Tag Archives: USARoadtrip11

city, roadtrip, travel, USA, vehicles

A Tale of Small “Cities”

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I woke too tired & sore to be bothered getting in a quick shuttle run up to Armstrong Connector, Sidewinder & Corral before leaving Tahoe.  Pleased to be leaving all the traffic behind, it did feel like I was leaving with unfinished business.  Maybe if I ever return the higher long trails will be clear to ride.  On the other hand, maybe it’ll be the middle of winter & I’ll be skiing.  Pipe-dreams.

We hit only the second state capital of the entire trip (the first being Helena, Montana, right at the start) in Carson City, Nevada.  We didn’t bother stopping on our way to the trio of old mining towns – Silver City, Gold Hill & Virginia City.  It’s always a little incredible how quickly dropping elevation changes you from the alpine of the Sierras to the Nevada desert landscape.  There wasn’t reason to stop in Silver City, but I did spy an old steam locomotive sitting on a siding near the top of Gold Hill.

As I was poking around looking at it (it was in pretty good condition) some guy appeared from I’m not sure where – probably checking I wasn’t trying to put it in my back pocket.  He was part of the historical society that has been restoring the loco & old freight depot adjacent to it.  He was only too happy to talk about the projects & the mining history & answer my questions – which was great.

Virginia City was only a mile up the road – Valerie came here on Saturday while I was playing in the snow & didn’t realize Gold Hill was so close.  The main street of Virginia City stretches & stretches and is most definitely the best preserved western-style street we’ve seen so far on our travels.  There were plenty of saloons, museums & of course, being Nevada, places to see your money disappear in to machines with flashing lights & irritating tunes.  The site of the Comstock Lode in the nineteenth century, this place was booming on the back of all the silver & gold being pulled out of the hills.  A couple of interesting snippets – the name Mark Twain was first used from here, as Samuel Clemens wrote for the local newspaper & George Hearst (of the Hearst Castle, which we visited almost two weeks ago, family) made one of his fortunes here.

We drove “all the way to Reno”, not much to see there – it’s like a little, tame version of Vegas in parts.   Rancho San Rafael on the northwest of town was a very pleasant spot for lunch; interestingly I could have kissed a Blarney stone.  Reminding me of “how would you like to play a central park in Newark?” (Flight of the Conchords, before you ask, Mum), for some reason there was a stone from Blarney Castle in the garden.  Continuing north we were soon going through the Californian border check as we then headed up & west into the Sierra Valley.  I was surprised that it was so wide & flat.  They obviously have plenty of water as the cropping & livestock herds gave evidence of.  Climbing out of the valley, as we pressed on east, was once again stunning, very beautiful forest as we reached Sierra City (another large village with “City” tacked on the end of its name).  Eventually we found a couple of beds at Kokanee Kabins.  Nestled in the woods, it’s great to have the birds chirping away over the steady stream of all that snowmelt running down the river.

bikes, GPS, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

Lake Tahoe & an easier ride

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After yesterday’s little adventure, it was great to sleep in until nine.  Another clear day had dawned while I slept on & we eventually got out the door & went for a little drive west & then north around Lake Tahoe.  With summer starting (pity no one told the snow) the road was crazy busy & finding parking spots at Emerald Bay & Eagle Falls was quite difficult.  I’m quite looking forward to leaving the Californian traffic behind in a few days’ time.  We had lunch sitting in the sun on the shore, watching boats zip around.  I spent the time alternately trying to work out where I rode the day before (behind the opposite shore) & missing water-skiing on Lake Tarawera back home.  (But as it’s the middle of winter in the southern hemisphere, now’s not a good time to be in/on that lake.)

Back in town, I was keen to push the pedals around a bit – so headed out on a short ride close to town. With nowhere near as much climbing (or snow) as yesterday, I was quickly up riding the Powerline Trail, which was mostly undulating through beautiful forest. There were short glimpses of gorgeous views, but having too much fun riding I didn’t stop to get any pictures to share. I next wound & climbed my way up Incense Trail.

