Ride of the week: The Flume Trail
June 25, 2009 by admin
Filed under Extreme Tahoe
FLUME TRAIL
Difficulty: moderate
Distance: The Flume Trail itself is only 4.5 miles. Combine it with other rides to get more mileage.
Elevation gain (or drop): about 1200 feet.
This is perhaps the most scenic of all the scenic mountain biking trails in Tahoe. Imagine riding for miles on a narrow ledge atop a bluff hundreds of feet above the shore of Lake Tahoe, with a steep drop-off below the only thing stopping you from simply staring out at the incredible view. That’s the Flume Trail. There are different ways to ride the Flume. The most popular is probably to start at Spooner Lake, ride the five miles up the dirt road to Marlette Lake and then pick up the Flume Trail for the 4.5 mile ride to Tunnel Creek and down to the Tahoe Shore and Highway 28 near Incline Village. From there you can catch a shuttle bus back to Spooner Lake. Another, more challenging ride is to start at Mt. Rose and (on even-numbered days) ride the Tahoe Rim Trail about 16 miles to Marlette Lake, and then pick up the Flume. We did this in October and the fall colors at Marlette Lake, which is surrounded by Aspen, were awesome. We highly recommend it.
The Flume is such a popular trail that it even has its own commercial website, which actually has a ton of helpful information if you have never done the ride before. Find www.theflumetrail.com here.
NOTE: Want to do this ride but looking for mates? Jeff Moser and the folks from Bike Carson are planning a group ride on the Flume for Saturday, June 27. See their blog here for more info.
This 5-minute video captures the Flume well, but it was shot on a hazy day and does not do justice to the Lake views. Best shots of the lake come about 3:20 into the video.
