Category: Reno

We had a Great Summer

I have found that having blog posts about our travels and activities is extremely helpful. So when Duke asks Where did we eat in Budapest? or When did we have that flat tire in the middle of nowhere? I can search the blog and find out.

We have had a busy time since we got home from our last trip on April 10. We leave on our next trip in just two and half weeks so I thought it would be good to publish a chronicle of some of our adventures during the last four months.

  • April 19 – 21 – We camped at Bass Lake in the Forks campground.
Our Bass Lake campground

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  • May 4-6 – We camped at Casini Ranch campground on the Russian River. During the night Friday the rain came down in buckets. Luckily our tent didn’t leak. But some of the campers in our group ended up in puddles of water, We went out for breakfast Saturday morning and by Saturday afternoon every thing was drying out.
Our campsite Saturday morning
Saturday morning after the skies had cleared
  • June 19 though 30 – We did a wonderful four night camping trip in Lassen Volcanic National Park. We camped in sites B03 and B53 in Manzanita Lake Campground. We hiked around the lake, hiked down to Kings Creek Falls, Visited Subway cave and drove Highway 89 through the park, along with a lot of other fun stuff. I made a YouTube video about the trip. You can see it here.
  • On July 2 Bonnie, Duke and I hiked to the Loch Leven Lakes. We had a picnic and went swimming.
Picnic at Middle Loch Leven Lake
Swimming at Loch Leven

Bonnie and I went to a day long yoga retreat at Lake Davis. In preparation for the retreat Bonnie taught me how to ride a paddle board. Standing up was a challenge.

I stood up briefly
At the yoga retreat

July 18-20 – We camped with Brian and Bonnie at Middle Creek Campground near Upper Blue lake. We also hiked to Granite Lake. This trip was almost a duplicate of another trip that Duke and I did when we camped here in 2020.

July is Artown in Reno. We attended several great concerts.

Dianne Warwick outside at Hawkins Amphitheater
  • Last weekend July 26 – 28 we camped in South Shore Campground at Bear River Reservoir.
Perfect roasted marshmallow
The grandkids spent a lot of time in the lake.

All in all it has been a wonderful summer. We are planning a short tip to Utah before we leave for Europe. I’ll probably blog that trip.

Hiking the Tahoe Pyramid Bikeway Upstream from Verdi

As you come into Reno on Interstate 80 from California the freeway follows the Truckee River. Over the last few weeks Duke, Vicky and I have been hiking along the river. The trail we have been hiking is part of the Tahoe Pyramind Bikeway which will eventually cover the entire 116 mile length of the Truckee River from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake.

TP-Bikeway Duke and Marion

Most of the river between Truckee and the Nevada border used to be pretty much inaccessible. But in 2003 The Tahoe Pyramid Bikeway organization  was created and so far they have completed almost 75% of the bikeway.

The first stretch that starts into the mountains from Verdi to about the Nevada border is closed right now so that The Truckee Meadows Water Authority can bypass a 2,000-foot section of the existing wooden flumes with a combination of new transition flume, canal, and tunnel.

Tahoe Pyramid Bikeway1

 Our first hike was on  the section of the bikeway above the closure. Getting to this section is a bit tricky. We went up 80 to the Farad exit, got off the freeway and did a u-turn to get back on 80 going downstream. In 2.8 miles we parked on a wide dirt shoulder. From there we hiked down to a new pedestrian suspension bridge over the river and then upstream to the end of the current trail. 

Tahoe Pyramid Bikeway2

 

Tahoe Pyramid Bikeway3

 

Tahoe Pyramid Bikeway4

 

Tahoe Pyramid Bikeway5

Our second hike was from Farad upstream about 2.5 miles to Floristan and back. The trail includes a bridge over the intake pipes to the old hydroelectric plant.

TP Bikeway old power plant

It was surprising to me that although the trail is very close to the freeway and the train tracks we couldn't hear or see the freeway for much of the trail.

Train freeway river

Highlights of the trail were watching the trains, enjoying the fall colors and smells, getting to see the old wooden flumes up close, watching the river and the fishermen and exploring a new trail. I think this trail will be great for snowshoing. Now all we need is snow!

TP-Bikeway Truckee River

We Finally Visited the National Automobile Museum in Reno

Bill Harrah who built and owned Harrah's Casinos had a enormous car
collection (over 4000 cars). When he died in 1978 most of the cars were
sold. But 175 of them became the core of the National Automobile Museum
in Reno. It is located right on the Truckee River downtown across from
the Reno Aces Baseball Stadium

Duke's brother Jim and his wife Marilyn were visiting last week. Their visit gave us the perfect excuse to finally visit the National Automobile Museum. We have lived in Reno for three years and this was our first visit to the car museum. We took a docent lead tour. The guide was fantastic. He knew a lot about the cars and he made the tour really interesting. I can't over emphasize how much I enjoyed the museum. I'm ready to go again.

