Tough Tahoe ride

A few days ago I asked for suggestions on a new Tahoe ride. Thanks to all for the suggestions. But perhaps I should remind those that responded that I am over 60, have two bad knees and I've been riding for exactly two months. But I suppose I can't complain too much because it seems I tend to forget that myself. I wanted to ride someplace new at Tahoe and since my good bike is in the shop, I had to ride my backup bike, which has several problems. So I did not have much confidence in it. Since I was riding solo I decided to just do an out and back on the Tahoe Rim Trail from Brockway Summit toward Tahoe City. I figured I could ride toward Tahoe City and depending on how I felt, plus the trail difficulty, I could jut turn around and come back. At the last minute Cohenfive decided to come along. It is difficult to compare rides from several years ago, but this ride turned out to be perhaps the most difficult I've ever done.

The ride starts at about 7,100 ft. and then you go uphill on a very difficult and rocky trail for two miles. A few hundred yards into the ride I broke a spoke on my back wheel, and that added to the doubts I had about my backup bike. Then you get a really rocky descent for at least a mile. Then you have quite a bit of climbing up to 7,900 ft. twice, interspersed with some nice downhills. The scenery is quite spectacular and you occasionally get some good views of Lake Tahoe. After Painted Rock, about 12 miles in, the trail begins to go down quite steeply. We figured that was enough so we headed back. The downhills were really nice and both of us could not believe we rode up them. It started to warm up quite a bit and I just "ran out of gas." Also, for the first time ever, despite carrying 124 oz, I ran out of water. With about four miles to go, I was just going too slow to make it over a big rock and I went over the bars. Normally when I fall it happens so fast I have no control. But this time I saw a big rock coming at my face and I managed to get both hands out to prevent my face from hitting it. It was pretty rocky and without knee pads I'd probably have broken a knee cap. However, I really hurt the heel of my left hand and sprained my right thumb breaking the fall. I had to keep both off the handlebars the rest of the ride. We then had to go up that really rocky one mile stretch we enjoyed coming down on the way out. By then I was more spent than on any ride I've ever done. I doubt I rode even half of it. So it was really slow going. Cohenfive rode quite a bit and he occasionally very patiently waited for me. By the time we hit the top both of us were pretty tired and we only coasted downhill for the last two miles. Below are some photos, more on my biking site


Rocy climb at start


Rocy climb at start


Cohenfive


More climbing




Mule's ears


First view of Lake Tahoe










Cohenfive climbing










Tadpoles in Watson Lake


More climbing


Peak flowering