Call Flume Trail Bikes on a Wednesday morning and ask if the Flume Trail is open, and the answer depends entirely on which trail you mean. There are two of them sharing a name and a trailhead area, and this summer they are running on opposite schedules. One has been open every day since the snow melted. The other has been closed five days a week since March of last year, for reasons that have nothing to do with trail conditions and everything to do with a 150 year old dam three miles up the mountain.

If you have been waiting for a clean "it's back" headline before planning a ride, the honest update is more useful than that. Here is what is actually open, what still isn't, and why the shop that runs the shuttle hasn't committed to a firm answer either.

Two Trails Under One Name

The Incline Flume Trail is the beginner friendly one. It runs off Mt. Rose Highway, rated green, with minimal elevation gain and a handful of stream crossings. Riders reach it through the shop's daily 431 shuttle, a route that has operated every day of the season without interruption. Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association, working with the Tahoe Rim Trail Association and the U.S. Forest Service, realigned and improved this trail back in 2017 and 2018, which is why it now reads as a smooth side hill ride rather than the rougher path it used to be.

The Marlette Flume Trail is the famous one, the cliffside singletrack that shows up on every list of the best mountain bike rides in the world. This is the classic 14 mile point to point that starts at Spooner Lake State Park, climbs about 1,100 feet in the first four miles to Marlette Lake at 8,157 feet, then hugs granite cliffs sixteen hundred feet above the east shore before descending three miles and 1,500 feet down Tunnel Creek Road back to the shop.

Locals shorthand both of these as "the Flume Trail." That habit has always been harmless. This year it isn't, because only one of them sits inside a construction closure.

Why One of Them Closes Monday Through Friday

The Marlette Lake Dam was built in 1873 and raised in 1959. A 2017 inspection by the Nevada Division of Water Resources found seepage serious enough that the agency determined it could eventually lead to catastrophic failure. The rehabilitation project that followed is funded through the FEMA Pre-Disaster Mitigation Fund, and trail closures around it took effect on March 31, 2025.

For the 2026 construction season, those closures run 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. During those hours, every trail inside the Spooner Lake and Backcountry State Park boundary is closed, including the roads and singletrack that make up the classic Marlette Flume ride, with two exceptions carved out for the Tahoe Rim Trail and the Cap to Tahoe Trail. Trails reopen on weekends, though state parks has noted that schedule is subject to change without notice as work progresses. The project is expected to wrap by October 2026.

The Incline Flume Trail was never part of this. Its trailhead sits off Highway 431, outside the Spooner Lake State Park boundary entirely, which is the actual reason it has been accessible every single day while its more famous neighbor has not.

Here's how that plays out route by route this month:

The Shuttle Company Hasn't Fully Committed Either

Even with the state's schedule laid out clearly, Flume Trail Bikes' own posted shuttle information has stayed cautious. Through July, the classic Spooner Lake shuttle ran weekends only. The shop's language for August has been "possibly seven days a week," explicitly tied to how construction completion progresses, and as of this writing that hasn't been converted into a firm daily commitment.

That caution tracks with who runs the place. Flume Trail Bikes has operated the shuttle since 1999, out of a shop next to Tunnel Creek Café at 1115 Tunnel Creek Road, on what used to be the edge of the old Ponderosa Ranch theme park property. Owner Max Jones is a two time National Mountain Bike Champion and a Mountain Bike Hall of Fame member, which is the kind of résumé that tends to make an operator conservative about promising access before a state agency has actually delivered it.

If you're planning a ride around the classic route this month, call the shop at (775) 298-2501 the morning of. The gap between "construction is ahead of schedule" and "the shuttle runs daily" is exactly where a wasted drive to Tunnel Creek Road happens. The shop's own shuttle menu has similar fine print elsewhere too. The 34 mile Cap to Tahoe route, which picks riders up in Carson City, only runs on weekends that fall on even calendar dates, a detail that has nothing to do with the dam project and everything to do with how the shop staffs its vans.

What a Midweek Ride Actually Looks Like

Riders who show up on a Tuesday hoping to piece together the full point to point aren't entirely out of luck, but the ride changes shape. You can still start on the Incline Flume Trail, continue to Tunnel Creek Road, and climb the half mile up to the Marlette Flume Trail South. From there you can ride roughly two miles toward the most scenic stretch before hitting the closure at the rock slide point. Turn around there and retrace the route back to the shop, and the ride comes out to about 16 miles instead of continuing on as a one way descent. It's a real ride with real views. It is just not the same ride as the weekend version, and knowing that in advance saves the disappointment of turning back mid climb.

A Second Dam Working on a Different Clock

The Marlette project isn't the only piece of this water system under repair. Preparation work has also begun on the Hobart Reservoir Dam, part of the same Marlette Lake Water System that has supplied Storey County and Carson City since the original dam went up in 1873 to serve Virginia City during the Comstock Lode silver boom, with the system expanded in 1887 to tap Hobart Creek and Marlette Lake directly. That project is scheduled for completion in July 2027, and Hobart Reservoir is closed to fishing and recreation for the entire 2026 summer season regardless of day of week.

Between the two projects, this stretch of backcountry above Incline Village is going to stay under active construction longer than a single season's headline suggests. The Marlette Flume Trail's weekday closures should lift once the current project wraps toward October. Hobart won't be back in play until well into next year.

Riding It This Month

August has historically been one of the busiest months on this trail network, and that popularity hasn't paused for construction. If a quieter ride matters more to you than the marquee route this week, the Incline Flume Trail's daily access makes it the more dependable choice right now, with none of the uncertainty hanging over the classic shuttle. If you're set on the full 14 mile point to point, a weekend booking is still the safer bet until the shop posts a confirmed daily schedule. Marlette Lake is worth keeping on the calendar into fall too, since the color along its shoreline tends to turn later in the season, right around when this year's construction window is set to close for good.

Knowing which trail is actually open on a given day, and why, is the same kind of granular local knowledge that matters when you're trying to understand any part of life in Incline Village, real estate included. If you have questions about the neighborhood beyond the trailhead, Dayna Nielsen is always glad to talk through what's changing here and what it means for you. Let's Connect.