For the holiday weekend Brad and I went to Lake Tahoe. We left Friday morning and drove the 10 hours with both kayaks and bikes on top of Brad's Subaru. Friday was also our 5 year anniversary. Yes, it is hard to believe but Brad and I have been together for 5 whole years. So for most of the drive we went down memory lane talking about how we met, what we thought of each other, our first time camping together, etc. It was really fun and killed a lot of time (this is huge when you are driving through nothing Navada). We got to our campsite that night setup camp, read for a little while and went to bed.
Saturday morning we got up cooked breakfast and headed out for a bike ride. We had our trail maps, direction and descriptions already to go excited for some great mountain biking. After three hours of following maps and directions and even stoping into a bike shop to get another map-we finally found a mountain biking trail. Not the one we really wanted to ride, but at this point we weren't going to be picky. We rode for a little while because the day was getting away from us. We couldn't believe how hard it was to find the biking trails-This is Tahoe! Mountain biking is one of the main sports here. The map and directions for example would say turn right onto Main St, and then turn right onto Elm. While what they really ment was to turn left on Main St and then turn onto Maple which eventually turns into Elm. Yes, both maps we had and directions we printed off online were wrong and not helpful in the least. After our bike ride we walk around Truckee, CA (bought some of the best fudge Brad and I ever had) and then just drove around the lake seeing the little towns and great views.
That night we went back to our campsite and cooked a great meal and had some somores (because the fudge just wasn't enough). Our campground was nice but we were surrounded by people who didn't camp very much and didn't realize how loud they are and didn't realize that the tent they/we were sleeping isn't a good sound barrier. These people weren't of the hiking type and weren't there to see the sights-just to hang out with friends/family at a campground so going to bed wasn't top priority. So they decided to stay up playing cards and just kept talking at the regular (loud) levels into the night. So that was very frusterating but Brad and I did eventually fall asleep and so did our neighbors.
Sunday morning after sleeping in we made breakfast and headed out to walk around town, to mountain bike and possible kayak a little. We walked around South Tahoe, found a nice beach and took some pictures and enjoyed the sights. South Lake Tahoe was really touristy and wasn't anything special. We then headed to the bike shop and got another map of mountain biking trails and actually talked to the bike shop person for good trails to ride. So we were really excited now for a good ride (plus we needed to burn off the fudge). While after having the same problems as yesterday with poor maps and poor directions and now very very frustrated, we finally found a trailhead (after 3 hours). Of course we had no idea where we were or what trail it was Brad and I decided to give it try. The trail was very nice the only problem was it was 2 miles long. So Brad and I rode a total of 4 miles in about 30min and that was our bike ride for the day. Brad and I decided to eat the rest of the fudge we bought in Trukee and head back to our campsite (and this point we both frustrated and not in the mood to kayak). We took a nap, read and headed back out to the beach and decided to try our luck at a casinos in Tahoe. The beach was nice and we watched the sunset and while we were there we overheard people say there was going to be fireworks over the lake. So we found a place to sit and hung out on the beach enjoying our surrandings until the firework show. The beach filled up and the fireworks display was amazing with the reflection on the lake. We then headed to the casinos and our luck was just as good as our luck finding mountian biking trails. Our $5 (we aren't rich people!) we gambled in the 25 cent slots usually lasts us a while, because we usually win some and lose some, but after about 2 minutes our $5 was gone with us not even winning once. We gave up and headed back to our loud campsite and tried to get some sleep (which didn't work out very well).
Monday we woke up (very early due to our loud neighbors) cooked breakfast again, headed to the closest Starbucks and then went kayaking. It was great because it was Monday morning and nobody was on the lake or on the beach becuase everybody was driving home.
Brad and I paddled around for a while, and then decided to try biking one more time determined to get a good ride in. We decided to ride one of the main mountain biking trails which is known to everybody and should of been really easy to find because it was off of a main rode. Well Brad and I struck out a third time and decided to head back to Salt Lake. On our drive back to Salt Lake we stopped at Carson City and tried our luck again at the slots in one of the local casinos and won $12. We then drove to Reno and tried our luck there with the slots and lost the $12 we won. Brad and I couldn't believe our luck we had in Tahoe as a whole.
In the end we are glad we went and we did agree that we enjoyed the sights and how pretty the lake and mountains are, but that was about it. We don't feel the need to go back anytime soon. We also agreed that we had so many good weekends mountain biking and camping in other states and places that we were due for a poor mountain biking and a loud campground.
