Hello Everyone! It’s been another great week out here on the road in California. I’ve spent most of the week in the Lake Tahoe Basin, visiting with friends and taking it easy in the lead-up to my impending tour season. It’s been cold up here and has snowed almost every day since I arrived, but it’s been beautiful and relaxing and a lot of fun to be here. I know that spring is quickly turning to summer just down the mountain from here, so I’m going to enjoy the cool weather while I can.
I left you last week in Gardnerville and when I finished this post I headed up through Carson City and on to Virginia City. Virginia City was ground zero for the Comstock Lode mining boom which took over 700 million dollars’ worth of gold and silver out of the surrounding hills. In its heyday it grew to a city of 25,000 people and had 36 schools and over a hundred saloons. Money from the mining going on in Virginia City helped build San Francisco into the city it became (and was until the fire of 1906) and hastened the separation of Nevada from the Utah Territory as its own state (The Silver State!). When the gold and silver played out, the town’s population dropped significantly but after the TV show Bonanza debuted in 1959, interest in the town grew and tourism became its main industry. It’s one of the better “old west” towns that I’ve visited and maintains a lot of its frontier character. I enjoyed wandering up and down the main street through town and taking photos and stopped in for a beer at the Bucket of Blood Saloon. It turned out that the bartender there was from Washington D.C. and three of the patrons were from just outside the city and south of Annapolis. I chatted with them for a while and enjoyed their million dollar view from the huge picture window at the end of the bar. The sun was going down as I left, so I wandered down the street to the Red Dog Saloon which was doing an open mic night. While others were welcome to perform, it was really some of the locals jamming out on stage and they were really good. I stayed the night just down the hill and it was extremely quiet out there.
I woke up early on Thursday and took another stroll through town and got some more photos with the sun lighting the other side of the street. I stopped in and had a coffee at The Roasting House, which had a great view out towards the valley, and then headed back down the hill to Carson City. I stopped into Bob’s Shell downtown to get my emissions test done. They were surprised that I could use a Nevada emissions test to pass my DC inspection but I promised them it was true. There are a few benefits to coming from such a transient city. I decided to fax it in because that seemed more likely to reach its final destination than if I dropped it in the mail and FedEx was happy to help me make that happen. Once that was signed, sealed and delivered, I headed on out of town. It was snowing which was a shame because I wanted to make a stop in Genoa, Nevada’s oldest town, but it was just too wet out there so I kept moving. I headed up and over the Kingsbury Grade, which is the back way to South Lake Tahoe, and my preferred road up and over the mountains. It’s a pretty steep road, but it was cold up there so we did just fine on the climb. It was really snowing hard up at the top of the hill, but it lightened up as I came down the other side and was barely a flurry when I pulled up at my friends’ house just outside of town.
I walked in to find my friend, Rob, with a huge batch of lemon marmalade on the stove. Rob and I were roommates way back in 1999 and have been good friends ever since. Since he moved to California I get to see him more often than most of our friends from back home and it’s always good to catch up with him. I’ve known his now-wife, Tara, since they started dating and have watched their kids grow up into an awesome teen and preteen. Rob cooked us all up a massive pot of spaghetti carbonara and it was nice to sit around a family dinner table and enjoy a meal for a change.
I stayed with them through the weekend and it was really nice to be off the road for a few days and able to just relax and enjoy some company. On Friday, Rob and I went and skied at Heavenly, one of Tahoe’s many ski resorts. The conditions were great, if a little foggy, and we had an awesome day making some nice, long runs down the mountain. On Saturday, the snow was pretty intense and I really enjoyed just sitting in a comfortable chair in their living room and watching it come down through their massive windows. The snow let up a little bit in the afternoon we went for a nice walk out at Fallen Leaf Lake. The snow caught up with us out there though and left us pretty covered in it, but it was nice to be out in the cool mountain air and getting some exercise in. Sunday was bright and sunny and we went for a beautiful long hike up to Eagle Falls and then on to Eagle Lake from there. I was glad they brought crampons with them and had an extra set for me because we were hiking on the snow most of the way. It was great to be out there and to see the area in the snow as I’ve only been there in the summertime before. In between all of these activities, we laughed and caught up, drank espresso, cooked, played games and just had a really good time. It’s nice to get some family time in and these guys are definitely family after all of these years.
It was hard to say goodbye to them on Monday but it was time to get moving, so with a jar of marmalade under my arm and clean laundry in my drawers I headed on around the lake. I got to Tahoe City around noon and went to my friend JD’s house to catch up with him. JD was a guide with my old tour company for many years and I first met him almost a decade ago. He was also the first of my friends to see Shadow Catcher since I stayed the night with him on my drive back to D.C. from Michigan where I bought her. If you’ve been following this blog for a long time, you may also remember that I hung out with JD’s dad when I was out in the Dayton, Ohio area and he took me around to some fantastic places out there. JD has been living in Tahoe City for a few years now and it was great to catch up with him over the last couple of days. We wandered around town, went hot tubbing at one of his friend’s houses, strolled along the lake and had a few beers out at the bars. Tahoe City is a cool little town and definitely a different side of Lake Tahoe from the South Lake Tahoe/Stateline side.
I left JD and Tahoe City this morning and made my way just up the road to Truckee. The library here is amazing and there’s a great little upstairs space to get some work done which is appreciated. This afternoon, I’m hoping to catch up with another old guiding friend of mine, Mike Keating, who I’ve known since my early days in the industry. I’m hoping to spend a few hours wandering around Truckee this afternoon and then head up the mountain to some of the little mountain towns north of Interstate 80. From there I will drop through Sacramento and then start making my way out to the Bay Area. When I write this post next week I will be back in the office and getting ready to head out on my first tour of the season, a short three day camping trip to Yosemite which I’m really looking forward to. I still have plenty of photos to edit and publish from the last few weeks and will try and make time to do that when I’m back at work. I definitely hope to be better about posting regularly during my season than I was last year, although obviously my job needs to be my priority. Time will tell, but I will definitely get this newsletter out next week so I hope you will come back to see what I’ve been up to in the interim. Have a wonderful week out there and enjoy the spring weather while it lasts. Thank you, as always, for reading.
-Mike