Hello all, so I drove down from Ashland Oregon yesterday to South Lake Tahoe for a few days. (And a little more cycling/mtb'ing). Below is a shot of Lake Tahoe from the Van Sickle trail
The ride was just over 10 miles and 1,700+ feet of climbing. The elevation of Lake Tahoe is 6200 ft and the Van Sickle trail that I was on was around the 7400+ ft level. (A little low oxygen)
GPS data is from a Garmin Vivoactive HR uploaded to Strava
On the way to the trail, I passed the casinos that is right over the boarder to Nevada. The only betting game that I like is poker, but none for me on this trip.
I though that the bike rental sign was interesting... can't miss it up there.
At the start, the trail is smooth single track, but it does not last too long.
Getting closer to the top, the climbs are 10%+ with rock obstacles in the way. Some of them way too large to get up, especially when your on a steep climb. I took this photo with the Galaxy S8 as level as I could get it to show the incline of the trail.
Some really nice views of Lake Tahoe, the terrain is much more rugged than Ashland Oregon.
Going on the downhill on Van Sickle takes a bit of skill as there are a lot of large, medium sized rocks to roll over and drop down off of. The trail is also on the side of the mountain, so going over the edge may be an issue depending upon where it is. Some places are worse than others and since there is a lot of rocks, landing on one of them would hurt a LOT...
There is a lot of cycling available in Lake Tahoe, both road and all type of mountain biking. Easy to full on enduro with big drops and hucks (If you have the skill)
Even if you do not bike, Tahoe is a great place to just relax and enjoy the scenery!