GLORIOUS

Lake Tahoe, Emerald Bay

DATE:  Thurs, Oct. 13, 2011
HOME: Markleeville, Ca.   Creekside Lodge
DISTANCE: 46 miles
ALTITUDE: 3500 ft
WEATHER: Wonderful.  36 degrees @ start, high 70’s by afternoon.

NARRATIVE: 
There aren’t enough superlatives to describe today’s ride.  We left Meeks’s Bay riding towards South Lake Tahoe, but rode around Meeks’s Bay and Emerald Bay.  Stunningly beautiful – the early morning light with the classic Sierra mountaintops as the backdrop – what can I say – we love the Sierras, and they were at their best today.  We both easily put Emerald Bay as our most spectacular place on our ride.  Little traffic and few tourists also helped:)

Even South Lake Tahoe, an area I usually disdain, is cleaning up its act.  Of course, Bob’s mission was to get some new trousers.  Right at the intersection of 50 and 89 was an Outdoor Clothes Outlet.  Perfect, except that anything with a pants leg length of 34 comes with waist sizes of 38+, but he did find one pair of pants that fit his lanky body fine.  Then it was across the street to Starbucks for a caffeine fix so we could tackle 89 once again.

Much to our surprise, there is now a bicycle trail that begins right at the corner and went all the way to where 50/89 split.  We went on 89 up Luther Pass.  Most of the traffic left us, but we actually got to climb Luther Pass and descend it ALL ON OUR OWN WITH NO TRAFFIC!!
They’re doing construction and ferrying the cars up in stages to the top.  They let us go ahead, and said for us to stop only when they came with a group of cars.  Since we were going uphill these breaks were let us catch our breath.  The rest of the time we rolled up the hill in the middle of the road on wonderful pavement.  They’re doing a wonderful job on repaving the road, complete with an ADEQUATE SHOULDER and cubs.  We even saw spots where they’re finishing up with native plant landscaping!  The really fun part, though, was the ride down – without having to worry about other cars, we sailed down in the middle of the lane – right into lunch at Sorensen’s, my favorite Sierra Resort, where it was warm enough sit on the deck.
Our good fortune didn’t end there.  Our hotel in Markleeville, Creekside Lodge, is wonderful little motel with a good restaurant.  Only downside is there is no cell phone service or internet, but we signed up for a day with the Markleeville internet service.

The weather is supposed to keep warming up over the next few days so we should be in for some good riding weather – since we head over Tioga Pass on Sunday this is really good news.