Lake Tahoe

August 8, 2009

Several events make the South Lake Tahoe experience memorable, beginning with our campsite. The Tahoe Valley Campgrounds are spectacular with pines crowding one another, and campers. The beautiful site we were given was nestled between several pines at the mouth, but wide, sandy openness behind. It took much help and encouragement to achieve just the right angle to back into the narrow opening without damage to trailer, trees or other campers. Once in, we were secluded and happy, with only the drive out to dread. The next memory was fast on heels of arrival when I hit my head on the kingpin. I’ve done this before, but never with the resulting blood. A few stitches at a local urgent care took care of the problem, but our bike riding days were postponed a bit. However, we hiked every evening in the cool pine scented mountains.

The campground is on the local trolley route. We hopped on to take the ride up the west side of the lake. We rode along the lake through villages and tourist parks past Emerald Bay. The drive was spectacular and winding enough to make the trolley a great idea. We rode it later in the week to hike down to the shore at Emerald Bay where I toured the Nordic summer home built in the 1920’s. We took the north path again when we rode bikes through forest and along shore line.

Driving east from the campground heads to Lake Tahoe, Nevada and casinos. I struck it rich with a payout of 10X winnings, too bad I had only bet a dollar! But I know a good take when I see one and quit. There is also a very good NPS exhibit for Lake Tahoe near the casinos. The exhibit helps you appreciate the many forces that formed the oldest lake in the USA, second only to Crater Lake in depth. We learned that Tahoe is so deep; it’s below Carson City at the base of the mountains. We had taken the drive straight down to Carson City and could appreciate the distance. The Comstock Silver miners were responsible for the loss of trees on the Nevada side of the lake. Driving from the lush mountainous greens and blues of Tahoe to the flat tans of Carson City is a stark contrast that takes just half an hour. You know you are in the desert. We talked about visiting the Ponderosa and Virginia City northeast of Carson City, but decided to wait for another time.

We consulted the internet, the California map and camp office personnel to determine the widest, straightest route possible from SLT to Midpines on the east side of Yosemite. There just was no good route for a rig our size, but we did determine the best of the bunch. We set out southwest and downhill. We wound through the high country of the Sierra Nevada Range where tall mountains and deep ravines are covered in massive evergreens.

Mountains eventually soften to more rolling hillsides with brown grasses of late summer. Towns are more frequent and more populated. But the road heads up once again and the vegetation and terrain progression is reversed. Colors from the 108-count box of Crayola come at you at every turn. Colors with names like sienna, galena, sage, slate, umber are scattered across the mountains.

Two amazing events occurred on CA 49, both caused by Russell’s attention to detail. At the turn off to Miraposa, the highway patrol was set up for radar. We stopped to ask the best way to go. He said CA49 was definitely the most direct and except for 1 cliff-hugging, blind hairpin turn, no worse or better than the other options. He gave us a few tips and off we went.

After several “I wonder if that was it?” queries, we knew for a fact when we were looking at the spot-dead ahead. There was a wide shoulder just before the boulder/turn, so Russell pulled over enough to allow 2 motorcycles to go first. They entered the curve just as a 1-ton truck came around towing a boat. The cyclists had to swerve to give him room, a maneuver we could not have managed! Those bikers were clinging to the edge of the road and cliff as that trucker did all he could to hug the monolith on the inside curve. We would have been toast! With breath held, Russell edged back on the road and slowly, uneventfully made the blind turn, taking pretty much the entire 2 lanes. Breathing once again on the other side, Russell glanced in the side-rear mirror to see how much traffic we had backed up. And there was our radar cop! He followed us for a way, then turned back at the next opportunity.

He was either very nice, or getting a jump on the carnage!

NEXT TIME: See north Lake Tahoe; go from Tahoe to Yosemite through Nevada.