Circumnavigating Tahoe, by bike, then cycling back to the Sacramento. Public transportation between Berkeley and Sacramento.
Introduction
Embarking on a bicycle journey around Lake Tahoe and back to Sacramento is more than just a test of physical endurance—it's an immersive exploration of California's diverse landscapes, rich geological history, and complex ecosystems. This travelogue recounts a four-day adventure that combined public transportation and cycling, offering a unique perspective on the Sierra Nevada region.
From the crystal-clear waters of Lake Tahoe to the sun-baked hills of Gold Country, this trip traverses a wide range of terrains and climates. It's a journey through time as well as space, passing through areas shaped by volcanic activity millions of years ago and more recent human interventions. Along the way, we'll encounter wildlife, geological wonders, and traces of human history both ancient and modern.
Join me as we pedal through some of California's most stunning scenery, exploring the intersection of nature, history, and human endurance.
The first few sections of this article cover the cut-and-dry logistics and routing of the trip.
I have provided a fairly detailed text version of the logistics of the trip for those of you who want more context. I have included images from the different routing applications that will give a good idea of the routes (but not the scale). If you're interested only in the experiential, you may want to skip to the section called "Summary and Practicalities" which summarizes the trip logistics and sets up the more interesting stuff.
Logistics:
From Berkeley to Tahoe
Starting at the Berkeley Amtrak station at 7:45am, I took the Capitol Corridor train to Sacramento and transferred to the El Dorado County Sacramento/South Lake Tahoe Connector Bus. This cost $66, or about the same amount as driving. The bus dropped me off in South Lake Tahoe Wye transportation center. This trip was fast, supremely comfortable and fun. Amtrak kept me supplied with coffee at a good price. El Dorado Transit connector bus was unbelievably comfortable and fast. The drivers were kind and helpful. I met a nice Israeli guy, Ronan, who lives in a Moshav near Jordan. We spoke for some time. I found the conversation to be very rewarding. I sat on the right side of the bus which provided me with impressive views. If people new how nice this bus is, Highway 50 would have 50% traffic. I arrived at the Wye at 12.30pm, right on time.
Day One Cycling Around Lake Tahoe
Once at the South Tahoe Wye, I decided to cycle the long way around to our AirBnB in Zephyr cove. The direct rout would only be about 12 miles and slightly uphill. The long way, west around the like would be about 63 miles long. I was here for adventure, after all.
I used Google Maps to find the route to circumnavigate the lake. I started cycling around 2pm west and north along Highway 89. About 1/3 of the distance along Highway 89, up to about Emerald Bay, cyclists can take popular well-maintained bike trails. Off trail, drivers are fairly kind to cyclists despite the narrowness of the road and their fast speed. At around 7pm I decided to call it quits and camped in the Desolation Wilderness on Forest Route 14N42 about 1 mile east of the highway.
Day Two Around Lake Tahoe
The next morning I continued around the lake following Highway 89, then Highway 28 east. From just north of Meeks Bay to Tahoma, Placer county provides some hard-to-follow trails that are quite nice in places. These trails cross the two-lane highway often, switching from the western/northern side of the road to the southern/eastern side.
All crossings are "marked" in some way -but not in a way that inspires confidence. Some crossings have a beg button, other times they don't. Drivers are clearly loathe to stop and often you have to wait and watch dozens of cars zoom by.This is true even when you've pushed the beg button and lights are flashing. The trails are popular with local joggers, dog walkers, older saunterers and young people on e-bikes as well mountain bikers who seem to use them to get places. The Placer county trails end at the Nevada border. Having crossed the border, the first thing I noticed is that the roads in Nevada are MUCH better than the California ones. I was happy to see that a few miles into the gambling state, at Incline Village, Nevada provides good bike paths. Starting at the east side of Incline village the bike trail becomes world-class and, not surprisingly, is crowded. This wonderful trail ends at Sand Harbor.
Riding along highway 28 is not pleasant. The views are nice, and the drivers give you room but the sound of tires and engines are terrible. Worse, the shoulders are parked up with the cars of beach goers, hikers and (somewhat ironically) mountain bikers. Looking at the map, I realized that my route was circuitous since it followed the modern Highway 28 alignment suggesting there must be older roads or a forest road I could take.
I used Pointz Mobility to find a new route in order to avoid spending more time on the highway. This is a new navigation app for cyclists. South of Sand Harbor, and up a significant hill, I took a right onto the Skunk Harbor Trail. A forest road forks off this trail. This forest road, often used by cyclists, takes you down the mountainside to the west side of North Canyon Creek. This part of the ride was so very nice. I saw lots of great birds and wildflowers.
