RR: TR: Thanksgiving in Tahoe!

[jasonmason]

Trip report because it wasn't just a riding trip, though the riding was sweeet...
Just in case anyone hasn't been outside since the mammoth trip in september, there's no snow in the mountains. None. Well, maybe a little, but so little that even thinking about snowboarding just hurts. So I took the bike to tahoe instead, and had a great time getting in probably some of the last riding up there of the year, since it's supposed to start snowing tomorrow. Of course.
Thanks for the recommendations before I left. Rode out to Scott lake wednesday (after replacing my headset) just to get acclimated and spin for a while. Had meant to ride to Dardanelle Lake like steppie recommended, but heard the trail was recently redone and now kinda sucks, so didn't head that way. That and it was cold.
Thursday rode from Oneidas road, initially heading to do the Corral Loop. After the steep 4 mile paved climb to the closed gate, talked story with another guy riding and decided to head up the singletrack to Armstrong Pass. 4 mile climb up to the Tahoe Rim Trail, just a great climb. Took in the view up top, then headed down what is now one of my favorite downhill singletracks - 8 miles of flowy, fast, wooded single track with some rocky, kinda tecnical sections. The 8 miles of descending comes from linking that Armstrong Pass trail to a newly built trail connecting it to the Corral Trail down below, and damn if it ain't a sweet new piece of trail. Corral's fun in it's own right too - there's been plenty of work that's gone into the berms and other features there,and lining the three of them was sweet. So sweet that i went back and rode it again saturday since toad's was frozen up!
Otherwise hiked back to Lake Aloha on Tuesday from Echo Lake, and went climbing for a short while at Donner Pass friday before freezing and heading to FiftyFifty Brewing in Truckee to get warm! Took lots of time coming back yesterday, and explored some of the wine region in the foothills along the 49 (bought more wine...) before heading home late last night. All in all a sweet trip...
Whew...that was long for no pics! I'll try and add some when i get home from work.