Since not much activity herein lately, figured a trip report of any kind is better than none.
Headed out the Donner Lake area in April. Excellent choice. Stayed at a cabin pretty close
to the lake, and about 10 mins from Donner Pass. Did you know that none of the Donner's
themselves made it as far as the pass? Yeah. Incredible story. Some of their party did
make it that far. While I was out there I read the book "Desperate Passage." Well, I
read until they started eating each other and then I put it down. You know, late night
reading, on vacation, struggling to adjust to altitude, disgusting visuals.....
We flew into Reno on a Saturday afternoon and were able to stay for eight days.
It rained for at least three of them, but we managed to stay busy and have fun.
The lake is near the little town of Truckee, named after the only river to flow OUT of
Lake Tahoe (there are about 16 that flow INTO it). The river was named by
American Emigrants who were guided by a Native American who they thought
said his name was Truckee. HA HA. It was probably Chucky or something.
The lake is about 40 mins or so from both Reno and Lake Tahoe. We'd been to Tahoe
before so we went there for just a day to see the sights - that was on one of the rainy days
and it was one of those cold, raw, drizzly, foggy could-be-miserable-with-the-wrong-mindset
kind of days but we made the best of it, taking the scenic route.
We were able to ski at Sugar Bowl (Squaw was our 2nd choice) which was about ten mins
from the cabin just over the pass. The skiing is crazy out there. They had record snowfall
this year and while driving through along Donner Pass Road you can see that people just
pull over, not always off the roadway b/c they can't. They just pull over, get their gear and
step over the guardrail and ski. They generally spot a car at the bottom and hope they end
up close to it. It's crazy. Rock climbers also just pull off, organize their gear and just start
climbing right from the roadside. Surprisingly we saw no accidents, though the potential
was ever present whenever we were there.
We thought it would be cool to be able to hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, which does cross
the pass. We think we did but with so much snow any trail markers were buried. We
checked our maps and I'm confident that though we may not have been on the trail proper
we were pretty darned close. We couldn't tell, so we just climbed up onto the ridgeline and
went overland. My brother commented that he now has such an increased appreciation for
the trail systems here in the Northeast. Go us!
Of the 800+ photos it was hard to choose just a few, but here they are.
Donner Lake
Snow banks must have been beautiful when freshly fallen snow
But, lesson to learn is don't park too close to the edge of the roadway b/c when your cars and trucks then get covered with snow the plows don't know they're there...DOH!
Skiing - back-country - at the pass
View of Lake Tahoe and Emerald Isle
Talk about resilience and perseverance...the little engine that could ain't got nuthin on this tree!
This is bad....I cannot remember the name of this hill...some aren't even named.
This might be a close up of Mt. Judah, near where the Chinese Immigrants built
tunnels for the trains. That's another amazing story.
SH*T! Don't underestimate the incline, or the effects of the altitude when trying to beat the timer.
SO close!
Chillin - like Villians
Town of Truckee is an old western-style, one horse kinda town
Along the Truckee River. They plow the bike paths out there! SO nice.
Between Reno and Truckee, the Toiyabe National Forest was a nice respite
We NEED these signs in the Whites
Found this along one of the ski runs at Sugar Bowl. We managed a great deal there:
We both skied for the day, rentals (we brought our own boots and helmets) and passes
for $120. Cannon's one day tickets this year were $85 IIRC. Pretty sweet deal.
A great trip. Can't wait to go back. Hope they get as much snow next year!