The trail ends at Glenbrook. A sign warns cyclists and hikers to turn around and that Glenbrook is a "private community". Not relishing the idea of cycling up a sandy forest road on my heavily laden touring bike, I pressed on into Glenbrook. Google has done this to me, and I was sad that Pointz got me in this trouble.
Turns out that Glenbrook is one of the oldest "exclusive" communities in the Tahoe basin, dating to the mid 1800's. I cycled through, worried I'd get harassed by angry residents, but everyone was friendly. At the end of the route and halfway up a steep, 6% grade, I pulled over to speak with a private security guard who was sitting in his vehicle. He was nice and said the exit is right up ahead.
The rest of the route to the Wye was along Highway 28, which included traversing a short tunnel - always a source of great worry for cyclists. I arrived at our AirBnB rental around 3pm and took a well-deserved shower.
The next two days were filled with social stuff. If you're interested in cycling around Lake Tahoe, take a look at this map produced by the Tahoe Bicycle Coalition. While it doesn't have routing capabilities, it's better than any maps available on any app I know of. https://map.tahoebike.org/
Day Three: Tahoe to Carson Pass
A couple of days later, I began my return to Sacramento. This time, I used Ride With GPS to do the routing. This app is meant for touring cyclists and has been in development for more than a decade. I started at our rental home, in Zephyr Cove Nevada. I rode along highway 28 until I was able to pick up a lovely bike path at Round Hill Village. This section of highway 28 is 5 lanes wide and has wide shoulder. The bike path is quite good, borders the lake and other scenic areas but it eventually ends where the casinos begin. From there I had to wend my way behind the casinos and motels near the state border.
Parking is a nightmare in the Tahoe basin yet the authorities have only barely begun to recognize the great demand for walking paths and public transportation.
Once back in California territory, or south of Stateline Avenue, there's a series of poorly maintained and disjointed bike trails and sidewalks. These are actually very popular and used by locals and tourists alike. I saw many people from every walk of life using them.
I took the disjointed trails to their end just south of the South Lake Tahoe Wye. I followed Highway 50 for a few miles to Meyers where I picked up the Meyers bike trail. This trail too is very nice. It follows quiet-er road, making this trail especially pleasant. At the end of this trail I took Highway 89 to South Upper Truckee Road which led me to the Luther Campground. This road has almost no traffic so it was very pleasant.
The climb was challenging, but fun and I had a chance to really take in the nature. Past the campground I rejoined Highway 89 for a few miles up to the pass. I took a rest at the pass. Then I rode downhill, pausing to check out things here and there. This road is not very trafficked and has wide shoulders. I came to the junction with 88 and took it north towards Kit Carson Pass. This turned out to be the least pleasant part of the ride, at least when it comes to dealing with cars. The road has nearly no hard shoulder and the gravel off the road is soft -deadly to vehicles with narrow tires that balance on two wheels. The road up to the pass becomes increasingly difficult, until, of course, you reach the pass. Oh dear Lord that was a challenge and a half. I camped just a few miles below the pass on a forest road used by off-roaders. This is near the Wood Creek Trailhead.
Day Four: Kit Carson Pass to Sacramento Valley Train Station
The next morning I continued down Highway 88, crossing two more low passes, much less painful than Kit Carson Pass. A few miles west of Maiden's Grave, I took the Mormon Emigrant Trail. After one last little hill on Emigrant, I lost elevation fast - there were occasional bunny hills to climb but they presented no real obstacle. On one downhill run, I reached 41 MPH! Emigrant trail had almost no vehicular traffic. I took the opportunity to pause a lot and observe the geology, plants and birds.
At Jenkins Lake I turned onto Sly Park Road. This well-trafficked road climbs up the ridge and then descends via switchbacks to the El Dorado Ditch and Highway 50. Drivers here were kind of polite and the road shoulder is wide. Ride With GPS guided me onto suburban streets at the top of the ridge which kept me off Sly Park Road for much of the descent.
At Pollock Pines, I followed Ridgeway Drive, then crossing under Highway 50 continued down the Pony Express trail to the town of Camino, where I continued down Carson Road. At some point near Smith Flat, you can get on the El Dorado Trail. This trail follows the right of way of the Southern Pacific Railroad branch constructed between Shingle Springs and Placerville. The trail is nice, well maintained and like so many bike/multi-use trails it is very popular.
