Lake Tahoe Flume Trail

There is no oxygen (or air in general) above 7000 feet, and therefore little wind resistance. So if one were to fall from three-foot-wide Flume Trail ledge above Lake Tahoe it would be possible to gain amazing speed as one plummeted to ones death.

We had plenty of time to think about this as we rode through the startlingly loose sand and gravel. How far could we fall? Would we hit the lake? Why did we think this was fun?

At least we’d die with the satisfaction of having climbed up to 8156.3 feet. By climbing I mean blowing out our lungs in the rare air, slipping in the loose dirt and occasionally (much to our annoyance) having so little traction we had to get off and push.

But the trail itself , running uphill from Spooner Lake to Marlette Lake, then along an old Flume and eventually to the old Pondarosa Ranch of Bonanza fame has views that make it darn near worthwhile.

Being a roadie at heart I have issues with climbing 1300 feet in 13 miles and having it take 4 hours. Even our on-the-bike time of just over two hours seems amazingly slow.

Note my extra swell K-Mart shirt. I packed the bikes, teh helmets, gloves, shorts, shoes, but somehow missed the jersey. I know I like those rear pockets, but doing without them really showed me how much I use them.