Courtenay Brown

I am sore, tired, and happy. Today I headed up the mountain on my cyclocross bike, my first ride on it since the 2006 cross season! I went up Tunnel Creek Road and then the Flume Trail (part of the Xterra Nationals bike route actually) to Marlette Lake and Spooner Lake. It was so awesome! I cannot believe I have been in Tahoe for 10 months now and I’ve been riding on the roads the whole time - the trails are *so* much better!! Great views, great variety of terrain, and no cars. And it was just so beautiful and so so fun!

It was a bit of an ambitious ride for me, for one thing my bike is not quite as forgiving as a mountain bike, but more significantly, there were, like, CLIFFS. I don’t do cliffs, dropoffs, heights, etc., but when I set out on this ride it somehow didn’t occur to me that there would be CLIFFS, I naively expected fire roads in one of the country’s most famous mountain-biking spots?? Silly me! So I walked my bike along the Flume trail for a good mile, and while I do love the bike, I stayed on the side with the rocks and let it take the edge. But, once I passed the “landslide zone”, the trail tucked in to the trees and I hopped back in the saddle (cyclocross style, of course) and the fun resumed.

I’d like to go back and do this ride a lot more times, I think that each time I face down my fear of heights, I will get better and better at it. Maybe by the time the snows come I will be able to ride the whole Flume Trail, including the CLIFF! Also, I will freely admit that despite the various humbling moments, the ride did stoke my ego a little bit. No one else out there was on a cyclocross bike and I got more than a few “whoa, cool!”s. It made up for the part where I felt like a dumb lame little scaredy-cat as I shuffled along the trail on foot, reminding myself out loud that I am not a quitter.

Any ‘crossers out there who want to do this ride with me sometime, just let me know. Oh and please give me a 20 minute head start .