Day sventy three, chico, ca to lake tahoe, ca

Slight change of route today but same destination, South Lake Tahoe. It was pretty random that a Harley franchise the size of the one in Chico didn’t,t have a tire to for Bryn’s Low Rider, so start of the day was a 70 km ride down the 99 to Harley Davidson of Yuba City. The team at Yuba City Harley Davidson couldn’t have been more accommodating, they had multiple tyres in stock, got onto the fitting straight away, set us up with coffee at the coffee station and in less than an hour we were set to go. They get a few groups touring but not often from New Zealand, a team photo was set up out the front, see posted below. A great team and a great help to get us on the road again in double quick time. Bryn gave them one of our cards so they could have a look at our travels on the blog site.

Right, so from Yuba City, the plan was to take Route 50 across right into South Lake Tahoe, but this involved about 70 kms of suburban driving akin to riding the suburbs in Auckland as we made our way through, Lincoln, Roseville, Folsom, right up the backside of Sacramento.

Once onto Route 50, it started out like a freeway with 2 x 2 lanes but as we climbed into the Sierra’s it eventually dropped back to two lanes, usual nice scenery, river valley, road, trees, river, Twisties……..nice.

We gassed up at a wee village called Pollock Pines and the 100 kms from there to Lake Tahoe was a gorgeous ride, along the valley then up over Echo Summit and down the other side. I Like the Sierra’s, they are different scenery again to other mountain riding in other states.

We are staying at Stateline, Lake Tahoe, so Stateline ave is actually the California/ Nevada state line. I have posted some pics below taken from the corner, so looking south is California, no gambling so no high rises, just shops and condo,s. Looking north is Nevada, so massive sky rise casino’s and hotels, not my cup of tea, the Nevada side.

Have to say, right on the corner of Stateline ave and Highway 50 was a place called McP’s taphouse and grill. We had a couple beers there and a meal, bangers and mash with a rich gravy I had, best meal I have had in 73 days I would have to say !!!!!!!!

They love to take the piss here in South Lake Tahoe, the entire beach front for bloody kms along the South Lake Tahoe Lake frontage is barricaded with a steel fence like a zoo cage, yep you guessed it, you pay to walk on the sand, go to the beach, have a swim or walk on the beach to take a photo. Imagine what would happen in good old kiwi land if we tried to do that to tourists. Only in America for gods sake have hey got taking piss out of tourists and locals down to a pat.

Anyway we were given a voucher from the hotel to get onto the beach free, but the gate guard musta been in the pub or gone to do wee’s cause the gate was open and any random could walk onto the beach. Lake was a bit chilly for a dip, just saying.

Lake Tahoe, that’s Lake Tahoe………. onward tommorrow for more riding in the Sierra’s toward Mammoth Hot Springs, a ghost town and the devils postpile national monument, more on that next post.