Afternoon ride to Star Lake for the night.

Finally got away from work this weekend. Well not really, I ended up working on Sat morning for a few hours more than I wanted to but dammit if I was working Sunday for the another straight week.
The bike was still loaded up from my failed attempt of riding over at the coast a couple of weeks ago. I was hoping I had the right stuff packed for a Sierra overnighter as I didn't have time to go through the bike again, I just threw it on the back of the truck and hauled ass up to Tahoe Meadows ( Mount Rose).

Managed to get on the bike right about 2 pm, not optimal, but better than staying home. My plan was to head over to Star Lake for the evening and then return the next morning/afternoon. I'm sure if I'd thought about it I would have guessed the mileage.  I was in no hurry, I had lights, and if it took me all day to get there it was O.K, at least I wasn't working.

The ride over to Spooner was just as it always is, a bit drier than the last time I was here a month or so ago, it really is Sept. conditions up there right now, kinda scary.

Looking into Washoe Valley

Sand Harbor masses.

Spooner Lake

I made it to Spooner lake in pretty good time, I figured I had about 4-1/2 hours to make it to Star Lake if I wanted to set up camp in the daylight, probably a bit optimistic, but doable.

I've never really cared for the climb to the bench from Spooner Summit. I'm not sure why, it's not terribly difficult, but I dislike even when I've started out fresh from the trailhead, yet alone coming over from Mount Rose. It wasn't bad, I made the 6 mile climb in under an hour, not record setting by any means, but I didn't hate it at least. I was surprised to see a couple of dual sport motorcycle guys doing a broad daylight/weekend poach of the TRT, pretty ballsy. They were pretty cool with the throttles though, if I hadn't seen them I probably wouldn't have known they had passed through.

Looking West from the bench.

Looking at South Shore.

I'll be camped just below that far peak in the center tonight, about 25 miles as the crow flies.

Now the descent towards Kingsbury is one of my favorites, it makes the slog up to the bench so worth it. I usually clean the whole thing, even loaded, that's why the crash was so unexpected...........
 I wasn't feeling great, just an overall fatigue that's been chasing me for months had me walking some of the more difficult drops. I was just coming into the Kingsbury trailhead when my front tire slid out and sent me highside off the trail, probably a 10' drop. I scraped myself up pretty good, put a deep bruise into my right thigh and broke the right side of my helmet, not good.

 In hindsight it could have been much worse, I landed in a pretty sandy spot and slid into a rock pile, it could have been the other way around.... It scared me a bit. After I did a checklist of all the extremities and drug myself back up to the trail, I sat there for a minute contemplating what "could" have happened.

I landed on the other side of the rocks in the lower right corner of the picture, the trail is built up about 8' here...

I "borrowed" a car mirror in the parking lot to check my face out, not much damage to my already scary face so I was off on my way to Star Lake again.A quick stop at the Summit Store for an ice cream and some water and I was on my way.

I've always loved the Kingsbury section of the TRT, it was my first introduction to the trail way back in the day on our tandem with a huge group of friends. It's a tough haul, but the views are amazing and if you're on your game, a real challenge. I was not on my game today... That's alright, the destination was the goal, not how fast or pretty I got there.

Those jagged peaks make some great shadows on the Carson Valley.

Getting closer, camp is just below the snow field to the left

I was starting to chase daylight a bit but finally rolled into Star Lake around 8:30. There were a couple of others souls on the far side of the lake but I had my side all to myself. It was a bit windy so I crammed myself into a little protected spot out of the wind right at lake level, I could have had a nice huge spot up away from the lake a bit, but I was pretty happy to sit and watch the Lake Trout jump out of the water for a couple of hours.

Yes, I wedged myself right in there...

The view from my bed.

Evening or perhaps moon light on Jobs Sister.

The same view the next morning

I had a pretty decent night. I didn't sleep great because of my fall earlier in the day, it seemed that every time I moved it would wake me up.
 Morning came pretty quickly and I was greeted to geese on the lake right next to me, noisy little guys they were but enjoyable none the less. After a nice breakfast and a walk around the lake to try and loosen up my very sore leg I was off for Mount Rose.

I've always enjoyed riding from camp in the mornings, it's just a nice way to start the day and this mornings views of the lake and the Carson Vallley just added to that joy. I made my way to Heavenly pretty quickly as it's mostly downhill. I decided to head over the the North trailhead on the new section of the TRT that bypasses North Benjamin and the condos of Heavenly Ski Resort. It was a nice section of trail, although the climb back up to the junction with the TRT proper was bit steep and loose in places.

I made my way back to Spooner summit and discovered that my Lefty had migrated it's bearing pretty heavily and I had lost at least an inch and a half of travel and was riding a bike with an 80 degree head angle.

Damn fork, I thought I had this fixed....

I had wanted to head up to Marlette and do the Chimney beach trail but that seemed like a really bad idea with a non functioning fork. It was an odd day( closed to bikes) on the TRT section out to Mount Rose anyways so I headed down the HWY towards Incline Village. It was pretty uneventful, although there were about 6 sheriffs cars blocking traffic at Sand Harbor with some dude in cuffs on the side of the road, bad day for him...

 I made my way to Incline Village for some lunch before I headed up to Tahoe Meadows. Lunch was great at this little hole in the wall spot that looked like it just opened. It was starting to get a little warm as I made my way out of Incline Village, I think the temp at the lake was mid eighties today. That's not bad until you add in the elevation and the fact that there was a tailwind equal to or less then whatever speed I was traveling at. The combo made for complete dead air around me that felt like I was in a sauna.

I'd never been up the old Mount Rose Hwy that had resorted to dirt from lack of use so I decided today was a good day to check it out. It started off well enough, but soon turned into a sufferfest as the heat cranked up along with the grade. Man it was hot up there, all I could think about was laying in the creek in the meadows! The hell that is Old Mount Rose Hwy soon ended and I made my way back to the truck on the pavement with a stop to cool my head off in the creek.

And up we go...

Doesn't get much more exposed...

Only about 95 miles and 15,000' of climbing total, did it in about 11 hours at a fairly leisurely pace. I'm working too much to really do this kind of stuff, luckily I have some residual fitness from my AZTR training!

All in all a great weekend even with the big off, made for a loooong day at work today!