NCal 03 South Lake Tahoe to Sorenson’s

 

Sorenson’s is a resort, not a town.

We finally leave Lake Tahoe and go into the Sierras.  Today is another short and fairly easy day designed to get us used to this altitude; the first difficult day is tomorrow when we will have more than twice today’s distance and more than twice the elevation gain.

Today’s climb to Luther Pass is about 5 miles.  The first half is a 6% grade and the second half is only 4 to 5%.  We go up 4 to 5 miles per hour; for comparison, in Dallas we walk 6 miles per hour.  The downhill run is really great, a gentle grade and gentle curves with good visibility.  Brenda ride the 3 miles without breaking or pedaling and reaches 35 mph.

Brenda near Sorenson

For the past 3 days there have been many miles of bike paths paralleling the roadway.  But the road surface on these is really poor so I prefer the road.  Of course California’s roads aren’t very good either; but they’re better than the bike paths.

Alison, our tour leader, is so concerned about the difficulty of tomorrow’s ride that she recommends we be on the road by 7:30 am.  Sorenson’s doesn’t serve breakfast until 7:30 so Alison is fixing us breakfast in her cabin; it’ll be ready at 6:30.