At town of El Dorado, I left the El Dorado Trail and followed a series of high-speed, country roads, the longest of which was Mother Lode Dr. At Cameron Park, I began to travel northwards and on roads with wide shoulders and painted bike lanes. While the high-speed and large volume of the over-sized vehicles that traverse these roads was less-than-pleasant, the wide shoulders and general courtesy shown by the drivers made this section tolerable.
Just before turning north to Folsom Reservoir, I had the chance to ride on a few miles of the original Lincoln Highway which was narrower than much of the El Dorado trail. Eventually I came to Folsom Lake, where I was able to take the American River Bike Trail all the way to Sacramento. Here I had a headwind the whole way which nearly canceled out the benefit of following the river downstream.
Summary and Practicalities
On the difficulty of the trip
I rode about 16.4 miles the first day, 48 miles the second, 40 miles the third, and 127 miles the fourth and final day. Started cycling late on days 1 and 3 since the first day included a train and bus ride starting in Berkeley, and the third day I hung back to spend time with friends in Zephyr Cove. The third day was difficult given the altitude gain and I stopped riding early, around 5pm. The last day became painful about 87 miles in, 40 miles from the end. My pinky toes hurt a lot, likely due to my cycling technique, inappropriate shoes. About 30 miles to the end my back began to hurt and I ran out of water in 100° weather. Rushing to catch the train, I pushed myself simultaneously proving that I am still young and too old for this. If I were to do this trip again, I’d add one day and leave earlier on the third day.
Equipment
My equipment included my Surly LHT with Schwalbe Mondial tires, a full repair kit and pump, Son Dynamo and Edelux II headlight and off-brand tail light. The bike has Surly Racks, and Ortlieb Panniers. The gearing has an 11-36 tooth cassette with a 24 tooth lower chainring at the front. This gives me 20.2 gear inches at my lowest gear. Gear inches is a way to measure the torque a specific combination of gears gets you. This arrangement makes even the steepest hills surmountable. I travel with 4 Ortlieb Panniers for my clothes, a sleeping bag, a mosquito net, food, clothes, a couple of books, a backpack with hydration bladder, some paracord for incidentals and hanging my food in trees as well as a few other accouterments. I always travel with my binoculars, a hand lens, and a bird guide. All of my equipment and the bike weight something less than 100 pounds. I weight about 195 pounds. This trip I brought a 20,000 milliamp-hour battery which kept my phone battery charged for 3 days in a row.
The purpose of the trip
There were four distinct purposes to this trip.
The prime motivator -- the reason why I chose Tahoe in particular, was because my fiancée's friend's boyfriend organized a secret engagement party. As usual, I wanted to take public transportation to get there. It's more comfortable that way. There was a 12 mile span between the last bus station and our lodging in Nevada. That would have been a cinch to traverse on nearly flat ground in a part of the two states known for their high levels of bike uses. But I had bigger ideas. This was a golden opportunity to check out a new route for my Backyard Wilderness Eco Tours that we are developing as part of Smolways and BikeIncubator, LLC. A truly ecologically-minded outdoor recreation tour would eschew low-occupancy motor vehicles. I can't think of a more ecologically sound way to explore California than by combining trains, buses and bikes. The third goal of the trip was to compare Pointz Mobility, RIde with GPS and Google Maps head-to-head. More on that in a different article.
Philosophical and personal reasons
People take bike trips for different reasons. Perhaps the most salient reason amongst those who choose to travel long distances by bike -- especially in mountainous terrain -- is the desire for physical challenge. Consider that the drive from Sacramento to Tahoe, when there's no traffic, is less than 3 hours (there's always traffic because people all have free time at the same times). By bus, the same trip takes just over 3 hours, plus travel time from your final destination and the El Dorado Transit bus station. To do the same trip bike uphill would take 3 days and at least 15 hours downhill. This is to say that neither "speed" nor "convenience" are motivators for choosing the bike as the long-distance logistics vehicle.
Indeed, cycling back from Tahoe took two days. My friends made it to Sacramento traffic in 4.5 hours. Two days were almost not enough to make it from Tahoe to Sacramento in time to catch the last train to the SF Bay. I made it back to the Sacramento Valley Train Station in time to catch the last train of the day -but just barely. I had to push myself very hard to make it in time. This experience showed me in stark relief the different ways I use bikes and what I gain from said use.