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I especially liked the early camping displays.

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and this 1956 Corvette and matching pedal car.

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After touring the Car museum we were hungry so we headed over to the Nugget Diner and shared a couple of Awful Awfuls the best hamburger and fries in Reno.

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If you would like to see all my pictures from the National Automobile Museum and the Nugget Diner they are available on Flickr here.

Two Great Snow Shoe Hikes not Far From Reno

Tahoe Meadows to Chickadee Ridge

One of the wonderful things about living in Reno is that there are great opportunities nearby to hike in the summer and go snow shoeing in the winter. Last Thursday I went for my first snowshoeing outing of the winter. My friend Linda had only been on snow shoes once before and agreed to go along on what I told her would be an easy hike. We snowshoed from Tahoe Meadows to Chickadee Ridge. It was an absolutely beautiful day. The sun reflecting off the snow reminded us of the glitter our friend Pat sometimes uses.

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The only thing was that the hike turned out to be a much more difficult than I remembered. It didn't help that we started just below the top of the Mount Rose Highway at about 8,550 feet altitude or that by the time we got to Chickadee Ridge where we could see Lake Tahoe we were at almost 9000 feet. We still had a wonderful time and Linda was a great sport even when I am sure she wasn't quite sure what I had gotten her into.

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We stopped for hot chocolate and snacks on the ridge overlooking Lake Tahoe

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Here is the view from the ridge.
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Here is the GPS plot of our route. I guess it was a bit steep!

GPS - rpoute Chickadee Ridge 

  If you would like to see all of my pictures from our trip they are available on Flickr here.

Donner Lake

In spite of our misadventures last week Linda and her husband Ray agreed to go snowshoeing again today. We snowshoed along the shore of Donner Lake in Donner Memorial State Park. It is a wonderful place to snowshoe. It is scenic and right off interstate 80 just west of Truckee. Our route was out and back and was a total of 2.3 miles.

Donner Lake GPS route

It was overcast today and we even had a bit of wind and snow falling but it was a lot easier than last week. and we had a lot of fun.

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If you would like to see all my pictures form today's hike they are available on Flickr here.

Washoe County Republican Precinct Meetings

Saturday I attended the Washoe County Republican Precinct Meeting for my precinct. Two years ago when I attended the Republican caucus for the presidential election there were several hundred people and McQueen High School was overflowing. I would guess that 40 to 50 precincts meet at McQueen High School. There are 261 registered Republicans in my precinct and I have no idea how many Republicans in all the precincts that meet at McQueen.

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The meeting started out with all the attendees from all the precincts in the entry way of the High School getting instructions. I would estimate that there were about 50 people in total attending. We split up into our precincts and went to separate rooms for the actual precinct meeting. There were two people from my precinct, myself and another woman. So I was the meeting chairman and she was the secretary. We elected ourselves as delegates to the county convention and central committee. Then we voted in the straw poll for our choices for the senatorial and gubernatorial races. Then we adjourned.

You would think that if you were a hard working well organized candidate you would try to attend the these meetings or at least have someone there representing you. It was interesting to note that only two candidates were represented. It makes me wonder if the other candidates even care about the people they would represent if they were elected.

It was quite impressive that Sharron Angle's husband was handing out campaign literature and she was at the meeting. Sharron Angle is running for the U.S. Senate. Angle and her husband live in our general area. She said she was going  to try to attend  all the precinct meetings around Reno. I think the other represented candidate was Brian Sandoval but I'm not sure. I talked to Sharron briefly and had my picture taken with her. I was impressed with her and I liked the fact that she makes her positions very clear on her web site. Many candidates don't. I was a little put off by the fact that another woman I talked to said that Angle is just too much of a right wing fringe candidate. My politics are probably closer to independent than to Republican but I find the whole political process fascinating.

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The straw poll ballots were counted later in the afternoon at the Washoe County Republican headquarters. I got  an email with the results.

GOVERNOR
 
Jim Gibbons            45.6%
Brian Sandoval       41.4%
Mike Montandon     12.6%
Brian Krolicki             0.4%

U.S. SENATE
 
Sharron Angle         42.9%
Sue Lowden            18.4%
Danny Tarkanian    15.2%
Mark Amodei           10.0%
Bill Parson                  5.8%
Brian Krolicki              5.5%
Robin Titus                 1.3%
Chuck Kozak              0.3%
Mike Wiley                  0.3%
Brian Sandoval          0.3%