; it was actually 4.  At the pass, you could turn right to head to Big Meadow on Hwy89 or left to climb to Freel Peak.  We turned around for a screaming, fun, descent.  8 miles and we were still at the car.  Descended down "Armstrong Connector" for 2 miles.  This is one sweet section of trail.  Great rock sections.  This dropped us out at  the  "Corral" trail, where we rode our first day in South Lake Tahoe.  Descended Corral to Powerline trail and worked our way home for a 22 mile ride to finish the week.
Packed up and  hit the road.  Drove 4 hours to Alturas.  Had some great pizza at Antonios, and stayed in another cheap hotel recommended by the restaurant, Rim Rock Motel.  Spotless clean, but older.  $59.40 per night.  This is a record on motel prices for us.  10 more hours and we were home the next day.  Nice week!

September 25, Kingsbury Grade to Spooner Summit

Francine - Tahoe Rim Trail - Near Kingsbury Grade

Another point-to-point shuttle.  Stats are great on this ride.  Start at 7,800 ft, climb to 8,800 ft and descent to 7,000 feet.  13 miles.

Trail conditions were even better to start the day, as it had rained overnight.  Started climbing right away, with granite boulders and huge trees everywhere.  Tahoe has some amazing landscape that we get to ride our bikes thru.

This was supposed to be our easy, off day.  We thought there was only 1,000 feet of climbing, but the book said 1,900 feet.  We were really feeling our legs, especially at this altitude, and our 4th day of riding.
The wind picked up in Tahoe today, so was quite windy at the "Bench" at the halfway point.
The downhill conditions were stellar.  Thanks to last night's moisture, the descent was screaming fast and smooth.  Seems like most of the trails in Washington are hammered or technical, so not very many screaming fast descents.  Yet another sweet ride.  We did this as a point to point, but if you had only one car I would recommend an out and back from Kingsbury Grade to the bench at the highpoint.  The scenery on the Kingbury Grade side was stellar and I would have loved to ride back down the technical rock sections.

September 24, Mt. Rose to Flume Trail

Since Lisa also drove her car down, we were all set up for point to point shuttles.  Started the Tahoe Rim Trail (bikes on even days only) up the Mt. Rose Highway, at 8,550ft at Tahoe Meadows.  Rode "Tahoe Rim Trail" to "Hobart Road", around Marlette Lake to "The Flume Trail" to "Tunnel Creek Road-Ponderosa Ranch".  Yes, we finished right next to the stage set for the Bonanza TV show.  Except for a 200 ft and 800 ft climb, we rode downhill to the lake, elev 7,723ft.  25 miles and a net loss of 1,680 ft.

The 8 mile trail section starting at the Mt. Rose highway was gorgeous.  Granite rocks lined the crushed granite trail with huge trees everywhere.  The weather was perfect with partly cloudy skies and a slight breeze.  We had amazing views of Lake Tahoe constantly.

Since you can only ride the 8 mile section starting at the Mt. Rose Highway on even days, there were tons of bikers parked, but we only saw a handful of bikers on the trail.

Sept 24 Mt. Rose to Lake Tahoe

Hmmmm, add it to the list.  Tahoe is pretty sweet and and deserves it's spot on your bucket list.  It's been on our list for years, but somehow we never managed to motivate for the 14 hour drive.  Well after tasting the singletrack, I have to say it is well worth it.  Perhaps, I am a little jaded, due to the fact, that 3 of the 4 rides we used car shuttles to increase the downhill quotient.

Francine and Lisa ride the Tahoe Rim Trail

Lisa 

Started the Tahoe Rim Trail (bikes on even days only) up the Mt. Rose Highway, at 8,550ft at Tahoe Meadows trailhead.  Rode "Tahoe Rim Trail" to "Hobart Road", around Marlette Lake to "The Flume Trail" to "Tunnel Creek Road-Ponderosa Ranch".  Yes, we finished right next to the stage set for the Bonanza TV show.  Except for a 200 ft and 800 ft climb, we rode downhill to the lake, elev 7,723ft.  25 miles and a net loss of 1,680 ft.

