Tahoe

This past weekend I decided to roll up the road to Tahoe and visit my good buddy, and former EB co-worker, Erik. He's been living in Tahoe for the past 2 years, ever since he succumbed to my constant harrassment about how much fun California is. Now he splits time between a mechanic at a local bike shop, and a ski instructor at Alpine Meadows. I haven't hung out with him in over a year, so it was good to catch up.

On Saturday we rolled out to Downieville, which is a small mining town, turned mountain bike mecca about an hour west of Tahoe. It's famous for a serious network of trails, and we enjoyed a nice 17 mile ride. It was super-fun, but a bit discouraging for me because I was sucking wind the entire way trying to keep up with Erik. I also felt pretty awful when I finished, likely from a combination of my lack of fitness, the altitude (7000+ ft. above sea-level), and a incredible amount of dust. Luckily we cooled off in the river after the ride, and got some good recovery food before our drive back to Tahoe City.

Our route:

A view from the trail:


Sunday we did a much more pedestrian ride on the Tahoe-Rim Trail. It had a bunch more climbing, but we took Erik's dog, so luckily the pace was much nicer (read, slower). It was much more of a confidence builder for me, though I was still panting pretty hard on the climbs, I was loving the singletrack flat and downhill sections.

Sunday afternoon we participated in a Tahoe tradition of floating down the Truckee River. It runs from Lake Tahoe, all the way to Reno, but the section from Tahoe City to Alpine Meadows Ski Resort is particularly popular because it's so flat, and allows people to tie together multiple rafts, and haul along coolers full of cold beverages. Basically it's one huge slow moving party on the water. It was nice to sloak in the cool river, and relax on the raft for a solid 3 hour float:


I limped home Sunday evening, and will need a couple days of good rest to recover, but it was an awesome weekend.

-Jeff