Bones to Blue 2026 - Lake Tahoe

 

Bones to Blue is an impressive 250-mile figure-eight loop starting and ending in Truckee, California, featuring some 90% single track and over 30,000 feet of elevation gain. After meeting Kyle Quinn in Salida, CO during my trip out for Vapor Trail, I saw him do this race and was quick to inquire. His positive descriptions and post-race considerations of relocating to the area had me all in for exploring the route myself!

After an uneventful flight into Reno and late night drive in to Truckee (save for Rasch waiting on me in the airport and stuffing his bike bag into my tiny Hyundai rental and making me drive him to a nearby hotel because he thought his delayed flight was going to render him unable to get into his hotel in Truckee), I arrived at my hostel-style "hotel" room with communal bathrooms and living spaces for some much needed rest. The bike and bike bag had to stay in the common area because the room was only big enough for me, my carry-on, and the bed.

The next day, after some much needed coffee and breakfast, I got to work assembling the bike outside on the sidewalk, where I had the most room. I was next door to a bike shop who kindly used their compressor to inflate the tires for me. The mechanic took a long, puzzled look at my rear tire, a Maxxis Aspen, and made a comment about how that might not be enough. I just laughed and said "ehhh it will be fine". Later, I headed out for a quick ride on some trails just outside of town where I proceeded explode said rear tire and used 6 plugs to limp back in to town and sheepishly present it to the mechanic for a new Maxxis Rekon replacement. Oh well, better then than on race day, I suppose.

Later that evening, Rasch and I attended the riders meeting at Pizza on the Hill, where we met plenty of racers and Forest Baker and his partner, Anne Kallus, who have put on and kept this grass roots race what it is over the years. What amazing humans they are!

Back in my tiny room, later that evening, I tackled the final preparations and logistical challenges of having only things in my room that would leave with me in the morning for the race and the rest placed into my rental car which would have to be moved to a long term parking area that evening. Ughh!!

The next morning, as I was ready to leave my room for the start, which was only a couple of blocks away, I realized I'd left one of my three bottles in the car, which was about a 10 minute ride, uphill, in the opposite direction. I sprinted to the car then to the start line with about 12 minutes to spare.

After some group photos and wise words from Forest, we set off at 6am into the cool, crisp 42 degree air for days full of trails and stoke. My ride plan was straight forward: I had a motel booked near mile 85 and an airbnb around mile 165, giving me about 85'ish miles/day for 3 days. Coming from the southeast, not at altitude, I had decided I should "take it easy" and just ride this, not race it. You know, take the time to soak it all in. The ultimate goal was to not ride in the dark and ultimately see the entire route in the daylight.

The counter-clockwise loop north out of Truckee was 55 miles back into Truckee and navigated a series of stunning trails and a few gravel roads. It took us along the East Perimeter Trail, through the Alder Creek area, the Donner Lake Rim Trail, past Summit Lake, and onto the infamous Hole in the Ground Trail, where we'd climb up towards Andesite Peak then bomb down into the canyon where there was a long section of rocky, technical trail surrounded by Giant Sequoias and Sugar Pines littering the ground with their massive 12-inch pine cones. 

Unfortunately, as I started the big descent in the middle of HITG Trail, my tailfin bag came off the rack two times in a row. I was super worried because nearly everything I brought with me was in that bag and if wouldn't stay secured to my bike, my race would have been over. I re-mounted the bag to its rack and re-routed one of the straps and, luckily, never had another issue out of it.

At mile 33, I reached a small general store/deli in Soda Springs where I stopped to refill liquids and grab a deli sandwich and hazy IPA. You know, since I wasn't racing and was taking it easy. I met Graham, a 60 year old bad-ass from the UK there. He and I yo-yo'd and rode together a bit over the next few hours.

We ascended towards Roten Peak and then enjoyed a ripping descent through a ski resort, leading us to the Donner Pass train tunnels, which are an abandoned network of railroad tunnels that were part of the first Transcontinental Railroad. They operated for 125 years and weren't decommissioned until 1993. It was really cool and much longer than I expected. I would guess that we were in the tunnels for 8-10 minutes; lights required!

The northern loop ended up being 55 miles and around 9,000' of elevation gain and took about 8 hours, significantly longer than I had anticipated! I was definitely feeling a bit of fatigue from such a demanding, physical loop!

After a quick resupply in Truckee, I set out with other racers for the Blue Loop, a roughly 200-mile clockwise journey around Lake Tahoe.

Leaving Truckee, I had about a 16 mile stair-step type climb up to Watson Lake. I traversed and climbed the Sawtooth, Western States, and OTB trails, ultimately ending up on the Tahoe Rim Trail. That starbucks double shot and 20oz ginger ale from the gas station had me feeling mighty fine and I was ripping through the twisty/turny and technical bits of trail, having a blast! And it was here, on the climb towards Watson Lake, that I got my first, long-awaited view of Lake Tahoe. Much excite!

