Category Archives: lake tahoe

Le Retour de Winter

Backyard furniture under snow | Lake Tahoe

Guess it’s time to put away the patio furniture. Photo: N Miller

It’s back.  At least for this week.

(Old Man) Winter made his entrance in grand style this week, leaving a LOT of snow in his wake.  This morning my little Subaru got hood shots as I drove through the untracked snow on my street.  The ski resorts have been excitedly posting photos and updates as the snow totals mount (1-3 feet, if you’re curious).  Heck, one’s even going to open this Thursday for the day, clearly breaking some sort of California record.

Considering Winter didn’t really show up last year, it was good to see him, even if some might argue mid-October is a tad early.  Sure, the mountain bike trails are now covered with up to three feet of new snow, but you know what they say about making tracks while the snow falls, right?  So we did just that today, getting out for some kick ‘n glide in the local meadow and golf course.

Xc skiing near Lake Tahoe

First tracks of the season.

While this may only be a preview for the time being, I’ll take it.  Even if I still can’t locate my car snowscraper.

Becoming an Expedition (Wo)Man | part two

The Expedition Man swim course at Zephyr Cove

For the first part of this story, see this post.

After breakfast I texted the Runner, letting her know the first transition time and confirming when we’d meet.  I was supposed to be bringing her race bib with me, but like the swim cap, that wasn’t something we had received.

The second transition area and finish were located in the same place, at the parking lot at the Legends at Sparks Marina, near Scheels.  I arrived early, and located a volunteer by the second transition, who confirmed where the relay transition would occur and lent me a sharpie (to mark the team number on the Runner’s leg).

I met up with the Runner and her husband, and we promptly entered the air conditioned oasis of Scheels.  This is a sporting goods store like no other, one that I’d heard a lot about.  For instance, there is an enormous arched aquarium that greets you at the front entrance.  And a FERRIS WHEEL in the center of the building! Plus, talking presidents on the second floor.  Of course, this doesn’t discount the sheer volume and selection of products available.   Or the fact that it was a good 25 degrees cooler inside than outside.

We were expecting the Cyclist to arrive around 12.30, so we went out to meet him at 12.20, only to see he’d finished early!  Clearly both he and I had not realized that the act of racing would encourage us to go faster than anticipated.

The Runner quickly took his chip and began the marathon leg of the race.  The first half was along the Truckee River Trail, and the second half was a loop around the Sparks Marina, a small man-made lake.  This was important, because it was hot, and any breeze from the water would be helpful.  Unlike the bike course, which went from point A to point B, the run course allowed us to see the Runner a number of times as she looped through.  She was clearly feeling the heat, but amazingly enough managed to maintain around an 8 minute mile for the entire run.  #badass

The timing clock showed a little over 9 hours when she came through the finish line.  Realizing that I had started 20 minutes after the race clock started, we deduced that we had come in under nine hours, though we wouldn’t know the splits until Monday.

We’re #1 (though all finishers received this medal)

It turns out that not only did we win our age group relay, but we won the overall relay!  That’s a huge ego boost for me, considering it was my first time, and I was a wee bit panicked the days leading up to it.   Overall, we were all pleased with our efforts, especially considering the heat later in the race.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever do a full one on my own, but it’s nice to know I can finish a 2.4 mile open water swim.  Plus I can now say that I’ve done an Ironman.  Sort of.

Additional links:
-    Expedition Man website
-    Expedition Man timing results

Becoming an Expedition (Wo)Man | part one

A beautiful morning for a swim

Up to last Saturday, I had never done a triathlon.  While I am a swimmer, I don’t own a road bike, am unable to run on pavement, and am generally not that interested in the other two disciplines to seriously consider such a race.

Until I was invited to participate on a relay team for Expedition Man, an Ironman distance triathlon held at Lake Tahoe.

Expedition Man is another one of these home-grown events that was introduced this year.  The organizer, a local, wanted to create a version of the Ironman race, though one that was point to point.  This ultra started at Lake Tahoe, at Zephyr Cove, and ended east of Reno in Sparks.  Between those two points were a long bike ride and a marathon run.  In 90+ degree heat.

I’ve spent the better part of the summer training in the local pool.  I also invested in a wetsuit, a necessity for swimming longer distances in Lake Tahoe.  Admittedly, the act of putting on the wetsuit was a bit daunting, so it sat in its box until two weeks before the race.  The last time I swam in open water was 1999, so I knew I had to commit to a few open water swims, particularly since my teammates were *serious* athletes, the type who ride the Death Ride (and complete it) and win ultra marathons.

