Month: April 2009

Steamboat Ditch and the Tom Cooke Trail to Hole in the Wall

Back In February Duke and I hiked the Tom Cooke Trail to Hole in the Wall. This hike is on page 233 of the book Afoot & Afield Reno-Tahoe A comprehensive hiking Guide by Mike White. The trail starts right next to the Patagonia Outlet on the Truckee River and heads south and then west along the Steamboat Ditch to where the ditch goes through a tunnel.

If you are familiar with Reno you are familiar with the ditches but otherwise you are probably wondering what I am talking about. Reno has a series of canals that carry water from the Truckee river for irrigation. I wanted to know more about the Steamboat Ditch but had a hard time finding any information. The Reno library wasn't able to help me.

Finally today I went to the library at the Nevada Historical Society. The people there were incredibly helpful and I learned a lot.

As the Reno area was first being settled in the second half of the nineteenth century most ranches got there water by buying shares in a ditch company. About 130 miles of ditches were created in the Reno area primarily for irrigation. 

The last ditch company was formed in 1877. It was the Truckee & Steamboat Irrigating Canal Company. Trustees  hired Chinese labor to construct the 33 miles of canal. White laborers were angry and announced that they would drive the Chinese out by force. In spite of their threats the Steamboat Ditch was opened July 1, 1880. It took two years and $40,000 to build

The Steamboat Ditch starts at the Nevada-California Line near interstate 80 west of Reno. Water is taken out of the Truckee river and is carried in flumes and through canals to an area south of Reno near Steamboat Creek. On our hike we walked along the ditch to one end of a tunnel that was built through a hill above the river. It is a long dark tunnel and you can just see the light at the end of the tunnel.

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During the winter if you ever take Interstate 80 into Reno you can see the flume for the Steamboat Ditch on the other side of the river. The icicles hanging down underneath the flume are beautiful.

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There are other paths to hike along the canal and I am looking forward to exploring more of the Steamboat Ditch and learning more about it.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The book club selection for the Reno Newcomers Club Book Club this month was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I decided to get this book from the library rather than buy it for my Kindle because I didn't think I would want to read it again but now I am not sure.

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I can't say I enjoyed reading this book because  as I read it I had a sense of dread. How can you not have a sense of dread when the book is set in Nazi Germany and the narrator is Death.

In spite of the fact that I didn't enjoy reading the book I was totally blown away by the book. What a masterpiece. The multiple layers. The unforgettable characters. I feel like I know them. My sense of dread was because I cared about them.

The Book Thief talks about the power of words to heal as well as wound. It talks about the power of words to calm. One of my favorite parts of the book was when the main character, Liesel, reads to her neighbors and family in the bomb shelter. It reminds me of how I read to my girls when they were growing up. Especially how I would sit between their two rooms and read to them when they were teenagers and were going to sleep after an exhausting day.

I think if I were to read The Book Thief again I might be able to relax and enjoy the intricacies, the colors, the words and the rich themes of love, loyalty, humor, community, and the power of words.