These are the voyagers of the SX4 crossover…

Never mind, wrong intro.

Anywho, I’m finally getting around to the last part of our epic summer road trip around california. It’s been a little over a week since we got back, but so it goes.

We rolled into reno on thursday evening and set up our base camp at Japhyrider’s place. He graciously let us use his guest room and assist him in drinking his beer. He even played tour guide for us for a couple days as well. You can’t beat a gig like that.

And he greeted us with venison bugers. I’m tellin’ ya, this is livin.

We ended up riding friday and saturday up around lake tahoe. Friday found us on the rim trail on the north end of the lake where we proceeded to enjoy the views. Other than some small technical details Japhy was having with his ‘jersey’ which involved a modification with a knife, it was an amazing run on the rim trail.

We then hopped off the rim trail and did a rippin descent to an area down near Northstar. We saw a guy at the top on a full-squish with all the gear and didn’t see him again on the ride, it was pretty sweet. Unfortunately, one of the really cool looking sections greeted us with our first big snow hike-a-bike of the ride (there were a couple little patches before, but not a lot).

Had to do a little sketchy downclimbing. I think I need to put some cleats on my shoes.

We hit the bottom part of another downhill trail after a bit of messing around on some really cool loops at the bottom of the descent and then climbed the road back up from northstar to the car. I packed in a few more miles while Japhy rolled the truck down to a lake about 6 miles further down the rim trail and then we packed it in and headed back to his place.

After some showers, we headed downtown to Silver Peak Brewery for some beers and food. After dinner and a bit of walking around, I have to say: I’m surprised.

You hear so much about Reno and the gambling and all that crap, but the downtown (at least the area we were in) was pretty damn cool. Outdoor amphitheater, whitewater park, several breweries/pubs, and a really nice urban trail system running through it all.

Not at all what I would have expected, and it makes me see why it could appeal to a lot of outdoorsy folks (especially with tahoe right there). Very cool indeed.

After a bit of a night on the town on friday, we woke up and dropped off his daughter Harper at a friend’s place in Incline Village, and headed to the rim trail yet again. This time we climbed up quite the grade to where it met the rim trail, and then proceeded to follow it through what amounted to numerous snowbanks.

There are sections up there that are definitely not going to thaw out by next year. Maybe the rim trail itself will thaw, but some of the slopes around it still have 20+ foot snowdrifts on them.

The view at the top was totally worth it, and the rippin descent didn’t hurt either.

We ended up returning on the Flume trail, which is a nice flat trail which has some of the most phenomenal views of the lake I’ve ever seen. You have to make sure not to get too distracted though, because it’s quite the dropoff to the lake.

The ride ended up taking a bit of time, but it was worth every minute (~4 hours for 22 miles, wowzers).

That night, we spent our last night in reno checking out Great Basin Brewing company and then calling it an early night to start the drive back on sunday.

It was a long day of driving (11.5 hours, ugh), but worth it. In the end, we spent the night in 4 different cities, biked a couple hundred miles, drank a plethora of delicious beers, and drove 2300 miles.

Solid trip, fo sho.

Thanks to everyone who loaned us a bed for a couple nights, and to everyone for the suggestions on places to check out. We tried to take as many of them as possible, and it made for a most excellent adventure.