First time riding around Lake Tahoe for Theresa, Rich, and I. Thanks to Allen for hosting. It’s been years that Theresa and I have talked about riding together. The irony is our first ride ended up being a road ride. When I first got my gravel bike, she was the one ai asked for trail advice. On the way over to the start, there was still snow on the ground and I was worried I wasn’t wearing enough. The weather was that frustrating mix of warm while standing still but the wind chill was really cold when moving. We started in South Lake Tahoe to do Emerald Bay before the traffic got bad since there’s no shoulder. We lucked out since they were doing road construction and they were only allowing one lane of traffic at a time. It was so clear, the skies and the lake. Complete opposite from a few days ago. The houses, or mansions rather, around the lake were insane. During our descent down to Rubicon Bay, Allen was ahead of me bunny hopping the big cracks in the pavement and at one point, he bunny hopped out into the middle of the road right as a big van was passing us. I couldn't believe what was happening. I was watching as the van tried to slow down and Allen realizing what he'd done and trying to speed up and get back on to the shoulder. Luckily nothing bad happened. We stopped in Tahoe City for a snack at Tahoe House Bakery. The last part of the ride, starting at the last big climb, was the least pleasant part. You’re on a major highway and sometimes, a lot of times actually, there was no shoulder or practically no shoulder. We lucked out again with road construction and closed lane that we had to ride in. The headwind and crosswind also picked up. Once we got back to South Lake Tahoe, it seemed to take way longer to get back to the car than anyone expected. The wind didn’t help. After, I suggested the move is to start at the base of today’s last big climb (Sand Harbor). That way you do Hwy 50 before it gets busy and we’d still get to Emerald Bay before it got busy there too. Also getting through the garbage miles of South Lake Tahoe done at the beginning would make the ride way more pleasant. And on top of all that you'd get to finish with the Tahoe East Shore Trail that connects Incline Village to Sand Harbor which we all thought was the best part of the ride.