07/06/15 - Biking North Lake Tahoe

Marlette Lake (left) and Lake Tahoe (right)

To see the GoPro video of the trails click here:  Adventure 2015: Episode 7: North Lake Tahoe

I can honestly say that Lake Tahoe has been my favorite place to ride so far on this journey.  There are so many trails, and they are all high quality.  The North side of Lake Tahoe was no exception.  The Flume trail is widely known, and despite its intermediate ranking I had to give it a go.  I have to say that the Flume trail itself was pretty boring.  The views, however, were excellent.  I rode to the Flume trail from Tahoe Meadows on the Tahoe Rim Trail and all of that was some excellent and fun trail riding.  The next stop was Northstar California ski resort.  I knew they had a bike park and I really wanted to give it a try as well as explore another of Vail Resorts' properties.  After getting shut down by a couple days of rain I woke up to blue skies on the 5th.  Rather than ride up to the

Sand Harbor, NV from the Tahoe Rim Trail

summit and maybe get to sample a couple of the trails I decided to buy a lift pass for $52 (no discount, by the way, for Vail Resorts employees, lame).  The purchase of the lift pass was well worth it.  I was able to ride all the double black and black trails and some of the blue trails.  There were so many excellent descents I managed to use up all of the battery on my GoPro for the first time this trip.  Unfortunately some of the best trails I rode came after the battery died, but I think I got some good footage none-the-less.  My favorite trails there are Sticks and Stones, Gypsy, and Boondocks.  Sticks and Stones and Boondocks are full of rock drops, jumps, super techy sections, and super smooth berms.  Gypsy is full of jumps and wooden bridges and ramps to drops that got my adrenaline pumping.  Unfortunately my GoPro battery had died before I rode Boondocks or Gypsy.  I managed to wreck myself pretty hard once (also no footage), and less hard a bunch of other times.  Thanks to Drew Barber for loaning me some Kali knee pads so I didn't destroy my legs too much!  I am most definitely planning on going back to Lake Tahoe some day, and riding at Northstar again is high on my list of to-do's!  I finished up my time at

Nearly ripped my nose off at Northstar

Lake Tahoe by meeting up with a friend from Vail (Kim aka Thunder Bunny aka Honey Badger) who is hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and just so happened to be arriving in Lake Tahoe on the 6th.  Since I was wrecked by all my crashes at Northstar, and she had hiked 1,200 miles in the last few months we decided to make it a beach day.  We jumped off the dock a couple of times in Emerald Bay (beautiful) and finished the day by watching the sunset from Regan Beach (more beautiful) and falling asleep under the stars (my heart is breaking from all the beauty!)

Sun over the sand at Regan Beach

Sunset from Regan Beach (thanks to Kim for the photo!)