The first few wetsuit ‘incidents’ weren’t great, but it got easier to get into with practice, and swimming felt less awkward.  But I had no idea how fast I’d swim the 2.4 miles, so I gave the Cyclist, the team leader,  an estimate of around an hour.

The morning of the event dawned dark at 4:15 am, and it was still dark at 5:00 am when I showed up at Zephyr Cove.  After some confusion surrounding where our timing chip was, I wetsuited up and went down to the shore, where I realized I didn’t have a race swim cap.  There were three waves of swimmers, spaced 10 minutes apart – the full ultra distance individual competitors, the half distance individual competitors, and then relay teams (or so I thought).  So I grabbed the green cap and waited with my fellow relay swimmers.  What I learned while waiting was that I was in the half distance group, and I should have started with the first wave.  An official told me not to worry, but that I’d be alone on the second lap.

Being in the last wave wasn’t a bad thing.  There were fewer folks in our group, and we all spaced out quickly, alleviating my fears of being kicked in the head.  Sighting isn’t my strength, but I was able to spot the buoys fairly far away, thanks to prescription goggles, and only zig-zagged once on the second lap.  According to N, who won the boyfriend award by getting up to watch me swim at 6 am, I pulled away from most of my wave early on, and caught up to some of the second wave by the end of the first lap.  I had no clue about this, as I was focused on spotting buoys, not going too fast but not going too slow, and trying to kick hard before I had to get out and run along the shore for the second lap.

I guess focus and training paid off, because I came in at 52:55. I half ran, half staggered up the beach and through the transition area, gasping as I tried to remove the top part of the wetsuit.  Transitions are clearly not my forte, as one hand was still caught in the neoprene as I tried to pull the timing chip off my ankle and hand it to the Cyclist.  He left, and I realized that I was done.  All I had to do was pry the rest of the wetsuit off.

Since I had a few hours before I had to meet the Runner in Sparks, I went for breakfast.  Handily, the Zephyr Cove Resort Restaurant was open, and I can confirm that the smoked salmon omelet is an awesome way to refuel after a race.

More to come tomorrow….

Age and Numbers

Dog and stick descending hiking trail

Big sticks make her happy.

You’ve probably heard that old chestnut about age being just a number.  It’s a saying you see on cards for ‘significant’ birthdays, a half-hearted attempt to make the recipient feel less decrepit.   For all it’s bad humor, there is truth to it.

A few weeks ago, I met up with my mom for a whirlwind trip to Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, to celebrate my grandmother’s 88th birthday.   She is a living example of age being just a number, appearing fearless in all that she embraces, and basically, to quote my British friends, ‘getting on with it’.  Between learning Quickbooks recently (she’s managing the local store at her retirement community) to traveling to China last October, she’s not afraid to try something new.  Plus, she can still handily beat both me and my mother at cards.

So it’s been with her in mind that I’ve tried to say yes more than no.  This is why I agreed to swim 2.4 miles on Saturday.  It’s also why I’m rocking more than a few gashes on my legs, since I’m now trying to ride more technical sections of trail on my mountain bike – not always successfully.  Though I’m pretty sure I won’t be learning Quickbooks anytime soon.

A prance in her step.

The other example of agelessness (though not grace) is my nearly 12 year old dog.  We’ve not hiked much with her this year, but took her out this weekend on a 9 mile hike at the north end of Desolation Wilderness near Meeks Bay.  An hour and a half on a gently climbing trail got us to Lake Genevieve, the first in a series of lakes along this trail (well worth exploring).    Stick chasing, swimming and prancing resulted, with Soleil acting like it was Christmas.  On our hike out she proudly held her stick between her teeth, carefully guiding it between and around the rocks on the trail, and generally not acting like an ‘old’ dog.

To me this just confirms that she didn’t get the memo about dog years.  And that age really is just a number, albeit one that she doesn’t understand.

As for me, I’m reminded that no matter the number of candles on the birthday cake, it’s not an excuse to avoid the new and exciting.  It’s a reason to relish every day, even the less-than-exciting ones.  Admittedly a hard lesson to internalize, but one I’m working on.

Day by day.

Living History Day

Lake views from Pine Lodge

How the other half lived.

