Seattle to Tahoe and Back - Part Four

At the end of Part three, John was talking to the local biker. He calls me over. "This guy says we're going the wrong way." Oops. Not one of us noticed we'd turned right at the sign, rather than left and we were now heading toward Sacramento. Oh well. If we had to take 30 miles of wrong road, we'd be hard pressed to find a better road. He also mentioned the road we wanted to be on was closed yesterday due to fires in the area. Thanks, guy in the chaps behind the ST1100. One of our greatest things was local knowledge, from where the best pancake house was to road conditions. Talk to the locals, tip well, get to know the people. Made the trip better.



We get to do the 30 miles again, to get back to the right road.



John's pretty comfortable on the valk, leaving chrome dust on the tighter corners...



Pretty shot along the road.



Sim on the ST getting lots of seat time.



John has a standard Valkyrie, which means a 5.3 gallon tank. My Valkyrie carries almost 10 gallons on fuel, thanks to a tank from the interstate model and a custom belly tank, as a valk ridden hard can get less than 20 mpg. The other bikes get significantly better mileage. John carried a small aux. can for fuel in his saddlebag, it kept the anxiety to a minimum several times. Still cracked us up to see him filling up his saddlebag at gas stops, though.



The local biker was right, the hill was on fire. Fortunately for us, they'd only closed a spur today, we were able to ride straight through.



We made it. Lake Tahoe. This is around the south side, where we stayed. First impression? Huge, much bigger lake than I'd imagined. Nice twisties around the south side, too. New pavement in a sandstone garden.



This is a small inlet on the south edge, I think it's Emerald something or other. Pretty.



The road takes a high ridge out toward the the center of the lake. We were sure we'd taken a wrong turn, as it seemed the road had no choice but to end at the top of the ridge. Here John is questioning where we're going.



Wrong. The road takes several hairpins off the tip of the ridge, curling down steeply. Wouldn't want to do it in icy conditions, but it was fun now.



After camping two nights, we got a motel for a few nights in anticipation of our mountainbike ride in the am. A shave, warm shower, cold beer and a real bed felt good.



We are sea level guys, the bike trails start at 6000ft. There's no air up here. John and Sim are in shape, it was even tough for them. Really weird to get winded so easily, then recover quickly, only to get winded again. We rented bikes from a shop at the base of the Flume trail, good shop, good prices, we brought our own pedals so we could use our own shoes. The views were amazing, but we paid for the experience on the climb. Here we are at the top of the first four mile climb. I'm just happy to be alive.



Windblown tree at altitude.



At the TOP. I hurt coming up here. I think it topped out around 9000ft. Not a lot of air, especially for an out-of-shape big guy like me. I'm still happy, though, cause as much as I hate gravity while climbing, gravity loves me on the downhills. My full suspension rental bike was about to get torture tested...



22 miles of trails, six hours, at altitude. It was a tough day, but I loved every minute of it. More trail pics to come....