The 8 mile Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) section starting at the Mt. Rose highway was gorgeous.  Granite rocks lined the crushed granite trail with huge trees everywhere.  The weather was perfect with partly cloudy skies and a slight breeze.  We had amazing views of Lake Tahoe constantly.   The "flume trail" is perhaps the most well known trail at Tahoe.  I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in that actual section.  It has gorgeous views of the lake, but the grade is fairly flat for about 3 miles.  It did redeem itself when the trail turned into jeep road and headed quickly to the lake.  It was high speed to the finish!

Kevin

Marlette Lake then Lake Tahoe

September 23, South Lake Tahoe - exploratory ride from unit

Lisa has a trail out the back yard, along side the South Truckee River, that heads out to join more trails in the hills.  Rode some local trails in the utility district to Pioneer Road.  Crossed that and hooked up with the "Powerline Trail" to Oneidas Road.  Climbed the steep pavement for 2miles to "Corral Trail".  Rode that for 1/4 mile and branched off for a swoopy, curvy descent on "Sidewinder" to "Incense Cedar" to the "Powerline Trail". Climbed that until we took a left and headed back to Pioneer Road.  Basically took local trails all the way back to the house.  15  miles.

September 22, Susanville, CA Ranch Bike Park

We originally planned a mountain bike trip to Oakridge, Oregon, but Lisa Delfiner (Parsons) emailed and was heading to rent her rental units in South Lake Tahoe.  She had 2 units open, a place for us to stay, and was looking for bike companions.  Her dates matched with Kevin's scheduled week off, so we immediately changed plans.  Lake Tahoe has been on our bucket list for some time, but we haven't made it there.

We didn't want to do a 14 hour drive in one day, so Francine looked for places to mountain bike on the way down.  In 2008, Susanville built 14 miles of machine built mountain bike trails.  We drove for 11 hours and made it to Susanville by 7:30pm.  We stayed at the River Inn Motel for a scary $59.40, including tax.  Unit was old, but clean.  I would only recommend one night.

Rode 15 tough miles at Susanville Ranch Park.  Parked at the lower parking lot, made our way up "Heart Attack Hill", to the west side on "Hi Go" to "Round UP Loop".  Back over "Lo Go" to the trails on the West side.  After much up and down, we finally started downhill at 11.32 miles for an all out downhill finish back down "Heart Attack Hill" to the car.  We figured we climbed about 2,000 feet.  They had signs at all the intersections, which was nice, as we forgot our map at home.

Got in the car and drove to South Lake Tahoe.

Sept. 18, L.T. Murray Wildlife Area

Headed east until the rain stopped.  More exploration at LT Murray.  Nice to try something new, that is only an hour away.

Sept 8, Duthie

Went to ride Duthie mountain bike park with my nephew Jack.  I don't think I have posted any ride reports from Duthie.   However it has been a staple for a good ride option.  We started riding at Duthie soon after the "boot camp" trail was roughed in.  We have watched as it has evolved into a great mountain bike "park".  Built almost entirely with volunteer labor, it provides trails to meet all ability levels.  It has a good selection of crosscountry - keep your tires on the ground- trails, but also provides for those that like to experience flying, as it offers several jump lines.  It is amazing how well these trails have held up.  The parking lot is definitely full every weekend, and most weekdays as well. 

Jack works his way through the progression of jumps, getting his skills ready for some of the more difficult trails.

Sept 3, Tour De Snoqualmie

Seth emailed early in the week that he and Holly would be up, at the Alpental condo, for the weekend.  They were hoping for a little mountain bike ride.   With not too many options, we headed for Summit West and a tour across the ridgeline connecting West, Central, and Hyak.   With great views and a mix of roads and trail, made for a good day.  Also had the pleasure of Tom Davies joining in at the last minute, for a group of five, with Francine and I.