Day 5 was just what the team needed after their long and hard ride through Kirkwood and Carson Pass. We had the opportunity to spend the day off exploring around Lake Tahoe. We were lucky enough to be staying in lakeside cabins thanks to the amazing generousity of Van Oleson, which really made our time there relaxing. The day started with a nice breakfast on the beach with our first team meeting! After the meeting, the team spent some time relaxing on the beach, enjoying the hot tub, or making some errand runs to get supplies or fix bikes. For lunch, Van provided us with some really awesome quality sandwich stuff and an assortment of chips and dips right on the beach. After lunch, most of us went out to explore Emeral Bay, a really scenic part of the lake. When we got there, the team sort of split up, with some of the guys going down to the lake and renting kayaks, and going to an island in the middle of the bay to do some cliff jumping. On the otherhand, Adam Brown, Troy Strickland, and myself went the opposite direction; up the mountain. We decided to hike up to Eagle Falls, a really awesome waterfall. We decided to keep going, and ended up climbing up the side of the mountain until we got to a high vista point where we could see for miles. On the way back down we filled up our waterbottles in the waterfall, and I have to say that was some of the most refreshing water I’ve ever tasted. Once we rounded the team up and got back into town, we headed to a park to meet and have dinner with the People First of Lake Tahoe organization at a really cool park. We had some amazing food prepared by Van’s assistant Ren, and had a good time meeting some of the members of the organization. We ended the day finishing up laundry and letting the team relax before the long stretch through Nevada we’re about to face!
Daniel Hansbury
Project Manager
University of North Texas