57 Hard Left Turns

Memorial Day weekend was one of exercise for me. Saturday I joined a few hardy souls for a run in Ash Canyon before the frigid rain returned, Sunday was a ride in Washoe Valley with Risa on her new bicycle, and Monday – with the weather finally glorious – a new route investigation!

I had originally thought to run a tenner from Spooner Summit to the Bench and back (actually about 11, but tenner sounds cooler), tagging along with the ccrunners and TMM group run, but still "doing my own thing" at my own pace. 

Then, I recalled the Sierra Canyon trail (part of the Genoa Trail system) was newly completed from Genoa to the Tahoe Rim Trail, and I had never been on it. Round trip on that would have been close to a double tenner — a bit far for me. I thought a bit more about it and contacted the ccrunners group and arranged for a ride back to Genoa, if I could make it to Spooner Summit and didn't mind waiting for a bit for them to arrive after their 25+ mile run. 

That sounded reasonable to me, so I put my end-of-run stuff in Abbey's car, and drove to Genoa to load up my pack and explore a new trail!

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Pointing toward the goal.

I knew it was going to be an uphill climb. Which is good. I've discovered the fact that I am a SUDS runner. Not only do I run for the (beer) suds after the run, but I am a Same Uphill & Downhill Speed runner. It doesn't matter to me if it's uphill for a bit, I can deal. And so I started out, and it was uphill. And more uphill. When I thought it might be done, there was MORE uphill. All in all, it was a pretty steady climb for almost 12 miles. Yikes.

Though it was newly created, the trail was in good shape: pretty well tamped down and not yet rutted from bikes. I assume the bike traffic would be nominally down, and the grooving in the hairpins supported my assumption. Were there a few hairpin turns? Maybe not quite fifty-seven as the post title indicates, but damn, there were a LOT of them!  When I finally reached the TRT, the timing was nearly perfect, as the long-range group of runners was just approaching the intersection. A few minutes of chatting, a photo, and we went our separate ways. Them, to Kingsbury trailhead and back, and me to Spooner by way of The Bench.

The gang at the trail intersection

The Bench

I didn't dally at The Bench for more that the time it took to snap the photo and park the camera. It was a bit chilly with the wind blowing and the temps only in the low 50s at that point. The view was spectabulous, though!

At that point, the trail trended down, gradually dropping to the Spooner Summit south parking area. I was lucky enough to hitch a ride with no waiting around. I was glad for that, since I had a collapsed garage shelf at home to deal with, and I hadn't brought along reading materials to tide me over for an extended wait. 

All in all, a great Memorial Day weekend of being out and about.