Around mile 70, after a really long and sweet single track climb, I reached Watson lake where I paused briefly for a snack and, of course, pictures. I had almost 11,000' feet of climbing in the legs so far.

After Watson Lake, I had about 15 miles until I exited to the route to my motel. It was a series of 1-2 mile single track climbs and descents, slowly wearing me down. I was losing steam quickly and dreaming of real food. I stopped to enjoy a pack of blueberry donuts and then put my head down and got to mile 85 where I descended nearly 2 miles to the King's Beach area where I'd snuggle up at Stevenson's Holliday Inn, only the finest of accommodations for me and my bike. That's right, two L's.

Unfortunately, in the sleepy town of King's Beach, most food options were closed before 8pm. However, the trusty ole subway was open and afforded me the opportunity to down a foot long before getting some much needed ZZZs.

The next morning, a quick resupply, and breakfast, at the convenience store across the street and I was rolling up the 2 mile climb back to the route by about 7:15am. A bit more single track climbing and a sick canyon descent took me into Incline Village where I ran into Ian, Brian, and a couple of other guys grabbing some resupply.

Leaving out of Incline Village, I was on a rare extended section of pavement, climbing through upscale neighborhoods for about 5 miles, leading me to the Incline Flume Trail. And sometimes, when it's least expected, opportunities just present themselves in various ways.

On the climb to the Flume Trail, once pavement turned to dirt and dirt turned to single track, I stopped to remove most of my warm layers. I laid my glasses on the ground next to the bike, did all the things, tucked clothing away, redressed, and carried on...without my glasses, I'd later realize. 

So, once I was up to the Incline Flume Trail, I was finally on the iconic trail that traverses part of the eastern side of Lake Tahoe, giving frequent panoramic views of the scenic expansive azure lake below. It sits at 7600' and is relatively flat and non-technical over the 6.5 miles that it spans. It then turns in to Marlette Flume Trail before passing by Marlette Lake. It was very similar to the Incline Flume Trail but with a few more technical bits and more exposure.

As I passed Marlette Lake, I ran into Ian. He pulled some sunnies off his face and said, are these yours? Someone else had found them and he assumed, because of my pink wind jacket, that they were probably mine. So he took them and gave them back to me when we saw each other. What a guy! And not the last I'd see of him.

Next, after passing Marlette Lake, I found a big 1,000' descent down a dirt road to Spooner Lake, where I'd top of my water at the water fountain and then start a 6 mile, 1600' foot single track climb on the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT).

This section of TRT was so freaking fun, I can't put it in to words. Smooth, twisty, flowy but with so many small sections of fun rock tech sprinkled in. And it dropped me right in below Kingsbury and Heavenly ski area, where I'd resupply at a store and grab some real food at the Fox & Hound restaurant next door to gear up for the big push to the high point of the race.

I started the long, arduous yet scenic climb up towards Freel Peak at 9800' around 4:20pm. I think the flatter, easier Flume and Tahoe Rim Trails had given a false sense that all the miles were going to be a bit quicker on day 2. I had spent a lot of time faffing around, taking pictures and what not. In my mind, it would be a 12 mile climb and then a ripping descent into Myers where my Airbnb was located. In reality, not the case. 

After so much scenic single track overlooking Carson City to the east and Lake Tahoe to the west, passing Star Lake and completing a moderate amount of hike-a-bike, I arrived at Freel Pass about 3 hours later, ready for that elusive ripping descent in to town.

Once at the pass, temps were starting to drop, along with my energy levels. I put on my wind jacket and dropped over the pass for that much anticipated gnarly descent! There was a lot of exposure and high-risk rock moves on the way down. I told myself to walk the questionable stuff as this was not a place you want to take risks and get hurt because of fatiuge. And then I proceeded to ride all of the questionable sections, throwing all caution to the wind. YOLO! (Can we still say that??) And then, after only 5-10 minutes of descending, the Wahoo let out those 3 iconic crescendo beeps...climb! Another 2 mile climb, in the middle of my long descent. And after that? Another! The sun was started to disappear along with my morale. I started getting grumpy and griping out loud until I finally had a pep talk with myself. "You're lucky to be here. You're lucky to be healthy enough to be here. This is what you came for, adventure, and that's what you're getting. You could be getting up tomorrow morning and going to work but you're not." And then the smiles and fun returned!

The sun was fading and it was rather dark under the canopy cover. I finally turned my bar light on and ripped the bumpy single track all the way down to the road where I assumed I'd be turning on pavement and coasting in to town. Wrong. Straight across the street into some hike-a-bike rock garden, through Big Meadow where the beaming moon lit my way, and finally on to something called Christmas Valley Trail. Spoiler alert, there was nothing Christmas-y about it. It followed a river down the canyon and was basically a creek bed with some added dirt. Don't get me wrong...I love some rocky single track, but after 15 hours, I may have had another pep talk or two with myself.

