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@larsenroad
Cali pt1.
Landed in Oakland, got our rental and made our way to South Lake Tahoe. We camped at campground in the town and found a lbs for some advice on where to go. Star Lake was apparently the place to go. We were told to expect 3 hrs of riding to get there, which seemed odd because it only looked like 10k on the map. Anyway, we got warned about bears and getting permits and stuff, which was all very new to us. Did some preparation and was ready in the afternoon.
We got going and quickly realised why the ride there was going to take a while. The first half, was a pretty straight gravel road, but averaging 10-12%. Quite rough on a loaded bike – and of course, I never got my 11-42 cassette in time, so I was stuck with 38-36. Needless to say, there was some pushing. Once done with the gravel section, a single-track appeared. We continued to climb, but the trail was amazing. Much fun even when going up. We had to make a quite a few photo stops and ended up spending 2,5 hours up, with like 1,5 in moving time.
Star Lake appeared and was pretty magical. Wild terrain and at 9000ft. I'm not gonna tell the whole story about that night, but it involves a creepy guitar player that didn't respond to us, fear of bears, a quick sunset ride and very little sleep.
The next morning we had our eggs and bacon before heading down. The descend was simply stunning. I had the most fun I've had on a bike in a long time. Bikes performed perfectly fully loaded on the single-track, really finding their purpose.
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