Xterra Tahoe City Pre-ride

I got a later start than I wanted to but finally got up to Tahoe City around 4PM to ride and run the course for next weekend's race. I came armed with the topo map from the website (link). Unfortunately, I left my Forerunner 305 at home so all I had on the bike was my bike computer to tell me distance traveled and riding time. I'm not sure where T1 will be.
I parked at SaveMart and rode down to Common's beach. There is a bike path that runs parallel to the shore that I took but it ended in a staircase, which I carried my bike up to Dave's Board shop and then crossed the street to Grove street.
The next section climbing up to the start of the dirt road was pretty straightforward although there are several streets off of Grove and Pioneer that you could turn right on. Once I got to the dirt, it was about a mile climb to the junction where both the bike and run course intersect. There is about 100yds of paved road at this junction. I took the first right and tried to follow tire tracks for a while, checking the map every so often.
My first major wrong turn came at a T after passing the green water tower. There are bushes in the middle of the junction and I went right instead of left. So far the trail has been easily ridable dirt road with very few obstacles. Next was a right turn followed by a left turn. Since the 100yds of paved road, it has pretty much been flat or downhill.
The road to the left shoots up and the bottom part is somewhat rocky making this the most techinical part of the ride. It is a pretty steady climb starting steep and mellowing out a bit before 'T'ing into another road where I went right. Very shortly after that turn there is a left turn onto the first singletrack of the course. I would have probably missed this had there not been some leftover chalk on a rock at the turn. This single track climbs for about a mile before hitting another road where you turn right.
This next section is where I had the most problems. There was more chalk on rocks but it was hard to tell which way it was pointing and since at this section, the paths nearly cross, it was a bit confusing. The map shows one water tower that you ride out to and then turn left before passing it. Before I got to that water tower, I passed another water tower painted black with blue writing by the North Tahoe Cross Country team. The trail that I was pretty sure was the right one had a felled tree across the road shortly after passing water tower on the right. So thinking that that couldn't possibly be the right way, I backtracked and found another trail that went around the water tower and got me to where I needed to be up close to Dollar Creek. I rode down that road and stayed right. The road goes up for about 150 yds and then there is a singletrack trail that veers left so I took that.
It turned into a well maintained trail that was raised up a bit and looked to be made from type 2 base. This trail ended at a triangle shaped with wood suggesting that you could go either right or left. I chose to go right but later found out that the trail I wanted was straight ahead. Taking the trail to the right had me heading further North than I wanted to go and I'm guessing I ended up on the Tahoe Rim Trail for a bit. I finally turned around and really got myself turned around when I somehow ended up going straight or taking a left turn which put me back by Dollar Creek.
Once I figured out what had happened I finally got on the right trail to Antone Meadows. The trail around Antone Meadows was flat singletrack that was pretty easy to follow. I started to feel a little low on energy but by the time I got back to the spot to start lap 2 I felt okay so I did another lap. This could have had something to do with seeing a huge porcupine about 5 ft off the trail as I rode by. After the second lap, there is a pretty good climb back to the 100yds of paved road. I'll definately need to save a bit of energy for that.
Overall, the course has about 4 significant climbs and is not very techinical. There aren't any really sharp turns and there aren't any sections that go straight up and straight down like at XTERRA Real. I think that this course favors riders conditioned for steady-state efforts.
The run was basically a few miles up on road and singletrack followed by a few miles down to the finish. The bottom section is the steepest and it mellows out a bit after about a mile. I made a few wrong turns on the run as well which made it exciting because it started to get pretty dark. I think as long as I can move up the hills at a decent pace (10min/mile?) and have enough in my legs to coast fast down the hills (sub 7min/miles), I'll do well.