South Tahoe has bitchin’ trails

November 12, 2000 on 7:06 pm | In Mountain |

South Tahoe is as diverse in features as any town you can visit. The flavor of the town is split at the Nevada/California border, which lies somewhere between the gaudy high-rise casinos and the string of motels and plazas. Yet as the qualities of the town change the further you move down South Tahoe Blvd, there is at least one consistency: the riding is all stellar.

There’s no shortage of places to rent bikes in Tahoe. You just have to open your eyes as you drive down the main drag and the sidewalk’s lined with Specialized, GT’s, Treks, and all other styles and brands. After checking in to the Days Inn, my girlfriend and I inspected the yellow pages for the finest bike shop in town to rent from. You can only tell so much by reading the ads what kind of people work in a shop, so we called around a bit to narrow down the choices. We visited three shops, and eventually found our winner, Sierra Cycleworks. The tiny, scantly merchandised shop absolutely breathed of mountain biking, and it’s owner, Gary Bell, was the epitome of lifestyle mountain biking (we would later find that he was the president of TAMBA-Tahoe Area Mountain Bikers Assoc.).

One thing I learned in my first trip west two years ago was that full-suspension was a great way to go in the dry, harsh Rocky Mountains. Since I had never extensively ridden a free-ride bike, my first day was a 4.5 hour ride on an Ellsworth Aeon Isis, with double-triple clamp Manitou Xvert R fork and fat WTB Enduro Raptor tires. The destination was the popular Flume Trail, known as the most scenic ride overlooking Lake Tahoe. Candace rented her first full-suspension ride, a Jamis Dakar Pro.

Tales of the Flume Trail were correct - the sights were unreal. After 20 min. of looking out at the lake, we were ready for some fast, technical riding. After 45 min. or so riding the Flume Trail, we found that it was a great trail for beginners, but somewhat lacking for those looking to get sketchy on some technical trail. The Tahoe Rim trail was more along those lines.

My first turn onto the Rim Trail came after finishing up the Flume. The Rim Trail runs along the entirety of East Lake Tahoe, offering spectacular perspectives of the beautiful lake (which is 15 miles long and up to 12 miles wide). Many local epic rides involve the Rim Trail because it’s 100% singletrack, it’s sweet, and it connects many other trails together. It’s accessible from downtown South Tahoe with a 30 min. road ride/climb. Local topo maps are available from any shop in town, and are fairly accurate.

I got to ride the Rim Trail twice, the first ride a 2.5 hour bit of it running from the flume trail back to Spooner Lake Park. This involved an 800 ft. singletrack climb followed by a long rolling descent down to Marlette Lake, the previous departure point of the Flume.

The second ride was a six hour solo from South Tahoe to Marlette Lake and back. This ride was the highlight of my trip, and truly demonstrated the potential of the riding in the area. The return from Spooner Lake to South Camp Peak (a bald stretch of ridge visible from South Tahoe) involved a 1500 ft singletrack climb that left me gasping. Climbing at 8000-ft altitude is challenging enough for an Ohioan, but the addition of ledge hopping and switchbacks will really get the heart rate spiking.

The quality of the Tahoe Rim Trail singletrack was first-class. The trail undulated smoothly through the mountains with minimum breaks in momentum on the downhills and flats, which is a credit to the hard-working trail-builders. A goal marked on one trailhead sign was an uninterrupted trail around Lake Tahoe by 2001. What a ride that would be!

Out of the kindness of his heart Gary let me bust out the first ride of a brand-new Santa Cruz Superlight for my six-hour epic. This bike was more my speed, with more balanced, NORBA geometry. NORBA geometry basically means a ride fast enough for tight trail yet stable enough for wide-open stretches. Your bike probably has it. It was comfortable, efficient, and predictable, exactly what I like in a ride. Both front and rear shocks, the Rock Shox Judy SL and Fox Vanilla Float R, provided smooth action and enough adjustability that when used, were noticeable (not always the case). The thing that surprised me most about the bike was the Shimano Deore drivetrain and brakes. I marveled at the performance I was witnessing out of this “entry-level” group. The front derailleur nailed granny gear without hesitation (thank-you Shimano chainrings) and the brakes equaled the smoothness and control of any brakes I’ve ridden. I now feel very good about the dozen or so Deore bikes Bio Wheels has on the floor right now and the many we’ve sold this year. I was hoping to try a different bike for each ride, but I liked the Santa Cruz so much that I took it out again for my final day’s ride.

The Powerline Trail is the backyard trail of South Tahoe, a mixture of wooded singletrack and sandy motocross doubletrack. The trail is popular because it is accessible from different neighborhoods and runs through quite a network of trails and back roads. One trail in the area is called Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, probably the best-known trail in Tahoe. Spurring off from the Rim Trail, Mr. Toad descends over 2000 feet of singletrack in a very direct fashion. Cutting through topo lines like butter, Mr. Toad is a one-way street going down. Hairy ledge dropping intermixes with swoopy thread-the-trees maneuvering to give the flatlander a fuller appreciation of the foreign act of downhilling. The Ellsworth would have been the bike of choice here with its ability to roll through typical endo-inducing situations.

Tahoe provided some of the most memorable riding I’ve experienced out west. The quality of the singletrack coupled with the copious vistas of lakes and mountains provide the opportunity for good rides for anyone wishing to venture there.-MG