Mountain Biking the Famous Flume Trail, the 165-Mile Tahoe Rim Trail & Desolation Wilderness

In the 1870s, to supply timber and fresh water to the booming silver mines of the Comstock Lode in Virginia City 20 miles east, engineers built a gravity-defying wooden box water flume bolted directly into the sheer granite cliffs 480 metres straight above the eastern shoreline of Lake Tahoe. Today, that narrow, dead-level historic bench between Marlette Lake and Tunnel Creek is the world-famous Flume Trail, featured on the cover of every mountain-biking magazine on Earth.

1. How to Ride the 'Flume Trail'

Located at the base of the trail in Incline Village (1102 Tahoe Blvd, right next to the East Shore Trailhead and Monkey Rock), Flume Trail Bikes & Tunnel Creek Café operates the official bike rental and shuttle system:

• How the Point-to-Point Ride Works: you check in at Tunnel Creek Café in the morning, rent a front- or full-suspension mountain bike (note: by Nevada State Park rule, e-bikes are allowed on the wide North Canyon Road up to Marlette Lake, while only traditional non-motorized pedal mountain bikes are allowed on the narrow 4.5-mile singletrack Flume Trail itself), and hop onto their Hourly Shuttle Bus to the starting trailhead at Spooner Lake State Park.
• The Route: from Spooner Lake, you climb 335 vertical metres over 5 miles up a wide dirt road through golden aspen groves to alpine Marlette Lake; then you turn onto the 7.2-kilometre flat, cliff-edge Flume Trail singletrack, looking 1,600 feet straight down into the glowing turquoise boulder coves of Sand Harbor and Secret Cove, before descending 3 miles down Tunnel Creek Road straight back to a cold beer and sandwich at Tunnel Creek Café..

2. Best Day Hikes on the 'Tahoe Rim Trail' & 'Desolation Wilderness'

1. The Easiest Panoramic Section of the Tahoe Rim Trail, From 'Tahoe Meadows' to 'Chickadee Ridge': starts at 2,680 metres so you are already at the top of the ridge with almost zero climbing, leading to Chickadee Ridge, where friendly wild Mountain Chickadee birds land right on your open palm while you look out over the entire lake.
2. Desolation Wilderness: 63,960 acres of glacially polished granite basins and 130 alpine lakes immediately southwest of Tahoe.