I rolled into Myers, just south of South Lake Tahoe, at mile 165, around 11pm, 16 hours after beginning my day. And that was only 85ish miles. The short version of my Myers fiasco is...I thought all convenience stores were closed. All food establishments were definitely closed. I was sitting in front of the door to a gas station, door dashing chocolate milk to my airbnb, when someone opened the door and asked if I needed something. It was actually open but looked closed. My phone died with the airbnb door code in it, so I had to sit in the gas station to charge my phone, while the employee was tapping his foot and looking at me, because it was, in fact, time for him to close the store. He gave me my 3 chocolate milks and giant water in a brown paper sack which I had to hold like a choke-hold with my left arm and pedal to my airbnb, which ended up being likely an extra 400' of climbing up the side of a ridge. I arrived pretty beat down, showered, drank a couple of choccy milks, and crashed hard.

The next morning, I slept in a little and got out of there by 7:30am or so. I backtracked on the route to Freel Perk Cafe, where I ran into Ian again. He had slept somewhere before Christmas Valley Trail and knocked it out early that morning. We both enjoyed some company while we ate, drank coffee, and shared stories from the trail. He left for the final push a bit before me as I still needed to stop for resupply on liquids.

It was a stunning morning with temps in the low 40's and a light, cool breeze on my face. I traversed the Washoe Meadows State Park and then enjoyed the smooth climb and descent on the Tahoe Mountain Trail with epic views of South Lake Tahoe. 

Just before the 20-mile road section along the western shore of the lake, I caught up to Ian and a guy named Nick, at the edge of Fallen Leaf Lake. We rode together for a bit but, as we started the road climb, I went ahead as I wanted to just get the road section finished as quickly as possible.

Across the lake are the mountains we traversed on the previous day.

Once I turned left on to dirt, I stopped to eat half of the breakfast burrito I'd ordered to go from the cafe. And from there, it was about a 7 mile, 2200' single track climb up Stanford Rock, one of the two big climbs of the day. I just chipped away at it as it was never overly technical or steep. Near the top, I passed a man and his son, who was probably 10, as the man was riding behind him and coaching him through the worst of that section. After passing when they were comfortable, I looked back and noticed an epic photo op and seized the opportunity. I shouted to the man, asking if he wanted the pics. He quickly called out his cell phone number. As we were all still pedaling, I quickly keyed it in with one hand, and carried on, sending him the pictures later that day. Feel good moment.

Once at the peak, I was, again, ready for a ripper of a descent after climbing for over 1.5 hours. About half way down, the trail turned to a long series of man-made stone steps, many of them built as switch backs. I passed another guy on the way down, and just sent it down all the never-ending, bone jarring steps, just waiting to eject that tailfin bag behind me. But, it never happened, and I stopped at the bottom to regain the feeling in my hands and have a snack. This is where the other rider caught up to me only a few seconds later. His name was Luis, he was from Mexico, and he was in Bones to Blue also. He was on a hardtail and right behind me the whole way down. What an animal he was!

Afterwards, it was a traverse over to Olympic Village where there was an e-bike shop and gas station next to each other. My rear pads had been on the fritz for some time, sounding like possibly just a retention spring on rotor with no pad remaining. I swung through hoping to get new pads but to no avail; they didn't carry any that would fit my non E-bike. 

Luis caught up to me at the gas station for resupply. After a brief chat, I motored on. Pole Creek was the last climb, and potentially the worst, from what Luis had heard. I was only about 20 miles from the finish. 10 miles up, 10 miles down.

It started out as a relatively benign gravel climb. But we turned off gravel, through a closed gate, where the gradients increased and so did the amount of embedded rock. This was still manageable and ridable. But then the hike-a-bike came. And then again. And again. Some of the steep gradients were coupled with large amounts of loose, round rocks that shifted under your feet and tires alike.

I kept taking pics but I could hear the rumbles of thunder and see rain clouds forming over distant peaks. I hurried ahead but couldn't resist some of the pics! It was so amazingly brutal! Or, brutiful, as Forest dubbed it.

Once at the true summit, not the one right before it that faked me out yet again, I was anticipating some blown out, loose, chunky, rocky descent that wasn't worth the climb. However, to my surprise, the track took me off the dirt road and onto some hidden, loamy, flow trail that went on for 5 miles, with tons of switch backs and side-hit gap jumps that was just the absolute best way to end this ride. At the bottom, I crossed some railroad tracks that I had also crossed on day 1, pedaled a few miles of gravel, and crossed the finish line at the Pioneer Monument, where I was greeted by Forest, the race director himself, with cooler full of cold beverages. WHAT. A. GUY! Luis crossed no more than 5 minutes behind me and we all sat there, reminiscing about the journey and the memories we had made. 

As I had heard from others, I'd venture to say that this is probably the best single track bikepacking route that I've ever done. What a gem Forest and friends have put together. I will definitely be back for another ride. And, I don't think I'd change anything about the way I chose to go about it. 

Thanks for reading!

Bones to Blue Strava Link

RideWithGPS Route Link

And make sure to check out Handup for some sweet bike gear that you can wear on and off the bike!