Tahoe Rides

The weather has been insane up here this week. Cool misty mornings and clear warm days (not too hot). Been spending a lot of time on the lake and doing a few early morning rides. On Monday I rode the "Triangle" (aka 267 Loop) to Truckee, over Brockway Summit, and then back via Tahoe City. This is a good quick 2hr (38mile) loop from Squaw Valley. It follows some very heavily travelled roads, but done early morning the traffic isn't too bad and most of the route has a good shoulder. The one climb from Truckee up and over to Kings Beach is not particularly long or steep, but it always surprises me how much this little climb challenges me near the top.

Misty morning in the meadows of Squaw Valley. 40F. Brrr....

View from 267 across Martis Valley to Northstar.

On Tuesday I did the Donner Pass ride out to Cisco and back, with a mandatory stop at Wild Cherries for a quick coffee. A touch over 60 miles with one real nice climb (Donner Pass from the east), and one long gradual schlog (Donner Pass from the west). The descent of the east side of Donner Pass is really fantastic. Huge sweeping turns (no brakes required) in a rugged alpine environment with incredible vistas. Pretty incredible.

Today I could only do a quick ride before meeting the family in Kings Beach so I headed to Tahoe City and along the north shore to the Mt. Rose Highway. I climbed up about 2/3rds of the way to the summit before hitting my turnaround time. Great shoulder on this road, although it is a busy highway (it is the main road connecting Reno to north Tahoe). A speedy descent just coasting at 40mph.

View over Lake Tahoe from halfway up the Mt. Rose climb.

By the way, the roads in the north Tahoe area are in crappy shape and although it is beautiful here, the riding is not particularly great (by Marin/Sonoma standards at least) with all the cars and shoddy pavement. There's also some serious stimulus dollars being spent here on road repairs and it seems like the entire north shore is a construction zone. That said, it is still pretty incredible with the weather and the mountain surroudings. Hoping to get in at least one more ride before heading home on Sunday.