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ROAD BIKING

The Tahoe area offers exceptional road biking. The 72 miles of highway circling Lake Tahoe get a fair bit of traffic, especially during summers. Here we offer a variety of alternatives to riding Tahoe’s perimeter – these rides are a bit off the beaten path and usually uncrowded. Note most of the rides below involve driving your bike to the starting point. Some of these roads are subject to recreational vehicle traffic over busy weekends (i.e., watch our for those boat trailers!), but most have very little vehicle traffic during the week. A good map will help you plan your trip – if you’re an AAA member the map to get is “Sierra Nevada – Lake Tahoe Area”.

Lakeshore Boulevard Bike Path: this is a flat bike path along Lakeshore Blvd. in Incline Village. The paved path is a little over 3 miles in length and offers nice views of the lake and lakefront real estate.

Tahoe City/Truckee River Bike Path: there’s a nice bike path south, north, and east of Tahoe City (10+ miles to the south of Tahoe City along Highway 89; 4 miles to the north of Tahoe City to the Squaw Valley turnoff; 4 miles to the east of Tahoe City up to Dollar Hill). The 4-mile stretch north of Tahoe City along the Truckee River is particularly nice.

Mount Rose Highway: Highway 431 connects Incline Village to Reno and goes over Mount Rose Summit – at 8900 feet, this is the highest year-round pass in the Sierras, and the views are worth it! This stretch of road gets traffic, but it has a nice wide shoulder for biking from Highway 28 in Incline Village up to the summit (it’s about 9 miles of steady climbing). Make sure you avoid the edges of the drainage grates on the shoulders – you don’t want to get a tire stuck in those things. The best biking on this road is an out and back to the Summit – it’s possible to head over the summit and down to Reno, but there are very narrow shoulders on the eastern side of the summit and it’s a long uphill from the Reno which is at 4500 feet (for comparison, the elevation at Lake Tahoe is 6225 ft.). There are several nice vista points that overlook Lake Tahoe along the climb from Incline, and there’s a bathroom at the summit.

Highway 89 between Tahoe City and Truckee: about 13 miles of mostly level terrain, with wide shoulders on both sides of Highway 89 (which has a fair bit of vehicle traffic). This route follows the Truckee River which flows out of Tahoe towards Truckee (so it’s slightly downhill towards Truckee); the prevailing winds are usually from the south here. From Squaw Valley to Tahoe City, the bike path offers a more scenic alternative to the Highway. It’s about a 25 mile roundtrip as an out and back. For a bit more mileage (and some really nice scenery), turn in to Squaw Valley and bike into Squaw Valley Village at the foot of the ski slopes (bathrooms and snacks are available at Squaw Village in the cable car building).

Old Highway 40 from Truckee to Cisco Grove: this 40 mile roundtrip goes over Donner Summit (7200 ft.). From Truckee (elev. 5800 ft.) start around Safeway or Paco’s Bike and Ski, head west on Donner Pass Road. You’ll start a pretty steep climb after you pass Donner Lake. You’ll have spectacular views of Truckee and Donner Lake on the way up. Once you’re past Sugar Bowl Ski Resort, it’s a long moderate downhill to Cisco Grove (elev. 5900 ft.). The stretch from Sugar Bowl to Cisco is peaceful with very little traffic, even on summer weekends! During camping season, you’ll find a campground store and bathrooms at Cisco Grove. If you’re the competitive type, see how fast you can do the climb to the summit – start timing when the road gets steep just past Donner Lake – it’ll be obvious when you stop timing at the top. A commendable goal for the 3-mile climb is under 30 minutes (that means no stopping at the vista view point). The fastest we’ve heard of someone doing this climb is 19 minutes.

Boca and Stampede Reservoirs: this is one of our favorite road bike routes, especially on weekdays. From Truckee, drive on Highway 80 east towards Reno – take the Hirschdale Road exit (approx. 5 miles east of Truckee). Turn left on Hirschdale Road and park at the lot when you get to Boca Reservoir. From here, ride your bike north on Hirschdale Road up towards Stampede Reservoir. There are a few significant climbs up to Stampede, but the pavement is in really nice condition, and there’s virtually no residential or through traffic on this road — the only traffic is from people accessing the reservoirs. It’s about a 17 mile roundtrip to a picnic area overlooking Stampede Reservoir (turn left when you get to the top of the last big hill, go over the dam, and take your next right into the picnic area). From there, you can continue to the boat ramp at the end of the road. When you get back to Hirschdale Road, you can extend your ride by turning left – it’s about another 2 miles in that direction until the end of the pavement. When you get back to the parking lot at Boca, you can turn right after the parking lot and bike out to the Boca boat ramp – the ride back to where you are parked offers some great mountain views! This is a good advanced beginner/intermediate ride.

