My first time

Duke and I went snow shoeing with the Sierra Canyon Hiking and Snow Shoeing Group Monday. Neither one of us had ever snow shoed before. Our route was generally along Ophir Creek which is southwest of Reno and then south off of the Mount Rose highway near the summit of the road. It was snowing and blowing but in spite of that and the cold we had a great time. I loved it. Just to be outside, in the mountains and to experience the world transformed by the snow was exhilarating. It turns out that snow shoeing is easy and fun.  Here is a picture of Duke and I at our lunch break.

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At one point Linda tried out a Hillside Self Heating Hot Cocoa that I think she said she got at Costco.. It sounds like a great idea for a winter outing doesn’t it? But guess what. The instructions say
"For best results activate at room temperatures (65 and 75 F)".  So much for that idea. After waiting 8 minutes for the hot cocoa to heat up, Walt tasted it and said it was cold! Yuck!

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If you would like to see the rest of my pictures from the hike they are available here on Flickr.

Sierra Canyon Hiking Group – Reno – Hike to Hunter Creek Falls

Seven of us from the Del Webb Sierra Canyon hiking group did the hike up Hunter Creek to the falls today.  The trip was only about 5 miles round trip with about 1000 feet of elevation gain but it was a really difficult hike because the trail was narrow and rocky with lots of steep parts on gravel. In spite of the difficulty the hike was well worth it.

One of the great things about this hike is that it goes through some wonderful wilderness but the hike starts only about a ten minute drive from home.The trailhead was at the end of  Woodchuck Court which we reached from Plateau Road. The trail followed Hunter Creek and canyon. There was lots of ice on the creek which made it really pretty. If you take this hike be sure to take the right fork about a mile in near a grove of Aspens. We went left and stayed near the creek which turned out to be a mistake. We had to make our way through thick brush and then scramble up a very steep bank to get back to the trail.

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We had lunch at the falls which were covered in ice but still had a lot of water flowing.

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This was one of the prettiest and wildest places we have hiked to and the amazing part is that we were probably no more than 5 miles from downtown Reno.

If you would like to see all the pictures from the hike you can see them on Flickr by clicking here.

Be Interesting

I started blogging back in September of 2004. Sun had started urging all of its employees to blog. I had never even heard of blogging but I thought I would give it a try. Sun was an incredibly nurturing place to start blogging. There was an internal discussion list that people used to ask questions and to give hints about blogging. One of the fathers of blogging at Sun was Tim Bray. He urged Sun bloggers to follow the Sun blogging  policy that he published. Many of his precepts like "Don’t tell secrets" and "Quality Matters" are valid for anyone who blogs whether it be in a corporate setting or not. I try hard to continue to follow them.

One of the precepts of that policy was "Be interesting". It is now over three years since I started blogging. I am no longer a part of corporate America. I love blogging and my overarching goal for my blog is to be interesting. To be interesting is in fact one of my goals in life. I don’t want to bore myself and I certainly don’t want to bore others.

The question I often think about is what makes a blog interesting? Tim says

"Write What You Know ·
The best way to be interesting, stay out of trouble, and have fun is to
write about what you know."

I think that is good advice. It is also why I need to be an interesting person to write an interesting blog. One of the fun and challenging things about being retired is that I get to explore interesting on my own.  I no longer have an employer to help define what makes me interesting.

Some people consider a blog a personal journal. People who talk only about themselves are not particularly interesting. So I don’t think a log of what I do each day would work for me. I do find that people who do interesting things write interesting blogs.

The people in my blogroll to the right write blogs that I find very interesting. They are certainly good examples of  what makes a blog interesting.

I don’t have a magic answer to the ‘interesting question’ and my blog and I are a works in progress. I would really like to hear what others think makes a blog interesting. 

What its like to live at Sierra Canyon by Del Webb

A couple of times I have received emails from people who are thinking about moving to Reno. They have read my blog and are wondering what it is like to live in a 55 and over community like Del Webb’s Sierra Canyon. Recently someone asked me the following.

"We also thought about living in a retirement community but felt it may be full of
really old people and lifeless. Can you tell me more of your experiences of
retirement living in Reno and at Del Webb?"

I thought others might find my response to him interesting so here it is.

"Thanks so much for your email and kind comments about my blog.

When I told my girls that we were moving to a Del Webb community they
were horrified that we would move to a place for "old people". Before we moved here we could never see ourselves living in an active adult community. But when we started looking for a place to live in Reno Sierra Canyon seemed like a good place to live since the houses are very nice and the rents are so reasonable.

We moved last July and it has been a great experience. I am sure there
are lots of old sedentary people here but the people we have met have been
just the opposite. If you have  looked at my blog you have probably seen all
the hikes the hiking group takes. We have a lot of fun. The people in the group are really great, interesting, active people that I have enjoyed getting to know. In addition to hiking Sierra Canyon has lots of other activities
too.

The gym always has people in it working out and I really love the yoga
class. There are also Pilates classes, water aerobics classes, dance classes and lots more.

The people in our neighborhood organized a wine walk last week. We each chipped in $10. Thirty of us visited 8 houses (including ours) and
tasted wine. It lasted from 1 until 4. Anyone visiting the neighborhood at 1
on Saturday would have been surprised to see people coming out of houses
all at the same time carrying wine glasses. We met a lot of new people and had
a lot of fun.

I want to join the bridge group
and my husband and I often play pool. There was a tournament last Saturday.
I hear that the photography group is great and the several of the people
we hike with are in the book club.

The very best part about living here has been the people. I have never lived any place where it is so easy to get to know your neighbors. I mentioned this to a friend in the hiking group Monday and she said most people who move here tend to be social outgoing people.  I think that is true.

The down sides of living here are that you do pay homeowners dues
(actually our landlord does) and the homeowners association is pretty strict
about what you can and cannot do with your house. Of course this does protect
home values.

My husband and I chose Reno because we wanted to live some place
cheaper than California and Reno was a convenient place to rent while we waited
for our house to sell. We haven’t decided whether we will settle here permanently but we are seriously considering it. Reno has been a very pleasant surprise. It is a beautiful setting and there is sure a lot to
do. Some of the people we hike with volunteer at the art museum. The museum sounds wonderful and working there sounds like fun so I want to check
it out.

If you have any other questions please let me know."

 

Sierra Canyon Hiking Group – Monday hike – Steamboat Ditch


The Steamboat Ditch Trail is a 43-mile-long canal, finished in 1878, carrying water for irrigation. It starts on the Truckee River west of Reno and ends near the junction of the Mount Rose Highway and Highway 395 south of Reno. Today we hiked from the Verdi fire station across form Boom Town and Sierra Canyon and followed the ditch up stream. None of us had ever done this before and it turned out that much of the hike was cross country since there really wasn’t a trail. There wasn’t much water so we even hiked in the ditch for a while.
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The wind was really blowing. It was clear and sunny when we started but by the time we were done clouds had blown in it was getting colder and was starting to rain. Luckily when we stopped for lunch it was still a nice day.
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If you would like to see the rest of the pictures form the hike you can see them here.