Doyle (above), Lis, Christina, and I had a nice bike ride on the East Shore of the lake this weekend. Using two cars for a shuttle, we started the ride near the top of Mt. Rose Highway (Rt. 431), and rode the Tahoe Rim Trail across the ridgeline to Tunnel Road, finishing down behind the old Ponderosa Ranch outside of Incline Village.

This ride is great for incredible and unusual views of Lake Tahoe, as well as for it's variety of terrain and difficulty. It's generally up and down, with no ultra-long climbs. Being up high on this ridgeline allows for near-constant views of the lake, with changing perspective as you progress on the trail. Something about the angle you get on the lake makes it appear to be gigantic, much larger than you might be used to seeing it from, say, Tahoe City or the West Shore. I've never seen it quite like that.


The trail itself is beautiful singletrack, winding through wooded meadows at first and later hugging the exposed ridgeline. There are numerous rocks dotting long stretches of the trail, making for some technical spots where a novice needs to walk, and an intermediate like myself needs to go for it and fall on their knee. Owww. There are multiple parts of the trail with rock steps and rocks to send (big or small depending on your radness level). Let's say you're Doyle, and you just got a new Intense mountain bike with 7 inches of travel up front- well, you can really get rad. Other parts of the trail are very smooth and you can go pretty fast, only watching out for the soft corners that most of Tahoe is experiencing right now. Once you reach Tunnel Creek Road, you can extend the ride by continuing to the Flume (big uphill climb), or hang a right and take the dirt road down toward Incline (Ponderosa Ranch), which is what we did.

I found this description of the ride online: http://mtb.live555.com/rides/TRTMtRose.html.
Note that you can only this section on even-numbered days.

Labels: Lake Tahoe Mountain Bike Trails, Mountain Bike, Mt. Rose, Tahoe Rim Trail

Comments:

 Anonymous
This is a great bike ride! You can also do the whole thing all the way to Spooner summit! Its a lung buster but super fun. Awesome Post.

# : August 11, 2008 5:28 PM

 

 Anonymous
Make sure you only ride this on even numbered days from Mt. Rose / Tahoe Meadows through Tunnel Creek Rd. From Tunnel Creek to North Canyon-Hobart Rd. you can bike every day, but not ever between North Canyon-Hobart Rd. and Spooner Summit. You have to ride down North Canyon road to the parking lot of Spooner Lake. If you choose to hike it, the Snow Valley Peak meadows is amazing. Happy trails!

# : August 12, 2008 9:59 PM

 

 Anonymous
Well, you can't actually ride all the way to Spooner Summit on the TRT. You have to go down North Canyon-Hobart Rd to the parking lot. Bikes are never allowed from North Canyon-Hobart Rd to Spooner Summit; however if you choose to hike it, know that it will be well worth the views! Snow Valley Peak Meadows is amazing.

# : August 12, 2008 10:02 PM

 

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