Eastern Sierras -- Carson Valley and California Alps: there are many outstanding rides that start on the eastern side of the Sierras, just east of Lake Tahoe and south of Carson City. From Incline Village, it’s a scenic 25 mile drive to the start of this area on Jacks Valley Road (take Highway 28 down the east shore, Highway 50 over Spooner Summit to Highway 395, take Highway 395 south and after a little over a mile turn right on Jacks Valley Road). This is your entry point to some outstanding road biking. The scenery here is amazing as you ride nestled up to steep slopes that rise up over 10,000 feet; to the east you’ll have views of the peaceful Carson Valley. There are long stretches of level terrain in the Genoa area, and the pavement is in excellent shape. As you head south you can add various loop options with various degrees of climbing. Further south still, the terrain starts to climb significantly and you can ride up into the high country and access some of the Tahoe area’s most dramatic and most remote mountain passes.

Carson Valley – Genoa to Diamond Valley (42 mile loop, moderate climbing): From Highway 395, drive 8.4 miles on Jacks Valley Road to Genoa and start your ride at the park in Genoa (it’ll be on your left across the street from the Genoa Courthouse Museum) – the park has bathrooms and a nice picnic area. From Genoa ride south; after 11 miles turn right on Fredricksburg Road (there’s a dirt parking area at this intersection – a lot of riders like to start their ride here). When you get to a major intersection with Highway 88, cross the Highway and go straight and uphill to enter the Diamond Valley. Follow Diamond Valley Road until it ends at Highway 89 -- turn right to get to Woodfords, at which point you’ll cross Highway 88 again. Across Highway 88 and to your right is the Woodfords market – they have drinks, bathrooms, and serve lunch (try their veggie sandwich – it’s terrific, and be sure to check out the posters in both the men’s and women’s bathrooms). From the market, cross Highway 88 and head north; very shortly you’ll turn right onto Carson River Road, where you’ll enjoy a nice steady downhill following the river (it’s several miles of “giant slalom” downhill in your fastest gears) . This will take you back to the intersection with Highway 88 where you entered the Diamond Valley. Cross over Highway 88 here and retrace your steps back to Genoa. For reference, the elevation at Genoa is 4800 ft.; Woodfords is at elevation 5630 ft. There’s an organized ride that does this same loop each year (except they like to do Diamond Valley counterclockwise) – see www.bikethewest.com.  Note temperatures in the Carson Valley are generally warmer than Tahoe due to the lower elevation – this area is great in the spring when it’s still cold in Tahoe.

California Alps -- Ebbetts Pass (steep!): This is one of the 3 passes of the legendary Death Ride (www.deathride.com), and wins for “best scenery”, but you have to like climbing (there’s a sign warning of grades as steep as 24% at the base of the climb, but it’s a very doable climb on a road bike with the right gearing). Here we describe the ride starting in Markleeville (elev. 5500). Park in the lot to your left just past the general store by the county buildings, where you’ll find public bathrooms – there’s water at the park across the street.  It’s a 38 mile out and back from Markleeville to the top of Ebbetts Pass (elev. 8730). You can extend your out and back to 62 miles by riding over Ebbetts to Lake Alpine (elev. 7540), where you can find water and food. There’s no water or services at the summit. The first 12 miles are a gradual climb along the Carson River. At about the 12 mile mark, just after you cross over a cattle guard there’s a campground to your right that’ll have water during camping season. After the campground, the steep stuff starts . . . the great thing about the climb is that it gets very little traffic, and no trucks. Bring your camera for this one!

California Alps – Carson Pass: This is another of the Death Ride passes. The Death Ride route starts climbing on Highway 88 out of Woodfords (elev. 5630) following the Carson Canyon, but consider starting your ride further west in Hope Valley (elev. 7000), as Highway 88 between Woodfords and Hope Valley is steep, has very narrow shoulders, and can get a lot of traffic. The Hope Valley is very scenic, and the climb to Carson Pass (elev. 8573) gets steep towards the top (it’s more gradual than the climb to Ebbetts). There are bathrooms and water at the summit, but bring cash – the water is 50 cents a bottle. From the summit, you can extend your ride by heading further west to Caples Lake and Kirkwood (elev. 7800). Another nice side-loop from the Hope Valley is an out and back on Blue Lakes Road (we haven’t done this yet but we’ve heard good things about it from friends).

