I visited Truckee this weekend and got two rides in on the e-stay fatbike. It’s only 1.5 hours max there from my house, i need to get up there more often. With around 1/3rd the snowpack of average, it’s been a bad year to ski. But I attempted to go classic skiing at Royal Gorge. Worse conditions I’ve ever seen. It was full-on spring with gorges in the middle of runs, crusty frozen slush from the previous day’s afternoon melt, tracks for classic were obliterated, dirt showing…ugly. They wouldn’t even let me fatbike since it was a holiday weekend and i guess they’re afraid i’d run over the kids and tourists. Who knows. Total FAIL.
I headed down the road to the end of Soda Springs road where it turns to dirt and where it starts its drop into The Cedars and eventually to Foresthill many many miles later. Still scoping this route to ride someday but we’ll be needing a bit more snow. The first two miles were packed by snowshoers, skiers, and snowmobilers. The second 2-3 miles to Onion Creek Campground were a mix of dirt road and slushy snow that accumulated on my sweet streamline e-stay platform. To be fair it accumulated even on round and vertical surfaces. I turned around at Onion Creek not wanting to ride any more of that.
The next day I got up early and rode the “Fiberboard Freeway” from Brockway Summit on Hwy 267 to Watson Lake and beyond. It was a cruising 3-hour out and back on the groomed snowmobile tour route. The views from this ride were pretty amazing, on one side at the start of the ride you were looking over the lake and a bit later on the other side of the road you see the upper reaches of Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley. So many side routes to check out, including riding to Tahoe City, I’ll need to come back later.
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