Olympian....

Fourth Saturday we decided to put the two Cannondales on the bike rack and drive up to Tahoe City to ride the bike path along the Truckee River into Squaw Valley.  The last time we did this ride was at least 7 years ago when we were staying at Meeks Bay Resort.  There is a bike path that begins about 1 mile north of Meeks Bay and runs all the way into Tahoe City.  Since there is a lot of construction in progress along the entire route to Tahoe City we opted to drive into Tahoe City, park, and then pick up the bike path there.

Normally the drive to north shore takes about 40-45 minutes, but this day it took almost an hour and twenty minutes due to all the construction, and traffic at 10:45 in the morning.  As we were approaching Tahoe City we opted to pull into the Transit Center to use their parking lot, instead of fighting the mind numbing traffic in town.  The bike path runs right through the Transit Center, so it was a perfect alternative to downtown parking.

We were on our bikes and pedaling along the Truckee River by a little after Noon.  The trail along the river is mostly in the shade, and on this day the ride was quite pleasant.

As would be expected, the river was jammed full of rafters, and the picture above is just one small section near the the top of the river.....it looked like this all the way to River Ranch.

As we rode along I was reminded of the first time we took this raft ride with my father, Art, back in 1976.  It's hard to believe that it has been 38 years since that first raft ride down to River Ranch.  It almost felt like I was in a time warp.

The total riding distance from the Transit Center to the back of Squaw Valley, the home of the 1960 Winter Olympics, is only 8 miles, and in no time we found ourselves at the entrance to the valley.

As we rolled along the road to the head of the valley I was pointing out homes to TLE my family had rented back in the 60's and 70's when we used to frequent the area.  We found a Starbucks in the Village and each got a frappuccino before retracing our steps back to Tahoe City.  

By the time we reached Fanny Bridge it was 2 pm, and we were both getting hungry so we stopped in at the Bridgetender Restaurant for a couple of brews, and some onion rings.

The drive home at 3 pm only took an hour, but was still slow due to the ongoing construction.....we were hoping they would quit at 3 pm, but they were still going strong.

Around 6 I turned on the BBQ to grill a filet mignon, while TLE baked some potatoes, and cooked up some broccoli.  We sat outside watching the sun set, and just enjoying being at SLT.

Thanks for stopping by!