Jackson Meadows: This is a very scenic ride over some pretty remote terrain, with great views of meadows and mountain peaks. There are no services along this road other than some camping areas, and there are no residential areas (unless you count the house with the helicopter pad). From Truckee, drive north on Highway 89 towards Sierraville.; about 15 miles north of Truckee, turn left at the sign for Jackson Meadows, and park at the lot and hop on your bike. From here, it’s a 35 mile round trip to Jackson Meadows Reservoir (elevation 6000 ft.). The route to Jackson Reservoir starts off with some expansion joints, but the pavement gets much better after about 5 miles. It’s an out and back route to the reservoir, with an uphill climb over Henness Pass (elev. 6840 ft.); for reference, your starting point at Highway 89 is 6400 ft.

Sierra Valley: it’s a bit of a drive to get here, but it’s worth it! The Sierra Valley offers some very nice level terrain, with roads surrounding the valley that take you to all sorts of interesting places. To get to the Sierra Valley, drive north from Truckee to Sierraville (about 25 miles north of Truckee). Highway 89 between Truckee and Sierraville isn’t very suitable for road biking due to the narrow shoulders and blind curves.

Sierra Valley – Level Loop: This is a 40 mile loop around the Sierra Valley that’s virtually level (there’s only one significant hill on Route 49 five miles or so north of Sierraville). We like to start this ride in Loyalton, as a clockwise loop from there seems to minimize headwinds. Ride from Loyalton to Sierraville on Route 49, continue to Sattley, turn north on A23 to Beckwourth, turn east on Highway 70 (which has traffic but a nice shoulder in this section), then turn right on A24 and wind your way back to Loyalton on back roads that have almost no vehicle traffic.

Sierra Valley -- Frenchman’s Lake: This ride climbs out the northeast corner of the Sierra Valley (elevation 5000 ft.) to Frenchman’s Lake (elevation 5600 ft.). The ride is pretty flat until you turn north off Highway 70. The climb up to Frenchman’s Lake follows Little Last Chance Creek – it’s a moderate but steady climb up through a stunning volcanic canyon with sharp canyon walls. From Sierraville, drive north on Highway 49 to Loyalton. You can park in Loyalton and take road A24 north (Beckwith Road), to Dyson Lane east to Highway 49 north. Turn right on Highway 70 – after 2 miles turn left on Road 284 which goes up to Frenchman’s Lake (for a shorter ride, you can park in Chilcoot at the Highway 70/284 intersection. It’s about a 15 mile roundtrip from Chilcoot or a 40 mile roundtrip from Loyalton).

Sierra Valley – Sattley/Graeagle/Portola loop: this is a beautiful ride during the week, when Highway 89 north of Sierraville is pretty deserted – the ride north to Graeagle is heavily forested, and the section back south to Sattley is at the west end of the Sierra Valley on Road A23 which is used for bike distance time trials. Sattley is 4 miles west of Sierraville; start from Sierraville or Sattley. Bike north from Sattley on Highway 89 into downtown Graeagle. To get from Graeagle to Portola, head back south on Highway 89 for a few miles and take Road A15 (Portola McLears Rd.) into downtown Portola (avoid temptation to take Highway 70 to Portola – lots of traffic and no shoulder). When leaving downtown Portola, turn right just after the bridge and you’ll find a bike path which parallels Highway 70 – follow the side road alongside the river and you’ll eventually end up on Highway 70 and turn right on A23 and head south back to Sattley. This is a 50 mile loop if you start from Sattley– mostly downhill into Graeagle, with a hill on A15 to get you to Portola. Road A23 is very flat but it has two drawbacks: (1) the southern half has some pretty big expansion joints – if you have a stiff bike you won’t like these, and (2) A23 can get pretty windy – the winds are generally worse in the afternoons, and the prevailing wind direction is south to north. On the plus side, A23 is a blast with tailwind, it gets very little traffic due to its remote location, and you get a lot of attention from the ranch cows. You can avoid the southernmost 4 miles of A23 by cutting over to 89 at Calpine.

