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Suddenly: It’s Winter In Tahoe, and Mountain Biking Must Yield To Skiing

…at least for a while. Scroll down for some beautiful pictures.

Thursday

Aspens near Spooner Summit

Descending Freel Pass

Tahoe Rim Trail overlooking the Carson Valley

Saturday


By this point we could see the big incoming blobs on the radar, swirling in from the Pacific.

More Tahoe riding

Golden Tahoe sunset with fall colors

Today


We might get another long warm spell, but the high alpine is likely to be skiing terrain until spring. Photo is from lake level.

Winter begins

(Credit: all photos of me by my friend Jeff.)

Mountain Biking In Jeans

Having finally finished my errands in early evening, I drove a couple miles to a local trailhead in order to squeeze in a mountain bike ride before the sun set. Upon arrival, I unloaded my gear…bicycle, helmet, gloves, pack with water and toolkit, shoes, riding clothes…

…riding clothes?

Oops.

Ordinarily I don’t care much about what I wear when I ride. My usual gear is a hockey practice jersey and whatever shorts are clean that day. But I had arrived at the trailhead in jeans and a collared shirt, and there wasn’t time to drive home and back and still get a ride in before dark.

So I stripped off the shirt and belt, rolled up my pant legs, saddled up, and started pedaling. And you know what?

Riding in jeans is a bit sweaty, but after perhaps ten minutes that doesn’t matter. What matters is that I am on a trail in the mountains, riding my bicycle. I hear the birds call and the insects drone and the rushing of the creek, I see the lupines and the mule’s ears and the phlox and the hundreds of other flowers I don’t even know the names of, and I stop to watch the sun set over the lake. Then I begin my descent, flowing like water over the rocks and through the trees, quietly rolling downhill into the shadows of another cool, crisp summer evening…

…and though my jeans and I both need a wash, I’m far happier than the version of me who grumbled in disgust and headed home to surf the Internet or read a book about other people doing things.

Live in freedom, live in beauty.

JS