Day 62: South Lake Tahoe, CA to Lee Vining, CA

• Distance: 46.49 mi
• Elevation: 2,162 ft
• Dedication: Uncle Tim and Aunt Therese
• Ride group: Eli, Bethany, and Julia
• Host: Community Presbyterian Church

Today we had our first reroute due to natural hazards, as one of the roads we were supposed to ride on was closed from a mudslide. The route was also extremely difficult (120 miles, 10,000 feet of climbing) so we instead planned to ride around Lake Tahoe and shuttle to the host.

Even that proved to be a challenge because we had one of the few rainy summer days in Lake Tahoe. Rabbi Evon said he had never seen a rainy day like today in the summer in his 11 years living there! It wasn’t thundering, though, so after a really emotional dedication circle for me we geared up as best as we could and headed out to circle the lake.

Before leaving, we had a good laugh and small clean up because a bear got into the run van! It was left unlocked and a bear very respectfully got in, ate a pack of Oreos, several granola bars, most of Jane’s gluten free snack stash, and two jars of peanut butter before leaving and closing the door.

We had a light but steady rain from 7 AM to 4 PM which makes for pretty miserable riding conditions. Less than a mile in I had puddles of water in my shoes; by our first water stop at mile 13 we were soaked through and covered in dirt from head to toe. The ride was still unbelievably beautiful; rainy Tahoe is beautiful in its own way. Our first few miles included a climb up to Emerald Bay State Park, which brought us high above the lake. From there we descended down for a while until we were back to being level with the lake.

Most of the route was on a gorgeous bike trail that followed the lake and cut through some even more gorgeous neighborhoods. We were all dreaming about how nice it would be to live there! My group was a bit ahead of the other groups so before our second water stop we stopped for coffee and snacks at a cute market outside of Tahoe City. I felt a little bad going inside when we were dripping wet and covered in dirt but no one seemed to mind. I’m usually an iced coffee girl but a hot drink was necessary today!

When we reached the second water stop the rain was starting to let up but team morale wasn’t great. We were moving very, very slowly and had covered less than half of the route by noon. Everyone was wet, dirty, and cold, and many people wanted to rack so that they could shower at the rec center before it closed and avoid a two-hour drive to Lee Vining in wet cycling clothes. I wanted to ride a little bit more so I pushed on with Maggie and Eli. Eli quickly got a flat and decided to wait in town for a van; Maggie and I continued until we reached the California-Nevada border and then turned back around to get picked up with Eli. We didn’t have a state sign when we first crossed into California so it was nice to get some pictures today!

We took showers at the recreation center in South Lake Tahoe and then returned to the synagogue to eat, pack, and clean up. We were very lucky that they were willing to let us leave bags there and treat it as a base for another day! That also saved our host van drivers from driving 4+ hours to Lee Vining just to drop bags before returning to rack the team but did mean that we had a tight ride to the host. We put as many people and bags in the runner’s van as we could, but still had about 20 bags, 8 people, 2 coolers, 6 bike wheels, and many other miscellaneous items in the host van. It was a fun ride though! The route was absolutely beautiful and there was a stunning sunset. I was both happy and sad that we didn’t bike that way– it was beautiful but steep! At one point we were climbing for what felt like forever, getting so high that my ears popped. It is crazy how much elevation we’ve encountered well outside of what I expected to be the most challenging regions of the trip.

After arriving at our host in Lee Vining we almost immediately got back in a van and drove to the local Mobil station for… dinner? The gas station has a weirdly nice restaurant with really delicious food, which Bryce had heard about from a relative who lived in the area. It was very expensive but lived up to the hype– I will never have such good fish tacos (or hopefully any fish tacos) from a gas station again!

Until tomorrow,

Lauren