Eagle Rock
Castle Rock
Jul 15, 2014
| With: | Marisa DiGiuseppe |
| Tom DiGiuseppe | |
| Ben Dagg |
Eagle Rock
Castle Rock
Jul 15, 2014
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| With: | Marisa DiGiuseppe |
| Tom DiGiuseppe | |
| Ben Dagg |
Despite a forecast for potentially heavy afternoon thunderstorms, I decided to
take Tuesday to ride my bike around Lake Tahoe. I had done this once before more
than 20yrs earlier and have wanted for years to do so again - if for no other
reason than to help in my denial at getting old. I was in Stateline, NV for a
family reunion on my mother's side of the family but I would be doing this one
solo - most of the family thought I was a little nuts. I got an early start around
6a in order to minimize the chances of getting caught in the rain but as it turned
out the thunderstorms would never really materialize over the area. The distance
around the lake is 72mi, plus some extra mileage getting to the lake and back to
where I stayed plus a few stops for extraneous hiking along the way. The riding
time was almost exactly six hour broken up into even segments. From Stateline to
Incline Village up the east side of the lake was two hours. The stretch north on
SR28 was the most harrowing part of the ride as the shoulders are narrow or
non-existent and the traffic on this 55mph stretch seemed particularly in a hurry
despite the early morning hour. On a downhill section, a cement truck came up just
behind me before blaring its horn, seemingly just for the purpose of inducing
a heart attack. Before reaching Incline Village, I stopped briefly to check out
Sand Harbor State Park, not yet open to vehicles that were already
lining up outside. From Incline Village to Tahoe City around the
north side of the lake took another hour. Though shoulders
were no wider, slower speed limits made this less scary on the bike. South of
Tahoe City there is a convenient bike path that goes for miles to Tahoma on the
west side of the lake. Yay for bike paths! Just past the 
Truckee River
I stopped for a second breakfast in Tahoe City at a popular bakery/coffee shop. As
I was continuing south on the bike path I came across Eagle Rock and paused here.
to the sign and started up on foot, an easy trail of less than a
mile, climbing just over 200ft. The summit is rocky and 
open to views
across the 
west side of the lake and up 
Blackwood Canyon.
There were several parties at the
summit overlook and I met several more heading up as I was heading back down - it
certainly seems a popular destination. The whole diversion took about 30min and
I was soon back on the bike heading south.
At 
Emerald Bay
I met up with about 30 of the 
family members that had driven out from
Stateline to do the short hike down to the beach on 
the bay at
Vikingsholm. My timing was
rather fortuitous as I didn't arrange this ahead of time. I knew they planned to
be there around 11a and it worked out well as we were both late getting there.
Vikingsholm is the name of the 
mansion/castle built by a wealthy woman
in 1929. The property changed hands several times before becoming part of a
state park. There is a dock and beach at the site that are very popular in the
summer. Tours of the home are available at $10/head, but I declined to join some
of the others for this - gawking at over-the-top furnishings in over-the-top
homes has never had any appeal for me.
I left the others down near the beach around 12:45p. Clouds were starting to
develop and it seemed prudent to get myself back to Stateline. It took another
hour to make my way back to the house by 2p.
brother-in-law, a 
niece and
nephew joined me for a
short outing to Castle Rock. Located a short distance north of Kingsbury Grade and
not far from where we were staying, this proved to be a nice little gem. There
are several routes that can be used to reach the rocky outcrop and we explored
both. Starting from the 
Rim to Rim TH off Benjamin Dr, the hike is
about 2mi and 
well-signed until one approaches 
the base of
the feature where the trail begins
to fray into a series of climber trails on the east side. There are rock-climbing
routes found at various points around the summit, but the route we were after was
the easier class 4 route to the highpoint. The main trail circles around the north
side before ending on the west side where a steep, 
class 2 slope
is found leading to the 
small saddle between 
the highpoint and
the lower SW summit. The class 4
section is about 25ft in height and not all that difficult. One stretch of about
10ft is weak on holds and makes for the hardest part, the remainder above this
loaded with big juggy holds to make things easy despite the added exposure. Tom
and Marisa were content to reach the 
SW summit which offers a
commanding view from a small perch. The sky was overcast and threatening
to rain, making for a
very picturesque sky overlooking the lake below. It was very pleasant in the
cool of the afternoon after days of 90F temperatures. Ben came over to the base
of the higher summit to 
have a look
but declined to give it a go. He might have been successful if I had given him
a spot from below, but this seemed an ideal rock route for beginners and I
suggested we should come back with a rope. Two days later we would be back with a
much larger group. We took the shorter, southern route on the way back, only about
a mile and a quarter. Two easy summits and some 75mi on the bike - a good day,
indeed!
This page last updated: Wed Jul 23 18:30:35 2014
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