Around Lake Tahoe

To cycle around Lake Tahoe is often called “America’s most beautiful bike ride”. The naked figures are: 117 km, 1350 hm climbing at 2000 m above sea level. I arrived from Reno in Kings Beach and started my ride at a little park with a sculpture showing exactly what I needed to negotiate today.  

On the outline, carved out in this Granite, of the lake Kings Beach would be placed exactly at the northern end, where there is the “little” indent into the lake. As I said above, the naked figure of the ride were clear, however the clear view to the southern lake shores some 40 km away, in the line of sight, gave me some mixed feelings.

This is a pretty big lake and that far away shore would only be the “turning” point of the ride as I would need to get back from there too. Furthermore riding around lakes has the nasty habit, that there are no short cuts, also it would be different than riding in Switzerland. Back home, if I get really tried, the next train or bus stop is at max. 5 minutes away and will bring me home without a further stroke of the pedals. Well not quite so here.

So off I go with a first banana under my belt in clockwise direction to ride on the track closer to the lake for the views and these are truly fantastic. 

South Lake Tahoe City, which is right on the border between California and Nevada, is like Reno dominated by some Casinos, although not as many. The ride around the lake is really divers, there are straight sections on the lake shore, climbs and descents and also rides through red wood forests.

Passed South Lake Tahoe City, I stopped for a little break and to eat something. From here on, there is a very beautiful bike train, which is on many stretches detached from the highway. The next highlight is the Emerald Bay and the Cascade Lake. 

On the last 30 km I started to feel the fatigue, where the level stretches were o.k., but the climbs now did really hurt, however after 4h 20’ riding time the loop was done. I had expected to see more cyclist on the tour and also hoped to find some companions, with whom to team up. However, on the whole ride I only saw 3 other road bike riders, all going in the opposite direction. So, I had to tackle the head winds, which were really heavy especially on the second half of the ride, by myself. 

Finally the big question, is it the most beautiful ride in America. I do not know, but certainly I can understand perfectly well why it could be considered as such.    

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