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Yesterday (7/8) I did an Epic 35 mile ride at Lake Tahoe, from Mt. Rose to Kingsbury with Cohenfive and T horse. The ride starts at 8,700 ft., you climb for two miles, and then over the next 20 or so miles you go up and down a bit via the Tahoe Rim Trail and Flume Trail to Spooner Lake at 7,100 ft. After about 1.5 miles on pavement you start at 7,150 ft. Spooner Summit and climb about 1,600 ft. in the next five miles to The Bench. Then there are about seven miles of up and down riding on scores of rocks stairs and drops to Kingsbury. It is not an easy ride, particularly that long slow five mile grind after already completing about 22 miles.
The weather was perfect and we had clear blue skies until just at the end when thunderstorm clouds started rolling in. As we were approaching Mt. Rose I related a story from last year in which I led some people down the trail from the parking lot and did an endo in front of everybody just about 50 yards into the trail on a gnarly little creek crossing. Well, the trail was especially overgrown and Cohenfive did an endo at that same spot right in front of me! He cut his elbow and leg fairly seriously but after a while he collected himself and we managed to get going again. A bit into the ride I began getting sick and something I had for breakfast wanted out. Over the next two hours I struggled quite a bit and I had to stop several times. I wanted to throw up but I couldn't. Perhaps about 2 1/2 hours into the ride I started feeling better.
T horse and I were quite experienced doing that grueling five mile climb from Spooner Summit (we did it last week) but Cohenfive had never done it before. He was a bit too aggressive and it hit him hard about 2/3rds of the way up. For about the next 5 - 6 miles he was a riding zombie. I've ridden with him enough to know that he usually recovers after a while so we just made sure we maintained contact with him. However, I was a bit disappointed because he is the most talented rider of the three and I was counting on him leading me down the rock drops for the video. But T horse, who normally doesn't care for drops, took up the slack and he was quite a bit more aggressive than usual. As I predicted, a few miles near the end of the ride Cohenfive perked up and he took over the lead, taking me down some pretty cool drops. Never having done this ride before Cohenfive took me down the longest and gnarliest set of drops, which I'd never completed. Halfway down he stopped, jumped out of the way and I just continued on down, making it for the first time ever! It was a pretty tough ride but we all felt quite satisfied and not totally exhausted at the end. Thanks for the great ride guys! Since I had the helmet cam I didn't take as many photos as usual. Below are a few, perhaps I'll have a few more on my site soon. Many photos of the Spooner to Kingsbury section were posted from my ride last week.
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Mt. Rose meadow, 8,700 ft.
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Easy stairs, not so easy approach
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On the Flume Trail
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On the Flume Trail
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On the Flume Trail
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On the Flume Trail
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Lake Tahoe
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Marlette Lake
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T horse climbing
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Cohenfive climbing
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Starts getting steep, narrow and loose
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T horse nears The Bench
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Near The Bench
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Near The Bench
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Near The Bench
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Cohenfive. Normally I don't post out of focus photos but this is all I could
coax out of him
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Last week: "I've never made it all the way but I continue to try. I'm about
half way down a long series of drops".
This week, "I made it!"
Click on the image for larger view
The weather was perfect and we had clear blue skies until just at the end when thunderstorm clouds started rolling in. As we were approaching Mt. Rose I related a story from last year in which I led some people down the trail from the parking lot and did an endo in front of everybody just about 50 yards into the trail on a gnarly little creek crossing. Well, the trail was especially overgrown and Cohenfive did an endo at that same spot right in front of me! He cut his elbow and leg fairly seriously but after a while he collected himself and we managed to get going again. A bit into the ride I began getting sick and something I had for breakfast wanted out. Over the next two hours I struggled quite a bit and I had to stop several times. I wanted to throw up but I couldn't. Perhaps about 2 1/2 hours into the ride I started feeling better.
T horse and I were quite experienced doing that grueling five mile climb from Spooner Summit (we did it last week) but Cohenfive had never done it before. He was a bit too aggressive and it hit him hard about 2/3rds of the way up. For about the next 5 - 6 miles he was a riding zombie. I've ridden with him enough to know that he usually recovers after a while so we just made sure we maintained contact with him. However, I was a bit disappointed because he is the most talented rider of the three and I was counting on him leading me down the rock drops for the video. But T horse, who normally doesn't care for drops, took up the slack and he was quite a bit more aggressive than usual. As I predicted, a few miles near the end of the ride Cohenfive perked up and he took over the lead, taking me down some pretty cool drops. Never having done this ride before Cohenfive took me down the longest and gnarliest set of drops, which I'd never completed. Halfway down he stopped, jumped out of the way and I just continued on down, making it for the first time ever! It was a pretty tough ride but we all felt quite satisfied and not totally exhausted at the end. Thanks for the great ride guys! Since I had the helmet cam I didn't take as many photos as usual. Below are a few, perhaps I'll have a few more on my site soon. Many photos of the Spooner to Kingsbury section were posted from my ride last week.
Mt. Rose meadow, 8,700 ft.
Easy stairs, not so easy approach
On the Flume Trail
On the Flume Trail
On the Flume Trail
On the Flume Trail
Lake Tahoe
Marlette Lake
T horse climbing
Cohenfive climbing
Starts getting steep, narrow and loose
T horse nears The Bench
Near The Bench
Near The Bench
Near The Bench
Cohenfive. Normally I don't post out of focus photos but this is all I could
coax out of him
Last week: "I've never made it all the way but I continue to try. I'm about
half way down a long series of drops".
This week, "I made it!"
Click on the image for larger view
