day 5: Truckee to Sparks NV

65 miles

It was freezing this morning - low 30s. Time to break out the winter riding pants, jacket, long fingered gloves, shoe booties and complain a tad.

But it was beautiful and the light was white and the air was clear and pure. We headed south towards Lake Tahoe and got on a great bike trail that followed the Truckee river. I've ridden this route several times before with TNT, but we had to share the trail with a few thousand other cyclists and try not to run over each other. This time it was empty. The river is so clear you can see the fish. Their was mist rising off the river, and it was beautiful.

On the way out of Truckee I met a guy named Butch cruising along on his bike with a trailer, a rear rack and 2 front paniers. He estimated it weighed about 60 or 70 pounds. So apparently he biked the exact same route yesterday we did - same climbing - with and extra 70 pounds. Pretty amazing ... No support, nothing. Rode with him a bit. He was going on to Carson City. Just to keep things in perspective ...

I think Lake Tahoe is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Blue water and mountains and trees ... We biked around the north end to Incline Village and then headed north hover Rose Mountain. Hit a bakery in Kings Beach before we started the climb and. Had doughnut the size of my head (yum). The lake is high - at 6200 feet. The top of the summit is 8900 feet. It was an 8+ mile climb ... We climbed up through the forest to sub-alpine thinning trees and finally to alpine meadows and snow fields. It was freezing up there and even got a few snow flakes. This was one of the few rides where the descent was longer than the climb. 16 + miles of descent and ended up outside of Reno at around 4500 feet.

It was amazing how the landscape changed on the other side - the desert came immediately. Bare sand, sage brush ... It looks a lot like Eastern Washington. Reno and Sparks are like one big strip mall with casinos.

This was a great day - lots of poking around and picture taking. Tomorrow will be completely different - desert and highway.