With hundreds of miles of dirt trails and smooth singletrack, stellar views and steep terrain, the Lake Tahoe basin is considered by many to be the country’s mountain biking capital. Now, it’s on the verge of becoming a bastion of off-road electric biking as well.
Last week, federal officials approved a major — though somewhat controversial — plan that will open up 106 miles of Tahoe’s trails to e-bikes, which to date have been prohibited on those pathways because they are motorized. The plan also lays groundwork to build 45 miles of new trails at key junctures designed to stitch disparate segments together into cohesive transit routes for bicycle commuters and recreational riders.
Bicycle advocates say the plan could turbo-charge a broad effort to create the kind of cohesive trail network that could make Tahoe a fully bikeable region — a vision many have dreamed about for years.
This is also probably the first time in the United States that e-bikes have been given this much access to a forest.
“It’s gonna be a big moment,” said Drew Bray, executive director of the Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association. “Linking trails together so you can get around the basin without having to get into a car or travel on a road is going to create more opportunities for people to have a good outdoor experience.”
The plan applies to the U.S. Forest Service’s 154,000-acre Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, which oversees about 78% of the basin’s landmass and attracts an estimated 7.8 million visitors per year. The 362 miles of trails the unit manages tie into neighborhoods, ski areas, city centers, state parks and lakeside beaches and “are some of the most highly visited in the United States,” according to a draft environmental assessment document outlining the plan.
The Forest Service is finalizing the environmental assessment document and expects to release it in August. Then e-bike riders will be permitted to ride some of Tahoe’s premier sites: the Pope-Baldwin Bike Path through Camp Richardson that leads to some of the lake’s best beaches; the slopes at Heavenly Mountain Resort; and the peaks above Incline Village, to name a few.
There won’t be any changes to the Tahoe Rim Trail, a 165-mile keystone of hiking and mountain biking, or the segment of Pacific Crest Trail that passes through the basin, neither of which allow e-bikes.
Importantly, the Tahoe plan applies only to Class I e-bikes, which are pedal-assisted and top out at around 20 mph — a speed comparable to mountain bikes traveling downhill. Class II and III e-bikes, which have hand throttles and don’t require pedaling to accelerate, will remain off-limits.
New trail connections won’t be laid down until at least next spring, and it’s too early to speculate on which ones will be given priority, according to Mike Gabor, the forest engineering staff officer with the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit who has been overseeing the trails analysis.
The impetus for opening Tahoe trails to e-bikes was simple, Gabor said: People are already taking e-bikes on trails — even though it may be against the rules — and demand for the vehicles is increasing nationwide. E-bike rental shops have opened in both north and south Tahoe in recent years, and the vehicles are a choice conveyance for locals and visitors alike.
“We’re seeing pressure just by the nature of the change in how the American public is using these bikes,” Gabor said.
Integrating e-bikes into public lands nationwide hasn’t been a smooth process due to public pushback against allowing speedy, motorized vehicles to share space with hikers, joggers, bicyclists and equestrians. Certain types of e-bikes can travel much faster than conventional pedal bikes, and opponents say the vehicles may tear up trails, carry inexperienced riders into tough terrain where they can get into trouble, and cause more conflicts and close calls among trail users.
California, however, has largely affirmed the shift to battery-powered bikes. In 2017, a state law took effect allowing e-bikes on public trails unless land managers specifically prohibit them. In state parks, the vehicles are allowed just about everywhere traditional bicycles can go. Regional park and open space districts are split; some have sanctioned e-bikes while others largely restrict them.
National forests have been relatively slow to mix in e-bike use, and even some that have tried have faced public resistance. An effort to open parts of Tahoe National Forest to e-bikes was hampered by a lawsuit from wilderness advocates before gaining final approval earlier this year.
A forest embracing e-bikes, as the Tahoe basin unit is poised to, might be unprecedented, Gabor said.
“We’re literally, I think, the first forest in the nation to be making these kinds of holistic changes to our trail system,” he said. “There isn’t really an example to follow.”
After reviewing 660 public comments submitted last fall on the plan, Gabor said about half of the responses were supportive — the other half expressed concerns or skepticism. One person who commented on the plan last fall wrote they were “strongly opposed” to opening trails to e-bikes due to “the number of uneducated/inconsiderate/underage operators and the lack of enforcement of existing laws/etiquette.”
Bray, of the Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association, anticipates some early trail tension but said it can be defused with basic patience and compassion among individuals who cross paths.
“All users need to be responsible for their choices, how they ride, how they interact,” he said.
“These bikes aren’t going away,” Bray added. “They’re in the community and lots of people use them. So this (plan) seems like a step in the right direction.”
Reach Gregory Thomas: [email protected]
To see the complete article in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, CLICK HERE:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/tahoe/article/e-bikes-top-trails-18527662.php
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