I was surprised to see a young bear run off down the trail a hundred metres away from me. Somewhat concerned at seeing a bear so close to town, potentially meeting its mother, & being alone & bear-spray-less, I started making a lot of noise (I did learn a thing or two in Canada) as I continued on. At the intersection with Corral Trail I was pleased to meet another rider to send ahead as bear-bait! We chatted a bit & the ride down Corral was great fun with lots of little jumps on the side of the trail. It was mostly road back into town, so that was quick. Even in my tired state, this ride shows just how slow yesteday was. Today I rode slightly less distance than yesterday, but in less than a third of the time (not much climbing & no snow made all the difference).

bikes, GPS, MTB, roadtrip, snow, travel, USA

Lake Tahoe – snow-ride including Flume Trail

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With two full days in South Tahoe City nearing the middle of summer, it was a great opportunity to check out a few of the legendary longer rides in the area. But this winter just gone being the winter that never stops giving (or taking, depending on your point of view) I ended up dealing with a bit of snow. Today I planned to ride from Mt Rose, along a bit of the Tahoe Rim Trail, the well-known Flume Trail & then down to Chimney Beach – as recommended by Mountain Bike Bill. However, when we got to the trailhead at Mt Rose it was completely snowbound so riding across Tahoe Meadows was not an option. We went back down the highway a little way to where I’d seen a rider go into the forest as we drove past. With the TRT on my GPS, I was pretty sure this random unsigned trail would link up to the TRT somewhere. But every hiker I passed (two couples) said that this wasn’t the case. But it was a gorgeous day & I had about six hours until Valerie would pick me up someway away, so I pressed on. For about five kilometres the trail traversed around at about the same elevation & I crossed quite a few patches of snow & some heavily running streams.

There were quite a few fallen trees to negotiate too – this one I ended up squeezing my bike & then me under (it’s bigger than it looks – easier to go under than over).

As I continued traversing I was generally 800 to 1000 metres from the trail I wanted to be on, which I assumed would be on the top of the ridge. As I was starting to look for an easy route up, I came across what looked like a big fire-break. It was steep, but clear of trees & more importantly, snow so I decided to head up it. Part-way up this exceedingly steep slope, I realised that it was a ski run (probably blue or black) & at the top would be a chairlift & I should have looked for a more manageable service road. So for about half an hour I slogged up Great Flume, gaining 250m vertical in one kilometre horizontal.

I was glad to reach the top of the chairlift & have a snack. Views off the east of the ridge were to Washoe Lake.

I found the TRT & was pleased to riding along it for a while. That was short lived as the hard-packed snow patches got larger & larger. But with such great mountain scenery & a pick-up at the other end, I was more than prepared to battle through extended periods of hike-a-bike – after, when would I ever be back in Tahoe doing the Flume Trail? Hardly an opportunity to pass up, even if it was exceptionally slow & tough going.

For quite long periods I was walking on steep snow slopes, eventually I found the trail intersection to the Flume Trail – a good spot for lunch. This sign was interesting – I hadn’t seen another person on the trail, I was the only one mad enough to be up there.

Dropping down a little to the Flume Trail, I finally saw some other riders – they had biked up a much easier way from Incline Village apparently. As I expected, given the history of logging in the area, the Flume Trail follows the path of an old log flume that used to run around the side of the ridge. As a mountain-bike trail purely it’s not particularly interesting, even in my slightly fatigued state I could cruise along it (slightly uphill in the south direction) in a high middle-ring gear (it seems two weeks at sea-level hasn’t completely killed my mountain lungs). But the scenery is something else. With that damn snow still capping the peaks on the far side of the brilliantly blue lake it was gorgeous.

At the end of the Flume Trail, there’s a little climb up to Martlett Lake. The lake must be full of snowmelt – as this is the trail.

