Flume trail lake tahoe professional#

In some parts willow bushes were so thick he had to throw his brand new bike as far as he could into the bush then crawl through, grab and throw it again.

The first time Jones rode it, that 4.5-mile section took him nearly five hours. Though the entire ride is more than 13 miles, technically, the Flume Trail is only the 4.5-mile stretch of trail that connects Marlette Dam to Tunnel Creek Road.

Having recently picked up his very first mountain bike sponsor, Ritchey bicycles, Jones took out his brand new Ritchey to test out the trail. In the summer of 1983, he decided to check out the blue line labeled “Flume Trail” on his maps.

Flume trail lake tahoe professional#

This was how Jones learned of it soon after moving to Incline Village with his wife, Patti McMullen, in 1982.Ī mountain biker heads out on the Flume Trail.Īt the time, Jones was just breaking into the world of professional mountain biking, and was riding every local trail he could find. Eventually replaced by a more modern pipeline in the mid-1900s, the wooden flumes were abandoned and mostly removed, but the flume route remained on many maps. The entire system was a true engineering feat in its day. Jones did not create the Flume Trail it has been in existence since the 1870s when water flumes, or elevated wooden channels, transported water from Marlette Lake to nearby lumber operations and into an underground pipeline that took it all the way to Virginia City. It goes from Spooner Lake to Incline Village. Today the 13.2-mile Flume ride with its sweeping views of Lake Tahoe is one of the most well known bike rides in Tahoe and is consistently ranked as one of the top mountain biking trails in the country. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the summer Jones spent making the trail passable on a mountain bike. That was 1983, just days before Jones finished clearing the Flume Trail. “It could have been bad, but ended up just being really dusty,” he said. INCLINE VILLAGE – Every time Max Jones rides the Flume Trail, he can’t help but take notice of a certain overhanging boulder that once caught the bar of a chain saw he was carrying on his back that sent him, his bicycle and the chain saw tumbling down the steep granite hillside “headed for Sand Harbor.” After 30 years of being associated with the Flume Trail, Max Jones still has fun on it and likes getting first-timers to ride it.