Bike touring is about making life challenging, city biking is about making life easier.
Crossing Kit Carson pass, and pushing the last 40 miles was painful to Sacramento. Very painful at times. Touring on a bike is nothing like a short ride to the grocery store. That's easy, fun, and fast. Riding long distances is challenging.
By contrast, I go on long bike tours because it makes sleeping on a bed more comfortable; it makes showers more refreshing and food tastes better. The comfort of our wealthy American life is an insidious drug. I like to take tolerance breaks with all the toxic drugs I consume. Thought another way, a life without pain is a life without pleasure. This is likely why so many people go to the gym, or climb mountains, or do so many of the things in life that they find meaningful.
Bike touring is about slowing down, City biking is about speeding up
On those occasions when I must drive in the city, or worse, when I'm forced by social circumstances to get in a car, I just feel ridiculous. The stop and go nature of traffic, the waiting at lights etc. just kills me. I cycle because for most of my errands, it's faster. When its slower, say for trips longer than about 3 miles, I'm almost always moving, so it feels faster. It's always cheaper and I'm always doing some exercise, even when I use the e-bike.
Bike touring is slow. Dreadfully slow. Because it is slow, you get to see so much more than in a car or train or bus. That's the best part. Bike touring trips are truly about the journey and not the destination. While in theory the personal vehicle affords one the chance to stop as often as one pleases, our modern high-speed car infrastructure discourages stopping. Even on a bike, there's little incentive to stop and smell the roses when finally you're flying down the road 41 miles an hour, as I experienced first hand during sections of this trip.
A further reason why drivers rarely stop to take in the scenery or check out some roadside attractions is that it's dangerous to slow suddenly and often there's nowhere to pull over. With a bike, you can always find a place to stop, and its never hard to do so since you're rarely moving that fast. In some cases, you HAVE to stop to take a break such as on very steep hills or when you're tired and thirsty.
Slow Travel is Meaningful TraveL
Now we get to the part where I try to share with you what I enjoyed about this trip. Certainly, the exercise is rewarding. Then there's the sense of accomplishment. Only a small fraction of the population is interested and willing do what I did, though many have done far more impressive things. For example, waiting for the bus in Sacramento, I met one guy who had cycled the same route UPHILL in three days. Now that's impressive. Imagine three days of constant, uphill pedaling at 3-6 MPH. I barely can.
All that flies and photosynthesizes
Beyond the physical and the prideful, the greatest reward was the interaction with the world. I've been an avid birdwatcher since I was 18, almost precisely 21 years now. I saw and, just as importantly heard, many species of birds I rarely see. Clark's Nutcrackers, White-headed Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Sandhill Cranes (with chicks!) and one of my absolute favorites, the Common Nighthawk. I didn't keep a good list on this trip, but I saw about 40 species of living birds. In the last few years I have finally developed some decent basic knowledge of plants and plant identification. On this trip, I felt the gratifying feeling of recognizing plant families, even genera. No longer was I awash in a see of pretty flowers, but here and there were variations on a theme -known characters adapted to a sierran way of life.
Geology
In preparation for this trip I read a few books on California Geology. I knew this trip would be a bike trip through geologic time and I wanted to make the most of it. Cycling Tahoe, I no longer just saw pretty mountains covered with trees, but rather I saw 200 million years of history. Situated in space and time, I imagined molten lava pushing the earth, cooling to granite with basal inclusions, two separate mountain building events one before mammals walked the earth and another at the dawn of our modern geological era. I imagined the wholesale destruction of the forests at the hands of Western Pioneers looking for new opportunities in the Comstock Lode.
Standing on on the ridge of Emerald Bay catching my breath, I imagined the giant glacier that descended from the hills west into the frozen lake, then, when it melted left the piles of rubble on either side -one of which I was standing on. Staring at Thunder mountain, I better understood the text described how after millennia of calm, magma began intruding into the ancient granite rocks, evetually making its way to the surface as lava flows and volcanoes. The peak of Thunder Mountain is clearly not gently rounded granite, but sharp, brittle basalt.
There was one area of my geological bike trip I looked forward to the most. The red soils that cover so much of the gold country are the remnants - I am told - of the land that existed before the Sierra Nevadas were tilted up 30 million years ago. Prior to that time, in a time we call the Paleocene, California was a wet, tropical land covered in forests. The land was inhabited, perhaps for the first time, by recognizable ancestors of familiar modern birds, mammals (as well as odd-looking, now-extinct mammals, reptiles and birds).