Just as my socks were starting to dry from the previous snow crossing, they were soaked & cold again. But it was still warm out & I had many more patches of snow to avoid around the edge of the lake. With a mostly rideable climb away from the lake & the largest snow patch of the day to cross I was ready to leave the fireroad to Spooner Lake & find the downhill trail to Chimney Beach.

Climbing up there was still more snow to negotiate. As before, the snow started to get a little thinner as I descended through 2400m & I could finally start ride & therefore enjoy the downhill singletrack. There were a few more spots of snow to negotiate in the shadier areas, but mostly I could ride around or over it. Dropping about 600m in 6km the ride was great fun & easily the best part of the day. It wasn’t overly technical, but there were plenty of big bermed corners & some water bars to get a little air off.

Definitely a ride I’ll remember for a long time, with an average moving speed of only 8 km/hr it was plenty slow – but on such a stunning day & with gorgeous scenery & a brilliant downhill to finish, it was all well worth it. Just perhaps I’ll return when it’s proper summer.

From late in the day, when there wasn’t so much snow around.

national park, roadtrip, snow, travel, USA

Yosemite

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We’d started to hear over the previous few days that due to the huge winter snowfall & the very late spring, the rivers in Yosemite National Park are running very high. Consequently, the waterfalls were supposed to be spectacular. As we drove towards the park, we noticed easily that the Merced River (this river flows out of the Yosemite Valley) was high & in many places nothing but a raging torrent.

Our first big stop in the park was after eventually getting a park to walk the short distance to Bridalveil Falls. Seeing quite a few people returning rather drenched, I grabbed my rainjacket out of the car & wandered up. From a distance, the fall looked like this – you can see part of the spray cloud at the bottom.

Not far up the short trail, the river started to overrun the trail – being recently melted snow this was pretty chilly through flip-flops/jandals. At the viewing point the spray was so intense I was quickly quite wet (glad I put my jacket on) & could only just see the top of the falls.

Yosemite Falls & a flooded meadow & boardwalk.

We rode the shuttle bus around a bit further & walked up to see more waterfalls – this time Vernall Falls. The Merced was still thundering down this narrow steep part – the noise was fantastic. The nice wide trail was paved, but steep in parts. The final staircase was another path to a sound drenching & the view was somewhat obscured by a dead tree trunk.

After lunching near Vernall Falls, we returned to the valley floor & did the nice easy Mirror Lake walk underneath Half Dome. The highlight of this was the bear cub that came wandering along on the way back. Rather it ran along & then bolted across the trail. Mama Bear was nowhere to be seen, so that was great news.

The shuttle still doesn’t cope well with the gongshow that is summer in Yosemite, but we eventually got to the bottom of Yosemite Falls (the fifth highest in the world).

That was pretty much our day in Yosemite Valley. I enjoyed my visit so much more this time – the tremendous volume of water flowing & the sound associated with it was incredible.

Packing up in Merced we again headed for Yosemite – this time to drive over Tioga Pass & then head north through Nevada to South Lake Tahoe (which is back in California, but only just). Our only real break from driving was walking to Tuolumne Grove (giant sequoias). The largest living things on earth (by volume), it goes without saying that these things are pretty big – they can get old too, up to three-thousand years. This is a hollowed out trunk of a long-ago dead one to give a sense of size.

Almost immediately after leaving the grove, we started to come across more & more snow. The views along the road were beautiful with snow still capping the high points – it was well gone last time I drove this road.

Still a little bit of snow at Tioga Pass (just under 10000ft/2900m):

Out of the park, we lost elevation a lot quicker than we’d gained it & were soon driving north through west Nevada. I was surprised to see the scenery gradually change into nice green pastoral land – I’d never expected to see black-faced sheep grazing in Nevada. I’m well pleased to be travelling roads I’ve never been on before.  With a big climb up & then down, we were at Lake Tahoe in no time.