Day Five - Sunday June 24

The first half of Sunday was spent at the lake packing up all our camping gear and just getting ready to head home. I got back to the cabin (where I had stored my bike and all my gear) around noon so I grabbed some lunch before heading out for the day. My goal for the day was Tahoe City along the North shore of Lake Tahoe. I left Groveland and made my way North to Jackson before turning East to head up Highway 88 to get to Lake Tahoe. This was another great road that wound up through the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. At one point along the road I could see what looked like a large forest fire way off in the distance. I couldn't actually see the fire at this point, but I could see the massive cloud of smoke being generated. As I continued along the highway I could see the cloud of smoke getting bigger and bigger as I got closer. Eventually I realized that I was heading directly at it.

Once I got close to Lake Tahoe I merged with another highway and at that point everything changed. The highway I had been on had very light traffic with only a few cars, but now it was total gridlock. At this point the fire was just over the hill, very close to the road and it was obvious that there were some significant evacuations underway. Fire Trucks as well as Police cars were constantly moving through traffic to get to the fire. Because traffic had slowed to a crawl in both directions I just took off down the road along the shoulder. At one point I actually went right through the smoke from the fire and the entire sky was orange from the reflection of the fire off the smoke, it was very cool. I do regret not getting a picture of this.

Once I got through the fire the traffic lightened up considerably as I wound my way North along the edge of the lake. I did stop to get some good pictures of the cloud of smoke working its way over the lake. Once I got to Tahoe City I found a motel and got some dinner. After looking at a map I realized I was only about a half hour from Carson City, Nevada. It was still pretty early so I headed out over to Nevada and made a visit to the Sagebrush Ranch. I hung out in the bar and watched some of the local talent entertain me. I didn't partake in the full meal deal, but it was still a very unique experience.

Day Five Route

Pictures

The Cabin
The Fire
The Ranch