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by Tim Hauserman
Every Thursday evening from 5 pm to 8 pm between now and August 20th the heart of downtown Truckee is closed to cars. Instead you will find food trucks, a beer garden with a live band, a farmers market, an arts faire with dozens of booths full of interesting hand made and local items, and a whole lot of happy people.
At Truckee Thursday you can eat tacos and sliders and tater tots covered with lamb, then follow it up with a chocolate dipped ice cream bar. Getting thirsty? They got homemade lemonade and beer. You can check out clothing, and earrings, and photographs. You can buy a book, a shirt, a painting and anything else that mike strike your fancy as something you need to adorn your house, body or mind. You can dance to the music, and sometimes dance to the sounds of the trains roaring just a few feet behind the band. But mostly, you can spend a warm summer night slowly strolling through the crowd, and experiencing Truckee’s awesome meet and greet with an eclectic mix of locals, second-home owners and visitors.
Every age demographic finds Truckee Thursday as a meeting spot. The littlest ones are bouncing in the bouncy houses. The tweens and teens are standing around trying to look cool and aloof while watching a couples yoga performance or a magic trick. Some of the folks from 21 and up are in the beer garden rocking out, while everyone else is eating, chatting with friends, and enjoying the fine splendor of the night.
Parking at Truckee Thursday is at a premium. There is a large dirt parking lot across the railroad tracks from the event, as well as several parking areas to the east of the closed off road section. Donner Pass Road is closed between Spring Street and Bridge Street, and anytime after five it’s best not to attempt to drive too close to the festivities. Not surprisingly, the earlier you get there, the easier it will be to find parking. Information is available at truckeethursdays.com, but you don’t need any information. Just come on downtown and enjoy.
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Photos courtesy Laura Read.
by Tim Hauserman
Here it comes again, my favorite Lake Tahoe area bike riding experience: The Tour De Manure. It combines a beautiful ride around the Sierra Valley with great friends, music and delicious food.
The Tour De Manure is a metric century ride (62 miles) which begins in Sierraville, CA. The ride starts with a valley crossing on the lightly traveled A-23 to the junction with Highway 70 at Beckwourth. A right turn brings you in a few miles to A-24, where you recross the valley to Loyalton. There, you get your one and only climb of the day, up Smithneck Road, before returning to Loyalton and the last 13 miles on Highway 49 back to Sierraville.
There are a number of factors that make this ride so special. First, while a 62 mile ride is nothing to sneeze at, this one is about as easy as you can make it. It’s mostly flat and the views of wildflowers, cows and a wide variety birds make for a pleasant spin. Find a peloton that matches your speed and ride with a new group of friends. The event is a fundraiser for the Sierraville Fire Department, which brings out a host of friendly volunteers dishing out food, signing up participants or whatever it takes to make things run smoothly. Speaking of the food, not only is it delicious and filling, but given the difficulty of the ride, most people actually get to eat it right about lunch time. And finally, the ride was the original brain child of long time Tahoe local Doug Read. He has got the word out among the North Tahoe cross-country ski and bike community that this is the place to be in June, and I always find a ton of great Tahoe buds to ride and eat with.
The Details: The Tour De Manure is on Saturday, June 20, 2015. The ride begins and ends at the Sierraville Volunteer Fire House.
Directions: From Truckee, take Highway 89 north 25 miles to it’s intersection with Highway 49, turn right and you are at the start.
Riders should start pedaling between 8 and 9 am.
Register online for the 62 or 42 mile version at tourdemanure.org
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By Tim Hauserman
Amtrak’s California Zephyr train on its way to Reno from the Truckee train station
For many of us, Truckee’s trains are the frequent background sounds of life in town. They are a chance to simplify our lives as we watch the cars rhythmically clatter down the tracks. Or they are the thrill of the roaring locomotive drowning out the raucous sounds of Truckee Thursday. But Truckee’s rail line is more then just a blast from the past, or a brief interlude in our day, it is one of the things that makes Truckee the place that it is. Truckee is a railroad town, with well over a dozen trains a day rolling through. And trains are also an important part of how Truckee became more then just a blip on the radar.
Truckee Railroad Museum in a vintage train car at the Truckee Train Station
The Transcontinental Railroad made its way through Truckee in 1867 on it’s way to its’ eventual completion in Utah in 1869. Building the first railroad all the way across the country was an impressive feat at the time, especially the section just to the west of Truckee over Donner Summit. There Chinese laborers took two years to build the routes longest tunnel through solid granite.
Vintage safe inside the Truckee Train Station
Truckee’s position as the last stop before the climb over the Sierra crest was key to it’s development as a town. Once the line was complete, the railroads quickly went to work transporting logs to feed the immense silver mines of Virginia City. By 1900, the railroad dipped its toes into tourism, with a new railroad station that is still standing, and a narrow gauge railroad to Tahoe City. Visitors would transfer to the Lake Tahoe Railroad in Truckee, and take the 13 mile line to the shores of Lake Tahoe and the swank Tahoe Tavern. Both the railroad to Tahoe City and the hotel are gone, but for awhile, tourists prime mode of transit to Tahoe was via train. Now, there are just two Amtrak trains a day through Truckee, the rest are freight trains providing the materials needed to keep America moving.
The Truckee Train Station also is home to the Truckee Visitors Center, Chamber of Commerce and a variety of local craftsmen
For more information on the impact of trains on Truckee and the development of the Sierra, visit the Truckee Railroad Museum in the caboose next to the Amtrak Station in downtown Truckee. The newly opened Donner Memorial Visitor Center also has an exhibit on the Chinese workers who built the railroad.
Train tracks in downtown Truckee going west
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Share this: Lynn Richardson, Your Friend in High Places
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