Sierra Valley – Antelope Lake:  this ride is REMOTE, repeat REMOTE – a great ride if you hate sharing the road with cars. It’s about a 45 mile roundtrip from the Clover Valley to Antelope Lake – you can extend the ride if you want by riding around Antelope Lake. This ride is all within the Plumas National Forest, so there are no services, no people, and very little traffic, even during weekends! The ride starts north of Beckwourth in the Clover Valley (to get there, drive to Beckwourth which is about 20 miles north of Sierraville, and take Road 177 north from Beckwourth – 177 starts off as a paved road, turns into a dirt road and just when you’re starting to wonder it turns into a paved road again in the Clover Valley -- you’ll drive for several miles across the valley over some rough pavement expansion joints – park by the bridge or further up if you don’t like the expansion joints). Bike on Road 177 north and follow signs towards Antelope Lake. The terrain is rolling with some good hills, including a big downhill into Antelope Lake. During the summer, there’s a campground at Antelope where you can get water (don’t count on the campground being open if you go in the spring or in the fall – if the campground is closed, the water will be shut off – take it from personal experience). On this ride, there are also a fair number of cattle guards you have to cross, but they’re pretty manageable once you get used to biking over them. Carry extra water, food, and tools for this ride!

Gold Lakes Loop: a tough ride with lots of hills, and majestic scenery of the Sierra Buttes. The loop has 3 segments: Sattley to Graeagle on Highway 89, Graeagle to Bassetts on the Gold Lakes Road, and Bassetts to Sattley on Highway 49. We like to do the loop counterclockwise starting in Graeagle (that way the ride finishes off with a nice long downhill) and will describe it in that direction. (1) Starting just south of Graeagle (elev. 4400), head up Gold Lakes Rd. towards Bassetts (elev. 5400) – the high point on the climb is 6700 ft. so you start off with the biggest climb of the loop; on the downhill you’ll be rewarded with stunning views of the Sierra Buttes to your right. (2) From Bassetts, take Highway 49 to Sattley (elev. 4950) – you’ll go over Yuba Pass (elev. 6700). (3) Just before Sattley, turn north on Highway 89 – you’ll do a 700 ft. climb here before a long beautiful downhill back to your starting point.  The total climbing for this loop is somewhere around 4500 ft. over approx 40 miles.

Notable Road Biking Events:

1. Indian Valley Century: Greenville CA, typically in late May. This ride offers Metric and Mile century options – the metric century is fast and flat. The 100 mile century adds on a 1500 ft. climb to Antelope Lake. This ride gets great reviews for a lot of Tahoe local riders – the Indian Valley is a great area for road biking.
   www.indianvalley.net.
   

2. Tour de Manure: Sierraville, CA, in mid June.
   Also known as the Sierra Valley Metric Century, this ride offers 30 and 62 mile options, with a loop around the Sierra Valley, starting in Sierraville (about 30 miles north of Truckee), with lunch, a party, and music at the end at the end. This ride is a fundraiser for Sierraville Volunteer Fire and Rescue, so proceeds go to a good cause. The route for this ride is pretty flat, with only a few gradual climbs.
   http://sierravillefireandrescue.com/biketour.html
   

3. America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride:
   This is a very popular organized 72-mile tour around Lake Tahoe that occurs in early June. It sells out several months in advance so register early The same organizers host the Tour de Tahoe in early September.
   http://www.bikethewest.com/AMBBR.html.

4. Summer Solstice Century: Quincy, CA in mid to late June
   This organized ride has many distance options: 30 miles, 50 miles, 100 Km, 150 Km, and 200 Km. Routes offer significant climbing options, ranging from 2500 ft. in the 30K to 13,400 vertical feet of climbing in the 200K. We’ve heard great reviews about this event and it looks like a good one for riders who like the hills!
   http://www.summersolsticecentury.org/index.html.

5. The Death Ride: Markleeville, CA typically around early July.
   Riders come from all over for this landmark biking event which offers over 15,000 feet of climbing over 129 miles. Riders must apply and be selected.
   http://www.deathride.com/index.html.
   

6. Tour de Tahoe: a 72-mile tour around Lake Tahoe; starts at the Horizon Casino, Stateline NV (south shore), typically scheduled for early September.
   http://www.bikethewest.com/tourdetahoe.html.

7. Tahoe Sierra Century: Squaw Valley CA in mid to late September each year.. All proceeds from this ride go to the music programs of the North Tahoe schools. Three distance/elevation options, (all routes are in the north shore area): 30 mile novice, 60 miles with 2500 ft. of climbing, 100 miles with 6800 ft. of climbing.
   www.tahoesierracentury.com

 

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