Our trip began at 4:45am on Saturday. I had a rental car and picked up my friend Michelle in San Mateo. From there, we headed out to Sacramento to meet up with our companions, Keith and Braden. Keith welcomed us with a pancake breakfast at his house. We unloaded my rental car and packed all four bikes, four people, and gear into one car. By around 8:45am, we were on our way up to Braden’s cabin, in Stateline, Nevada.

We drove to Spooner Lake State Park, where the trails all begin. My bike had been stored in the trunk and not on the rear rack because it was the smallest and the rack only held three bikes. Well, someone put something too heavy on my bike and as I was putting my rear wheel on, discovered that my derailleur hanger was completely bent. Luckily, there is a bike shop on site and they were able to bend it back for me. I will still have to replace it, but it at least made my bike ridable for the trip!

To get to the actual Flume Trail, riders have to do a 5 mile climb up a sandy fire road. At about 7000’ elevation, it’s a lot harder than it sounds. There is actually a shuttle that will take you up to the start of the trail, but we are hardcore and rode (and hiked) our way to the top.

After that climb, you take a tiny descent down to Marlette Lake, where the Flume Trail begins. You start with a lovely jaunt around the lake’s edge. The next thing you know, you turn a corner and you feel like you are on the edge of the word.

At about 8000’ elevation, you are on the trail on the edge of the mountain. The trail is probably about 5 feet wide. To your left, are huge drops. You feel like you are looking at Lake Tahoe from an airplane. The people look like ants. Boats are nothing but a wake in the huge body of water.

This is at the very beginning of the trail, right after that bitch of a climb.

This was taken from the edge of the trail.

This is me on the edge of the trail. That drop behind me pretty much goes straight down.

And one more. Braden took this as he was perched in a tree!

One last one from the Flume.

The actual trail was pretty easy. Some people get squimish with the heights, but it didn’t bother me.

At the end of the Flume, we decided to take the Rim Trail back to the bottom, rather than just turning around. I can say now that I do not recommend the Rim Trail. The first few miles were completely uphill on sandy switchbacks that made really long portions of the trail completely unrideable. We all felt like chumps when we had to walk our bikes through the crappy parts. We pretty much walked/biked up the entire face of that mountain until we reached the summit. Finally, we hit the vista point to see Marlette Lake and Lake Tahoe. This breathtaking view pretty much made that miserable part worth it.

After that point, we took some nice, windy singletrack down. But we decided that even if we had started from the other direction, it still would have been a rough ride with too much climbing. It took us so long to do the Rim Trail, that I started to get concerned that it was going to get dark and we would be stuck out there! Once the sun goes over those mountains, it gets so dark.

Finally, we hit that fireroad that had been so painful on the way up. It certain felt nice to bomb down that huge descent! We made it back to our car just around 7:15 or so. It was a total of 24 miles. I always get bummed when I hear the amount of miles that I do for mountain biking. It seems so minute compared to how many miles I can do on the road in that amount of time.

We got back to the cabin and cleaned up. We all were completely covered in dust and dirt. After that, we hit up Harrah’s to gamble a bit. I had a couple of drinks and played some slots. I lost 5 bucks. We were so tired from the day, that we were all back home and asleep by midnight.

The following morning, we packed up, had breakfast and headed home. All in all, it was a fantastic trip. I didn’t fall once, I learned that the Rim Trail is not for me, and I saw some of the greatest views I have ever seen in my life.