Tahoe Time – Marlette Lake Bike ride
Staci was nice enough to invite us to stay at her timeshare in Tahoe for our anniversary weekend.We met up with them and did a mini caravan from Sac to south shore on Saturday. The weather (just like when we got married in 1985) was not cooperating. Cloudy and rainy. As we made our way up and over Echo summit, it started to SNOW!! Our room on Kingsbury Grade wasn’t quite ready so we headed to Fat City Food Co for a late lunch. Great food there!! The prime rib dip was excellent! Another stop at Safeway to stock up on supplies and we were good to go.
Back up the ridge and checked into the condo. Nice, spacious 2 bedroom place with BIG living room dining room and kitchen. The view, between the trees looking down into the Carson Valley was BEAUTIFUL!! As the sun started to set it started to snow yet again! In all our visits to Tahoe, most have been during the summer, so it was extra special for us to see some snow, especially on Memorial weekend! I took another video out the window of the snow drifting onto the trees. Barb was feeling under the weather (no pun intended) so the accomodations were perfect for just chillin with the fam.
Other than a bike ride with John Downing, the trip was all about family. Spent most of our time playing with Colin, watching Colin play, or just watching Colin be Colin. What a great kid! He is already walking around like a champ. He has such a GREAT disposition! A happy boy. The only time he is not happy is when its time to go to bed. He fights it, but who wouldn’t? He too wants to stay up late when he is in Tahoe! But, momma knows best. The other thing that was kind of funny was that Colin was in charge of the TV remote, and the TV in general. He would swipe the remote then start pushing buttons. Change the channel mostly. When he didn’t have the remote he would just go to the TV and start pushing buttons. Most times just turning off the TV. He is one smart kid and knows EXACTLY what he is doing. Either way it was all good with Colin in the house!
Sunday morning I met John at Lakeside Inn and we drove up to Spooner Lake. The plan was to ride from Spooner Lake to Marlette Lake and back. Its about 10 miles round trip. 1100 elevation gain, from 7000 ft at Spooner to 8100 at Marlette. We had done the hike a couple of summers ago so we were somewhat familiar with the trail and the area. As we drove into the Park to pay our fee, the Ranger mentioned that they hadn’t been on the trail this morning, but becuase of the snow storm the previous evening, there was bound to be snow on the trail. That was the first I thought of snow on the trail.
From our previous hike and reading about others bike rides, we knew that it was pretty much a 4.5 mile climb to Marlette Lake. We started off pretty well. There were zero people on the trail this early, maybe the weather scared them off, but either way, it was just John and I on the trail to Marlette Lake. As we continued our steady climb, the dirt trail was a dirt/snow mix. Further up the trail it was snow / dirt mix. Then at some point it became ALL SNOW on the trail, and I’m not talking about a dusting of snow either, we are talking 3-4 inches in some parts. There were some parts of the trail that were so steep and snowy that we had to get off our bikes and walk/push our way up. At one point, we noticed a bear on the trail about 50 feet in front of us. He saw us when we saw him and he hauled his big bear ass outa there. Exciting!! It looked like an adolescent so we were sure to keep an eye out of any momma bears that might have been hanging around. Fortunatly all that was left were the bear tracks that he left in the snow.
I got to tell you, at some point I started to think that maybe it wasn’t that great of an idea to do this ride on a day like today.
Not only were we the only ones on the trail, there was a lot of snow and there were bears out there!! But that made the ride so cool. I don’t know how many times in my life I’ll do a bike ride in the snow, and see a bear. Aside from our close encounter, the rest of the ride was so peaceful. So beautiful. So HARD. I have to mention that the elevation did have an affect on us old guys from the bay area. We were sucking wind from the start and it didn’t get any easier as we chug chug chugged our way up. We did take plenty of breaks to catch our breath.
Eventually we made it to the “top” of the trail, where there was a short and steep downhill to Marlette lake.
That downhill was crazy!! First of all if was about a half mile down to the lake. The trail was entirely covered in snow, and my “hybrid” tires didn’t really have any traction. So it was pretty much hold on and let’er go! All the way down. At one point I realized that I would probably be pushing my bike back up this same snowy trail to get home. Thoughts of frostbitten toes went through my mind.
We rolled down and onto the shore of Marlette lake. Alone in the wilderness. Serenity now. An alpine lake at 8000 ft elevation with snow covered banks, and us. Just totally totally cool. We took a nice long break here, not only to catch our breath from sucking wind the last couple of hours, but also to take in the beauty that surrounded us. Took this 360 degree video . After about 30 minutes we heard some other bikers making there way down the hill, so that was our queue to start to head back. The ride back up to the “top” wasn’t that bad after all. I did have to get off and push my bike a little ways, (because my tires were spinning in the snow), but not as far as I thought I would. Once we got back to the “top” it would be a nice 4 mile downhill back to the car.
And downhill it was! It made us forget about all with “wind sucking” we were doing on the slow chug up. By this time the sun was high in the sky and most all the snow on the trail was starting to melt. Also by this time, people started to realize that it was a good day to bike/hike. We saw maybe 100 bikers and hikers making their way up as we were making our way down. We definitely beat the crowds. In what took us a couple of hours to climb, took only about 20 minutes to ride down. But what a fun and exhilarating downhill it was. Totally worth it! I peddled ahead a couple of times to get video of “Downhill Downing” in action. He would have gone a lot faster if it weren’t for all the people on the trail. Check out this video too. Eventually the downhill ended and we were back to where we had started in the morning. As we were slow peddling back to the car at the end of the ride, we were reflecting on just how cool and special this ride had been for a couple of old “creek trail riders” from Fremont. It was the combination of doing the ride to the lake alone, without seeing another soul, the fact that the freak snow storm had made for a once in a lifetime ride, and (last but not least!) the beauty and serenity of the surroundings. The perfect combo made for a perfect ride. THANK YOU Staci!!!
Dropped John off at his house and headed back up to the condo on Kingsbury grade. A “chill” afternoon followed by and awesome anniversary dinner prepared by Staci and Shane. BBQ steaks topped with mushrooms and onions, asparagas, yukon gold potatoes. The perfect way to end the day.
Up early monday. Get away day. It wasn’t too bad at all. We left Tahoe and hardly hit any traffic on the way home. Went and picked up the dogs and Marie and Ron’s house and they had prepared a wonderful dinner for us! Shrimp cocktails followed by chipotle shrimp kabobs with bacon and pineapple, braised brussel sprouts and a rice salad dish. Cupcakes for dessert! Then home with the dogs and snug in our bed.
