My name is Marion Vermazen. I am a traveler, hiker, reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, YouTuber, Spanish and French language student, knitter, weaver and genealogist.
Last week’s Sierra Canyon snowshoe hike was a killer. So this past Monday we did a much easier snowshoe hike. Twelve of us went to the Donner Pass Lakes (Azalea, Flora and Angle lakes).
The whole trip was a little over 4 miles starting from Donner Summit Sno-Pak.
The sun was shining and the snow was crunchy and sparkling. It was a great trip.
If you would like to see the rest of the pictures form the hike you can see them on Flickr here.
Last Monday six of us from the Sierra Canyon Snowshoeing group tried to go to Galena Falls from Mt Rose Trail head. As you can see in the pictures there was a lot of snow. There was also no trail to follow so we could not find Galena Falls. It was one of the hardest trips we have done because we were walking across very steep slopes which meant we all fell multiple times. My ankles were getting a work out too. In spite of the hard work it was a beautiful day. Being outside in such beautiful country is good for my soul.
If you would like to see all of my pictures form the hike you can see them on Flickr here.
You can just barely see the roof of the restroom building in these pictures.
Here you can see Lake Tahoe in the background.
And here is a shot of Mount Rose.
When we decided to turn back we sat down on the side on the hill and had lunch first.
Yesterday I competed in the snow shoe race for the Reno Winter Senior Games. The race was over a 5km course at Northstar Ski Resort. We went pretty much up hill through the trees for the first half of the race and down hill for the second half. I finished the race in 56.08 minutes which was fourth overall and first in my age group (55-60). Of course there were only 12 people participating in the race and I was the only one in my age group. I think next year they will promote the event more so that they have more participants. I had a lot of fun and I plan to do it again next year.
There was a photographer there from the Sierra Sun. You can see her pictures including a close up of me here.
A couple of other people used my camera to take pictures. Here are some of them. You can see the rest on my Flickr account.
Today about 10 of us from the Sierra Canyon hiking and snow shoeing group went snow shoeing to Chickadee Ridge. The views of Lake Tahoe from the top are stunning. Unfortunately when I took my camera out to start taking pictures I discovered I had left the memory card at home. Damn! So that means no pictures unless you want to look at the pictures I took when we hiked there last September. I had to head back to the car soon after we got to the ridge top because I was scheduled to go to a doctor appointment with my Dad. But the rest of the group went on along the ridge. It is basically the route of the Tahoe Rim Trail but there is so much snow that of course there is no trail.
update 3/12
One of the guys who I was snowshoeing with sent me some great pictures he took on this trip. You can see us feeding the chickadees. Thanks Paul!
We had a big storm over the weekend. At our house in west Reno we got about 8 inches of new snow and up around Truckee they got about 2 or 3 feet of new powder. In the middle of the storm Friday night the power went out for about 3 hours. It was kind of fun to sit around listening to a battery operated radio and knit by candle light.
It was above freezing all day yesterday so the snow has pretty much melted off the roads. In spite of the relatively warm weather it was gray and windy all weekend. This morning the skies had cleared and the sun was shining. It looked like a great day for snowshoeing.
Seven of us met at the lodge and headed up to Tuckee. We got off of Interstate 80 and headed north on highway 89. The plan was to park and hike along Sagehen Creek but the snow was high on each side of the road and there was really no place to park .
So we headed back south and found a side road that was sort of plowed. We parked and snowshoed in a big loop along the edge of Prosser Creek Reservoir. This was the first time I have snowshoed in really deep new snow. When I was in the lead and breaking trail I would sink in about two feet with each step. It was fun but also was very hard work. When I was following other people who had packed down the snow the hiking was so much easier.
We were only out for a couple of hours and our big loop was about a mile but as you can see it was a beautiful day. It was quite a work out. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. If you would like to see the rest of my pictures from today you can see them here.
Marion's Blog 