The soils are red because the prolific rains that gave rise to the lush, nearly world-wide forests of the Eocene (an era of the greater Paleocene Epoch), also leached the soil of organic matter. The diluvial rains washed away all soluble material leaving behind iron oxides and other heavy matter. Effectively the surface soils of today are the improvished soils of ancient, lowland rainforests that once covered California. Cycling along the Mormon Emigrant trail, my mind jumped between the burned present and the lush, but alien, Eocene.
Starting about 30 million years ago cataclysmic volcanic activity changed everything and covered much of this land in basalt and ash and then lifted the lowlands turning them into high mountains. I too saw the basalt lava flows and the ash piles -and I stopped easily at many to touch them, to collect samples.
From that time on, the same geologic forces that leveled the Nimitz Freeway in 1989 worked to tilt the land, leaving a shear edge on east, and a long grade facing west. The land rose and new drainage valleys - creeks, streams and rivers cut west again from the newly created Sierra Nevadas. Much to the detriment of the pre-European inhabitants of these lands - human and non-human alike - the ancient rivers and streams of the lush Paleocene had concentrated gold from the even more ancient mountain building and volcanic events.
It didn't take long for industrial man to realize that it was the deeper ancient riverbeds that were "auriferous." Industrial Western Man quickly realized he'd have to dig. The American River Bike Trail cuts through miles and miles of the apocalyptic furrows and mounds left by 19th and 20th century placer mining dredges that literally overturned the American River floodplain in search for the heavy stardust. The Roadside Geology of Northern and Central California tell you that you can see these furrows from highway 50, but these pass in the blink of an eye at 60mph.
From the American River Bike trail, just west of Folsom you can see how the river has cut through the new and ancient soils thus revealing nearly 100 million years of geologic history.
Road Ecology
Another element of cycle touring that I enjoy will have less mass appeal. Cars bring about a lot of death. Not just at the sites where we pump oil, or make the cars, but all along the roads they travel. Road ecology is a 30 year-old academic line of research that has recently experienced a renaissance. Not all creatures are equally impacted by the roads, many suffer, some will likely go extinct and yet a few thrive along roads. Cycling is the best way to take in many details and specifics of the life and death along roads, while also covering great ground. As discussed before, the cars can't stop often enough - bikes can.
Certain sections of the road were clearly deadlier than others. The section of Highway 89 between Luther Pass and Highway 88 was littered with the carcasses of birds and rodents. Curiously, Hymenopterans and Lepidopterans, technical words for the families of bees and butterflies, were frequent casualties along this section of the road. I collected a lot of these insects for further study at home. Surprisingly, I saw several dead Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. I suspect these birds do a low, swooping flight when crossing roads, making them easy targets for cars and trucks.
Other sections of the route were particularly deadly, one being the Mormon Emigrant Trail. What is surprising about this is that both of these roads are comparatively low-volume roads. Highway 88 between Carson Pass and Maiden's Grave was littered with dead butterflies. I moved a deer off the road just east of Kit Carson Pass and someone shouted "thank you" as they passed me at 60 miles an hour. This section of the road has no shoulder and the deer was partly in the road. If someone wasn't going to get killed avoiding the soon-to-bloat carcass, certainly a scavenger would have.
If you're really interested in conservation, then you may want to read Ben Goldfarb's Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, or Traffication: How Cars Destroy Nature and What We Can Do About It by Paul Donald.
Conclusion
This bike tour around Lake Tahoe and back to Sacramento was much more than just a physical journey. It was an exploration of geography, geology, ecology, and human history. The experience offered a unique perspective on the landscape, allowing for intimate observations of both natural beauty and human impact that would be impossible from a car or bus.
While challenging and at times painful, the journey offered rewards that far outweighed the difficulties. It served as a reminder of the importance of slowing down and truly experiencing our surroundings. The ability to stop and examine a flower, collect a fallen insect, or simply pause to take in a breathtaking view is a luxury often lost in our fast-paced world.
Ultimately, this journey around Lake Tahoe and back to Sacramento was a testament to the enduring appeal of bicycle touring. It's a mode of travel that challenges the body, engages the mind, and nourishes (perhaps challenges) the soul.
As our world grapples with environmental challenges and an increasingly disconnected society, perhaps there's something to be learned from the simple act of exploring our world on two wheels. It reminds us of our place in the natural world, the impact of our actions, and the incredible diversity and beauty that surrounds us if we only take the time to look.
Comments