Well last week was pretty much the best mountain biking trip that the kids and I have ever been on. You all know Tahoe is epic, so ill write this RR up through the lens of riding with kids and the fun of adventure. I ended up driving up to Tahoe, packed up 4 bikes for me and my two boys that ride (one extra for me just incase) and we were off. Day 1 was an easy ride with both boys but day 2 I rode Tahoe Rim Trail and Flume combined with my 13 year old. 25 miles, about 2k elevation and with most of the ride at elevation, took a break in a lake up at 8000 feet, it was a tough one especially for the kid! What an epic day! Days 3 and 4 were easy rides along emigrant trail along with rafting down the truckee river Day 5 I rode with my 9 year old, a sweet shuttle of the Donner rim trail, Started at Glacier way, down then up to Summit lake, took a swim, then up almost to frog lake before we turned around. Back down all the way to Donner. He was sooo pumped, riding over the chunk on his little hard tail, making the climbs, it was epic! Do you remember your most epic ride ever??? thats how he felt!!! Day 6 I rode hole in the wall with my 13 year old-thats a technical trail! We only did the first part then went back on the Donner rim trail, the first part is super chunky, but fun, great for kids to get some confidence over some chunk. We went up to summit lake which is at around 7000 feet, took a swim, then before we rode to the car we decided, what the heck, lets ride down to Donner lake and call a taxi to get back to the car. So we rode the most amazing 3 trails down. First part of the rim trail away from summit lake towards Donner is butter, then comes this sweet switchback pumptrack to the 80 freeway – then with some local knowledge we located a recent build out that starts from the freeway! Yes we had to go on the off ramp, this trail was pretty hard and crashed but no major injuries. Taxi back to the car-- Super epic day and the perfect shuttle! check out that rock staiarcase above! looks easy until you have to go up it!!! Final day we rode a new stretch of the Tahoe rim trail, off the 267 near the highpoint of the mountain overlooking the lake, it was soooo epic. We climbed for 7 miles straight to reach a peak with an amazing view. Nobody around, nobody interested in going out that far, is was sooo cool. Great time with my son. Then with some local knowledge again about some special trails we rode 6 miles back towards the car, almost all downhill with mixed chunk and took a small trail all the way down to the lake. 4 more miles of single track later we were at Lake tahoe! 3k total decent from the mountain peak at just over 9000 feet. One thing about these trails is they are not steep at all, super flowy, nice turns, fun rocks, so that downhill from the peak of 3000 feet was like 8-9 miles! So fun just blazing through the forest. Now with my car parked at the top we had to get back up. I embarrassed my son trying to hitch hike up, no success so we called a taxi. no love hitch hiking.... I love that place, take your kids, they will never forget it.
Great rr and pics. Waiting for my younger boy to grow a little more, and than I hope to do the same. Book marking for future use, thanks! Epic indeed!
Yep, what geek said. My 10-year old is not ready for TRT/Flume, but I'll be showing him these pics. We'll ride Barton Creek State Park with the kids. Headed up there in a few weeks with a bike that looks exactly like yours (checks garage). Have done Flume but not the Tahoe Meadows/TRT route - it's on the schedule for this trip. Have done half of Emigrant as well, may do the full route before heading to the Truckee bike park. Love Tahoe!
Thanks for the RR and love the pictures. I have pictures from this same vantage point from last year's trip. The sky was crystal clear, but directly across Lake Tahoe was a pretty big fire with a huge column of smoke. We ended up with 30+ riders from a bunch of different groups just watching the flames rise up over the ridge. I can't wait to go back!
Here is a diagram of the Donner rim trail with two shuttle ideas. honestly they are super fun for adults and kids. Kids need to be able to handle switchbacks and some chunk, but overall these can be super fun. For some reason its showing up really small but if you want the version i made just PM me your email
ya it is wide, the only sketchy part for tall riders is still there is a cliff and there are often rocks up high pushing out over the trail that i was ducking going through. Maybe i wasent as close as it felt
