Cyclists commemorate historic 1917 Tahoe ride
Bikes and roads between Sacramento and Tahoe were much different 100 years ago. Courtesy of the Photo/Center for Sacramento History Eugene Hepting Collection
By Emily Zentner, Sacramento Bee
A group of Sacramento area bicyclists took off on a 150-mile ride on Oct. 20 to commemorate a similar record-breaking ride taken in 1917.
Jeff Barker, 49, of El Dorado Hills organized the Centennial Ride to honor the 100th anniversary of Eugene Hepting and Abbie Budd’s bicycle trip from Sacramento to South Lake Tahoe. The 1917 ride broke a long-standing record at the time for the fastest ride from Sacramento to Myers Station in South Lake Tahoe, according to newspaper clippings from the Center for Sacramento History.
“The whole idea was, let’s commemorate that ride,” Barker said. “Let’s see if we can put it together, because the bikes they rode in 1917 were pretty primitive compared to what we have now. The conditions weren’t all that good.”
