Navigate: Top -->Lake Tahoe Area -->Hole in the Ground Top

Overview

• Date Reviewed : Summer 2005
• Route : Loop
• Distance as rode : 18 Miles
• Climbing Distance : ~2100'
• Difficulty : 7 (of 10)
• Trail Type : 50% Singletrack / 30% Pavement / 20% Dirt / Jeep Roads
• Cardio : Strenuous + Altitude

Summary

Hole in the Ground is a great Sierra Nevada trail filled with plenty of technical riding. If you are an intermediate rider looking for a place to work on your technical skills this is a great trail. Advanced riders will enjoy this trail as well and the granite areas adjacent to the trail make a great play area.

My big suggestion about this ride is to take the Soda Springs exit and climb up to Boreal at the beginning of the ride rather than finishing on a climb. From Soda Springs go east on Donner Pass Road until you see a small poorly marked dirt road on the left hand side. This is "Bunny Hill Road" or some such and takes you to the Boreal Ski Resort parking lot. Cross the lot and go under the freeway and up the road.

Stay to the right (straight) until the road ends and turn onto the fireroad which is on the left. While climbing the fireroad stay on the main fireroad until you see the big "Hole in the Ground" trail sign on the left.

From that point the trail is pretty obvious. There are a few forks but most of them are signed or no bikes. In a couple of places the trail forks to go to the lakes. The lakes are beautiful alipine lakes and worth the detour. Eventually the trail turns into a gravel road. Follow the road for a while but keep an eye out for the trail sign and the trail turning off to the left. You are back on singletrack (over some rather steep steps) for a short time then you get dumped back out onto a gravel road. Turn left on the road and follow it for another mile or so and watch again for a trail on the left. This little section of singletrack is short and dumps you onto a Highway 80 frontage road. Turn right to freeway overpass and back to where you parked.

Location

Parking in Soda Springs is means you end the ride with a downhill which is my preference. Just take highway 80 to Soda Springs and find parking on either the north side of the freeway just past the firestation or on the south side at the Summit restaurant.

If you like climbing at the end of your ride you can park at the top of Boreal Ridge Road. Just take highway 80 and exit like you are going to Boreal Ski resort, only go North (under the freeway) up Boreal Ridge Road. The road ends fairly soon. Park and look for the fireroad at the end of the road. The ride directions are for parking at Soda Springs but it should be easy enough to figure out the differences.

Show on Map

links

• MTBSingletrack.com has a good map and driving directions. Unfortunately due to @#$$@! frames I can't link directly to the HITG page. Scroll the left frame down and click on Hole in the Ground.
• As usual there is an MTBR Trail Review for HITG.

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