A few bruises but worth it

This morning Charmelle wanted to do a road ride up to the Mt Rose
summitt and I wanted to do a Mt Bike ride. Where Charm was riding to
was about where my ride would start so I left the car for her and
headed out on the trail.

This was a section of the Tahoe Rim Trail. It is only open to
cyclists on even days of the month, so this was a good day to give it
a try.

The descriptions of the trail sort of under sold it. The Flume was
billed as pretty difficult and this was only tricky in a couple of
sections according to the reports.

Well here is my report: this trail rocks! In more than one way. First,
it is likely the most technical trail I've ever ridden. There is a
fair, but doable amount of climbing, countless drop-offs, and more
rocks to climb over/around/between than I've ever seen. The drops were  
pretty high and often tight quarters with a bunch of them in a row.

There were tons of rock steps to climb up or down as well. Most were
manageable, but there were some that even the really experienced riders I
saw struggled with.

As for the bruises, I had a couple crashes. Really only one crash and one
fall. The crash must have looked good to observers, it wasn't much fun from
my angle. I ended up endo-ing right over the bars still clipped into
my pedals and slide down the slope a bit. It was a nice face plant. I
sat there for a couple minutes and took inventory and things were fine.
I'll be sore tomorrow with a nice bruise on my knee and a stiff neck.
The other fall was into a boulder while I tried unsuccessfully to go
up a set of steps. I made all but the last one. My elbow and wrist
took the abuse on that one.

But it was all worth it. The views were amazing and the ride was a
blast! The photo is just one example or the great views from this trail.