This was our first mountain biking trip to the Tahoe area (although Brian has been there once before) and we looked forward to riding the Flume and Downieville trails, both of which are fairly famous. Since the drive up to the Tahoe area is pretty long, we decided to break it up by driving to Lone Pine on Friday night, camping there, and then continuing on to the Tahoe area on Saturday.

Lone Pine’s Quackin’ Ducks
We left SD a bit past 7, made fairly good time, and got to the Lone Pine campsite around midnight. It was a fairly warm night so we all slept outside. Unfortunately, people shuffling around the campsite throughout the night and loud, quacking ducks made for a restless night of sleep.

The Flume Trail
We got an early start the next morning, but just as we were leaving, we got stopped by the campground attendant to pay the campsite fee. After paying, we hit Mickey D’s for a healthy McGriddle breakfast and were then on our way. We got to the Flume Trail trailhead at a little past noon. Aaron and Brian took some time to prep the bikes and we were soon off. The beginning of the Flume Trail was a bitch consisting of 4 miles of gradual climbing. The bummer was that after all that climbing, you don’t get rewarded - all your work is wasted on a fireroad descent. The trail then follows around Marlette Lake with some really nice views. It then winds for several miles along the cliff side and you are treated to some pretty spectacular views of Lake Tahoe below. All in all, a unique and scenic trail, but probably not one worth riding twice.

Judy Performs at the Dairy Queen
At the shuttle pick-up, Judy and Aaron waited there while Brian and I headed back on the shuttle to pick up the cars. Afterwards, we continued on to Downieville, where we stopped in Truckee at the Granite Chief to get some beta on some of the Tahoe climbs. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant (Tratorria?) next to the Safeway in Truckee. Still a bit hungry because of the tiny portions, we crossed the road (4 times no less) to get some dessert at the Dairy Queen where Judy’s comical opening of the freezer door prompted onlookers to request an encore performance.

Downieville!
After our calorie fest, we continued on to Downieville which only took about an hour from Truckee. The campsite we wanted to stay at unfortunately didn’t have any more available sites so we just parked in the parking lot and made do. The next morning, we got to the trail head fairly early, armored up, and prepared for the ride. I almost ate it on the initial downhill (there’s a right turn about halfway down the first descent that can be a doozy if you’re going too fast!). The trail was a lot of fun - not super technical (only two fairly technical sections), but not exactly a walk in the park either. Of course, I had to damage my bike in some way - I managed to not only bend one of my brake levers, but both of them. Clearly, it takes some mad skillz to do that!

Brian had set the shuttle pick up for 11 AM, but we just missed that time by about 20 minutes. It might not have mattered much as we found out that the pick-up point was not the same place that Brian had previously used. Fortunately, there was room on the next shuttle and we had time to grab a quick lunch of burritos.

Judy felt pretty tired and wasn’t sure she wanted to do the ride again. In the end, Aaron and Brian rode Downieville again while Judy and I took a hike on a trail nearby.

Northstar
We had pizza at Truckee that evening and then found a campsite near Northstar where we planned to ride the next day. The campsite was pretty posh - the grounds were really spacious and there were even electrical outlets in the bathrooms. The next morning, we arrived at Northstar about an hour before it opened. Judy and I decided to rent bikes - Judy got the standard rental (Giant Warp DS-2) while I decided to spend the big bucks to get the high-end rental (Giant AC-2). Unfortunately, Judy had some problems with her bike - the front forks were kind of sticky and wouldn’t compress the way they should. We ended up having to go back to the rental shop to get her bike replaced. The new bike was better, but still not as good as desired. Judy was probably just too light to get any decent compression out of those bikes.

Halfway through the day, Judy and I split up so that I could ride the more challenging “Sticks and Stones”. I was supposed to meet back up with her on “Buzzsaw”, but I missed the junction and ended up further downtrail where I ended up running into Aaron and Brian. We hung around at the base of the Vista Express lift, screwing around on the logs around there. Judy finally met up with us 45 minutes later. Brian and Judy decided to retire for the day while Aaron and I decided to ride the day out.

Erroneous Orders
Dinner found us at The Naughty Dog, a small restaurant in town. Unfortunately, Judy just didn’t have any luck with her food. She first ordered fish burritos which had creamy sauce in it even though Judy had confirmed that it didn’t. She then replaced that order with a chicken teriyaki sandwich without cheese. Of course, the sandwich came with cheese on it. She scrapped it off and ate it anyway. Fortunately, the waitress credited us for her erroneous dishes.

Popping Legs
That night, we camped at a place fairly close to where we planned to go bouldering. It wasn’t the best campsite since it was really close to a fairly highly trafficked road. The next morning we drove to the boulder site and made the “gruelling two minute hike” to the boulders. We didn’t have much time there, but both Aaron and I managed to injure ourselves while there. On one of the V2s, your right heel is hooked into a hold and you’re required to put a fairly substantial lateral force on your leg to lift yourself up to the next hold. Well, we must have put slightly too much force as we both had something “pop” in our legs in the same place. Aaron’s wasn’t as bad as he was able to continue climbing. After popping my leg, I was unable to put my full weight on the leg so I decided to call it quits for the day.

At around 11 AM, we decided to end our climbing. There was a long drive ahead of us and we wanted to get back to SD at a reasonable hour. We drove into the nearest town and ended up at some Italian restaurant for lunch. Aaron ordered a sandwich which turned out to be pretty small while the rest of us got the all-you-can-eat salad bar. After lunch we parted ways as Aaron hopped in our car to go back to SD while Brian headed towards his parents’ house.

Overall, it was a great trip. Downieville and Northstar were loads of fun, the bouldering was good (aside from popping legs), and the Flume Trail, although not something I’d probably want to do again, was worth the experience. Here’s the pics.

Posted by Roger at 8:56 pm.