Rochester Active Sports Club

Lake Tahoe (in my opinion) is one of the prettiest places in America.  I’ve always wanted to do a bike ride around Lake Tahoe but was, quite frankly, afraid to do because of the high volume of vehicle traffic, the lack of bicycle lanes, and steel guardrails along the edge of the road with no margin of room to get off the road if needed.

Last fall I discovered that there is an organized group ride around the lake scheduled the first weekend in June and again in September.  It’s billed as “America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride (AMBBR) and I agree that it certainly is.  See: http://www.bikethewest.com/ for more details.

There are several different distance options: 35 mile, 72 mile, and 100 mile.  My younger son and I rode the 72 mile, and my older son and his wife rode the 100 mile route as a fund raiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS).  Of the 3300 participants, about 1300 were raising funds for the LLS.  Just for this event alone, they raised 6 million dollars!  In the ~20 years that LLS has been in existence, through events such as this they have raised a total of about 1 billion dollars.  They have a program called Team in Training for people who are interested in events for the LLS.  The teams have a coach who assists them in achieving their goal for participating in the various LLS event(s).  See: http://www.teamintraining.org/

The ride itself is simply a great experience.  It’s pretty much flat for about the first 10 miles, and then you come to the first of two significant climbs.  There were some riders who couldn’t handle the climb and needed to walk up, but, nevertheless, I give them credit for being out there trying.  Then the second significant climb was about 10 miles from the finish.  In the second climb, we started at lake level of 6275 feet elevation and climbed to Spooner Junction at 7044 feet.  Fortunately, there was a water stop about half way up to give me a break from the grind.  In between these two climbs, it’s relatively flat with a few rollers.  Total ascent for the 72 miles around the lake was about 2860 feet.  Even for a geezer like me, I wouldn’t say that it was a very difficult ride.  I truly enjoyed it and would encourage others to do the ride.

This ride is not a race and my son and I stopped frequently to look at the scenery and take pictures.  We drove a total of 3750 miles to Lake Tahoe and back home again to ride 72 miles, but it was well worth it.  Included are just a few pictures.

Dave Greymont