Tahoe Rim Trail: A Family Adventure

We had a crazy idea.  Keith and I really wanted to do a full section of the Tahoe Rim Trail instead of the out and back trips that we had been doing for our date nights.  Doing a full section would have cost way more than we wanted to pay a babysitter for.  We're talking 20 miles so it would be a pretty full day.  Then we (actually, I'm giving Keith the credit for the idea) decided that we should make it a family affair.  Bennett could ride the trail on his bike.  Surely he could keep up with our running pace while we pushed Leah and Bryce in our hardcore off-road Chariot stroller.  And so it was decided.  Tahoe Rim Trail: A Family Adventure began.

Our shuttle system involved the scooter.  We dropped the scoot off at Spooner Lake and drove to our starting point at Mt. Rose.  We packed food and about 5 pounds of candy (I'm almost not exaggerating) and set off.  It was a gorgeous day!

Bennett did awesome on the bike.  He was getting serious props from the riders that were coming the other direction.  

Don't you love pictures taken by random strangers?  This one cuts out an entire member of the family.

And this one gets an extra thumb.  Awesome.

And right about here is where it started to get bad.  We were probably 9 or 10 miles in when it got really rocky and Bennett started to melt down.  Meanwhile, one of the rocks decided to chew up our front tire.  It messed up the pin so the wheel popped off and wouldn't go back on.  Fabulous.  So we did what anyone would have done at that point--we sat and gorged on some of our 5 pounds of candy while we reconsidered our thought process for including the kids on this adventure.

Then we picked ourselves up and kept going--with the front of the stroller tipped up since we didn't have a front wheel.  We were so close to halfway at that point that it didn't really matter which direction we picked.  Either way, we were pretty hosed and the stroller slowed things nearly to a crawl.

But look at that view!!!

We looked down at all the people sitting on the beach at Sand harbor and thought: "Why would you be sitting under an umbrella on the sand when you could be up here with 3 kids, a broken stroller, and 9 miles to go?  Suckers!!"

And you know what they say about karma?  Well, it's true.

We blew a tire.  This situation was particularly dire since we were already doing a balancing act on the two remaining tires.  Balancing several more miles on one tire was out of the question.

 Although we did have a patch kit, the tire already had slime in it so the probability of the patch holding was questionable at best.  But we did get the tube to hold air so we shifted all the weight in the stroller to the side with last good wheel (which meant Leah got booted out) and kept going.

And then we walked.

 And walked.  (Deep sand and some seriously crazy drop-offs kept Bennett off the bike for a while).

And walked.  Keith looks like a pioneer pulling his handcart, no?

And this is how we enjoyed the legendary Flume Trail.  We kept walking until we had about 5 miles to go.  At this point Bennett had come 15 miles on his bike and Leah had walked close to 5 miles. These kids are amazing.  (We're going to once again give a shout out to the candy stash.  Don't leave home without it!)  But they were tired.  We had been out all day and if we kept up at our current pace, it was going to get dark on us.

So, I pulled out all the stops and jumped on Bennett's bike.  Since Keith knew the trail well, he knew that the last 5 miles were almost entirely downhill so I could speed things up by getting the the end as quick as possible.  I needed to ride the bike to the scooter which was waiting for us as the end of the trail, ride the scoot to Mt. Rose to get the car, then come back to get everyone else.  It was so ridiculous that it was comical.

This was the world's most uncomfortable 5 mile bike ride.  It only worked because I was coasting most of the way.  My long legs could not pedal the little bike so all I could do was hang on and go.  It hurt like crazy but the comedy of me on that little bike cruising down the trail made me laugh most of the way.  I cruised past a bear and I'm pretty sure he laughed at me too.

When I did make it back with the car, Keith and the kids were just walking into the parking lot.  Perfect timing.  And the kids were still smiling. (a sugar high, perhaps?)

20 miles+busted stroller+tiny bike+tough kids+candy stash=an unforgettably hilarious, exhausting, ridiculous family adventure.