Thread: Tahoe stoke: Rose to Toad's Challenge

Challenge: ride from Mt. Rose Meadows all the way to Mr. Toad's ("Saxon Creek") in one day.

It's about 61 miles, 11,000 feet of climbing, lots of technical, rocky climbs and deep sand, endless hike-a-bikes, and a rough but fun 3,000 vertical descent to finish. Just the final 28 mile segment, from Heavenly ski resort to Toad's, is called "The Punisher".

It took me 11 hours, most of which was spent on the bike, and most of which was solo -- except at breaks, when some of us caught up to each other.

There wasn't a lot of time to take pictures, but I managed a few.

Sun rising over the Carson Valley:


Sun rising over Lake Tahoe, viewed from the Flume Trail:


Marlette Lake:


Carson Valley again, viewed from the high traverse out of Killebrew Canyon, which is also the TRT:

Atop Freel Pass. Getting up here from the Nevada base of Heavenly is an asskicker. Two people bailed on this stretch.


The top of the TRT above Armstrong Pass, just before it heads down to Freel Meadow and Toad's.


6:45 PM, the Oneidas parking lot.


Here's the motionbased GPS track of one of the other three finishers. He actually turned around at the top of the TRT and went down Armstrong, but the end result is about the same:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6878714

I know that couldn't have been 'fun'


But nice work on the effort. That's fuggin gnarly. I've ridden rose to kingsbury and from the bottom of toads, up kingsbury and then the 'punisher' thing. I can't imagine doing this and liking it. Hard to not be elated with anyting that finishes on toads though

And way cooler than some stupid 100mile dirt road on a singlespeed

nice.

all those sections are big favorites of mine, but i've not done it all at once. yet.

what bike were you on? and did your curtlo 29er get built yet?

VERY impressive, J.

That is a big ride and I can't imagine how sandy some of the sections are right now.

edit to add: i thought rose to kingsbury to chinese DH was tough on the vpfree. So, I guess I don't like sufferfests, but nice work.

For perspective, i picked up shoelaces at the bottom of high meadow after he bailed on an attempt at the same ride. (in his defense he lost a water bottle with his electrolyte drink and sorta bonked is the way he tells it.)

Looks killer!

Screw that. Maniac.

Nice Job Spats!

Solid work Spats (aka el caballo?) Awesome job. That has been on my list for awhile now, haven't been able to giver her a go yet. Next year!

awesome work, Spats.

did you ride it on your recumbent?

Wow, that's burly. Good job, especially this late in the year with shorter daylight but I guess that balances out with cooler temps. Burger Lounge for post ride feast?

Originally Posted by lph

For perspective, i picked up shoelaces at the bottom of high meadow after he bailed on an attempt at the same ride. (in his defense he lost a water bottle with his electrolyte drink and sorta bonked is the way he tells it.)

and I was on a singlespeed i am still forever grateful for running into you at the bottom and driving me to my car!

nice work Spats! Way to knock that one out! i'll have to get back up there someday and redeem myself on it. Would still like to SS the facker. Did you do this ride with that MTBR crew that was riding it?

woo: it would actually have been a lot more fun if we had started on time. It was kind of a rush to finish before dark, so I didn't get to loaf around and enjoy being in the High Sierra nearly as much as I'd like. But it was still a great experience.

frorider: no, Doug has followed the path of all custom framebuilders and dropped out of sight for months with no communication (doesn't answer phones or email) and my deposit. I figured going with someone that had been building frames for 15+ years might be proof against that. Apparently not.

lph: I pushed up several sections of Freel I'd ridden previously due to sand. Really it's best to do this ride earlier in the year because of that and more daylight...start at 6:30 AM on a day it doesn't get dark until 8:30 PM, and loaf around a lot more on the way.

ja_surf: I wasn't feeling strong after Spooner to Kingsbury, but the Mini Mart did me a world of good. I've never drank 48 ounces of Gatorade at once before. Besides, if you make it all the way to Armstrong, what's another 700-800 vert up to Freel Meadow? The real bailouts are just before the fire road down into Mott, or at Star Lake.

powpig: the afternoon clouds helped a lot, as it was getting hot around 1PM. I wanted Burger Lounge but everyone else wanted pizza...we went someplace just past the ag station, which was actually very good.

Shoe: Yes, I did it with the MTBR crew, but we were all on slightly different paces and rarely rode together, usually catching up at short rest breaks. After Kingsbury people started dropping out and it was every man for himself.

Thanks for the support, everybody. It was a huge day for me.

Spats,

Bummer about your frame. I thought one of the founders of Curtlo (who is no longer with the cmpany) posts on this forum. Maybe he can give you some direction as to what is going on (inexcusable).

Those sunrise pics are stellar. Nice work hammering through a brutal ride.

Nice job finishing that one off in 11 hours = fast.
Tyrone - gotta think you would have finished it off if you didn't have to do Marlette Peak 2 x.

Rontele: astoundingly enough, Doug got back to me today. My frame is currently being built and goes to paint next week, so my wrath is temporarily postponed.



If anyone else (besides ja_surf, who's already done it, likely much faster than I have) wants to attempt this ride, here's my advice:

1) Do it early in the season when there's more light and before everything gets all sandy.
2) Start as early as you possibly can. It's a lot easier to ride Rose Meadows in the dark when you're fresh than Toad's in the dark when you're whipped. You're on a huge ridge, so the sun lights up Rose Meadows well before sunrise. And if you don't start early, you'll run into crowds of people coming at you on the Flume Trail.
3) Bring a water filter, or at least 100 oz., out of Kingsbury.
4) Best bailouts are just before the fire road descent into Mott Canyon (just turn around and go back to Stagecoach) or at Star Lake. Once you roar down that fire road you've got some asskicking hike-a-bikes up to Star Lake.
5) It's easy to miss the TRT where it cuts to the right off of that fire road. If you end up at the bottom of the Mott lift you missed it.
6) Don't be insane like Shoe and try it on an SS

Spats,
What day did you do this ride? We did the same trails (along with some others) last weekend but over 2 days. On the way home we were planning a trip to do the same ride you did. So, thanks for the beta and good job.

We were trying out a POV camera my friend won in a race. I'll have to check the footage to see if we crossed paths (there were a lot of people out on Sunday). The POV stuff is pretty cool but it scrubs about 10 mph off the speed and washes out drops under 3 ft. In fact, my friend crashed while wearing it. The crash was hard enough to snap his bars but looking at the footage, it looks like he fell over from a track stand or something.

nice ride

I did the "punisher" section as a training ride for the d-ville classic. Most every one else I was riding with didn't make it all the way to Toad's. And they did the Death Ride last year. Nothing like balsting down Toad's in the dusk trying to figure out if the large black thing just off the trail is a bear... or just a stump. good times!