Archive for the ‘Hiking’ Tag
It’s just about to get busy up here. So while we all have thoroughly enjoyed the last few weeks of local’s summer, we also look forward to playing with the crowds and experiencing the activities that happen in the mountains only in the sum…sum…summertime. Here are a few upcoming activities that are well worth taking a look at:
Alpenglow Outdoor Festival, June 22-30th.
A nine day festival of free outdoor recreation events. You can do some yoga on the lake, take a hike with inspiring athletes, learn how to climb, get tips from the experts including nutritionists and Western States 100 competitors, or take a wildflower or birding hike. Oh, and there are lots of demos and freebies to take advantage of. For a complete schedule go to www.alpenglowsports.com
Truckee Thursdays-Every Thursday throughout the summer
Downtown Truckee becomes party central from 5-9 pm every Thursday. It’s a street fair, farmers market, and live music all combined, but it’s really just an excuse for a lot of locals and tourists alike to get together and have some fun.
Commons Beach Summer Concert Series. All summer long.
It’s a little thing, but your summer can be beautifully encapsulated on a Sunday afternoon in Tahoe City. Get there about 2 pm to launch your kayak onto Tahoe’s pristine deep blue waters. Paddle around for an hour or so, enjoying the sunshine, then find your way back to the Commons Beach. Float about 20 feet offshore and watch the band play and the crowd dance at Tahoe City’s Summer concert series. Yep, that will do. But if you get hungry you can come back on Thursday’s for the Farmers Market. Catch it over at Tahoe Lake School…my alma mater, for July and August, and then it returns to the Commons Beach at the end of August.
Backpack and yoga. July 9-11th
Once the busy 4th of July is past, you might be looking for a relaxing way to spend a few days. Join Tahoe Yoga Institute instructor Jenna Minnes and long time hiking guide Tim Hauserman for a backpack trip to the shores of a beautiful mountain lake. Once you get there you will have three days to swim, practice yoga, learn about the trees, and relax. For information go to: http://trailswithin.com/nurture-your-nature/
Share this: Lynn Richardson, Your Friend in High Places
In December 2012, after an extensive fund raising effort, the Truckee Donner Land Trust and several other organizations purchased the 3000 acres of Donner Summit lands where the Royal Gorge Cross-Country Ski Area are located. Sugar Bowl, which sits adjacent to Royal Gorge, assumed management of the ski area last winter, and Royal Gorge operated successfully. Although a longer winter would have been nice.
While those 3000 acres are known for their prime cross-country skiing terrain, underneath all that snow are sparkling alpine lakes, craggy ridgelines and views into deep canyons. Now the next step for the Truckee Donner Land Trust is to gather input as to what should be done with that spectacular terrain during the summer. Towards that end the TDLT will be holding a series of public meetings, focus groups, property tours and even one on one meetings throughout the summer. The goal? To get as much input as possible to make sure what they do with the property is in the best interest of the community. This information gathering effort will be led by Truckee Donner Land Trust Project Manager John Svahn.
The Land Trust based their fund raising efforts to purchase the property on these primary goals for the property:
Keeping the ski area open
Making the property a summer recreational destination
Helping the Donner Summit area create a sustainable economy
And where needed, restore and enhance the properties natural resources.
To find out more or to get involved, go to http://www.royalgorgeoutreach.org
Share this: Lynn Richardson, Your Friend in High Places
Castle Peak at Donner Summit
The history of Donner Summit is about much more than the horrible struggle of one party of California bound travelers that gave the area it’s name. Donner Summit is a center of California history because unbelievably it was one of the easiest ways to get over the Sierra, but as we all know, it can be an incredibly challenging passage, especially if you try to do it in a snowstorm.
The first wagon train to reach California was the Stephens Murphy Townshend Party in 1844, which traveled over Donner Pass two years before the ill-fated Donner Party. They stopped on their journey at Big Bend long enough for the first European baby to be born in California, Elizabeth Yuba Murphy. One member of the party was Moses Schallenberger who spent the winter at Donner Lake, and later had the ridge above the lake named after him. Other party members went on to start the cities of Sunnyvale, Murphy’s and Stockton.
The Railroad was completed in 1869, but to get over Donner Summit required fifteen massive tunnels, including Tunnel 6, which was over 1500 feet long and blasted through solid granite by crews of Chinese workers. Some of the rock removed from the tunnels was used to construct the still visible China wall, which was built without the use of mortar.
Serene Lakes
Without refrigeration, ice was a necessary commodity in the west in the mid 1800s, but it was transported all the way from Boston or Alaska at great expense. So when the railroad opened, entrepreneurs saw opportunity in our cold climes. The Summit Ice Company began operation in 1868 at what were then known as the Ice Lakes, later the Serene Lakes. But the operation only lasted four years before Donner Summit’s heavy snows made nearby Prosser Lake, which had even colder temperatures, but little snow, a more attractive alternative.
The three Serene Lakes, were turned into present day Serena and Dulzura with the raising of the water behind a dam in 1941. The construction of a new road into the lakes in 1959, issued a development opportunity, leading to the creation of eight separate subdivisions at the lakes, and over 600 homes as well as Royal Gorge Cross-Country, and the Ice Lakes Lodge.
Share this: Lynn Richardson, Your Friend in High Places
It’s just about to get busy up here. So while we all have thoroughly enjoyed the last few weeks of local’s summer, we also look forward to playing with the crowds and experiencing the activities that happen in the mountains only in the sum…sum…summertime. Here are a few upcoming activities that are well worth taking a look at:
YOUR FRIEND IN HIGH PLACES 