While I talk a lot about the recreation and glorious scenery here, there’s admittedly more to Lake Tahoe than just playing hard and soaking up the views.  Think the history surrounding the lake, its early settlers, and of course, the wealthy folks who built grand homes along the shores at the turn of the century.

My first encounter with the latter was a little over a year ago when I attended a talk at Vikingsholm that was organized by the Sierra State Parks Foundation.  I was fascinated by the stories, and ended up volunteering for another event put on at neighboring Ed Z’berg Sugar Pine Point State Park, Living History Day.

Pine Lodge

Like Vikingsholm, Sugar Pine Point State Park was an estate that belonged to the Erhmans, a wealthy San Francisco family who summered at Lake Tahoe (technically it was built by Isaias Hellman, but later used by his daughter, Florence Hellman Erhman, proving that hyphenated names were around long before today’s challenges).  Their estate, all 2,000 acres of it (with 2 miles of shoreline…a developer’s dream) was sold to California State Parks in 1965.  While a number of the historic buildings are open for guided tours during the year, on Living History Day many more of them are open to the public.  Think boat houses, the cabin of the first homesteader, General Phipps, and the separate house that the children had, aptly named the Children’s House.   Volunteers in period dress offer tours and anecdotes about the Hellman Erhmans, and there are a slew of offerings ranging from tours to live music to vintage car displays to kids’ activities.  And of course there’s the lake, serving as a dramatic backdrop to all this living history.   The best part about this event is that it’s free, barring a parking fee.

I had been to the park a few times for volunteer meetings, but I’d not fully explored it, so N and I headed up west shore a few Saturdays ago to see how the other half lived.   It was impressive.  One of my favorite parts of the day was lying on the grass (foreign to me, seeing how we’ve not yet replaced our dead sod in the back yard) under the shade of the enormous sugar pines looking out on the lake as people in period dress strolled by.   We also toured Pine Lodge, the grand old Erhman mansion, checked out the north boat house that housed the Cherokee along with a groovy vintage video that detailed the glory days of boat racing on Lake Tahoe, and wandered the many trails that head north from Pine Lodge up along the shore.  But perhaps the best part of the day was after the event was over, enjoying wine and nibbles with other volunteers on the grand old front porch of Pine Lodge.

While it might be a bit early out to plan, the next Living History Day will be held on July 27, 2013.  I’ll be there – will you?

Fun Marks

Riding Christmas Valley

Fun times, fun marks…

Between the hilarity of Sierra Recon on Saturday, and some attempts to push myself on my new mountain bike the past few days, I’m sporting a lot of leg wounds.  Last night’s ride only added to the collection, and forced me to get all steezy as I wrapped a bandanna around the bleeding knee.

A friend told me that she tells her 6 year old daughter that cuts and scrapes are ‘fun marks’, a sign of how much fun you’re having.  It’s an awesome perspective.  Clearly I’m having a whole lot of fun.  I just don’t want to have more fun on top of the fun I’ve already had, because truth be told, that’s not so fun.

Sierra Recon Shenanigans

Sierra Recon

Those who know me know that I’m not one to sign up for organized races.  I’m not that type of competitive, preferring to challenge myself in other ways, such as long backcountry tours or mountain bike rides.  But this year has been the year of trying to say yes more than no (see: 33 Dresses).  Which is how I found myself crawling through mud and cannon balling into ice cold water on Saturday as part of a 4 person all women’s team, the OGBAMSB, aka the OG Bad  Ass Mud Slinging Bitches, a decidedly tongue in cheek ode to our collective derby past.  But I’m jumping ahead.

Sierra Recon is the brainchild of two local guys.  After having competed in one of these types of endurance mud-run races, they wanted to improve upon what they experienced by creating their own event.   A good friend works with one of the founders, and decided to get a team together.  I signed up, figuring it would be a fun way to see old friends and push myself to do something I’d never otherwise do.

Outside of doing some pull-ups in addition to the uphill mountain biking I’ve been doing this summer, I didn’t actively train for this, mostly because I wasn’t taking it too seriously.    I knew to expect mud, but I was not aware that audience participation would mean that while crawling through the mud, Recon-ers would have a steady stream of condiments (mustard, mayo, syrup, etc.) rained down upon them.  This was part of the ‘family-friendly’ and ‘audience participation’ element that Sierra Recon had promised.   Suffice to say, the kids really loved this race.  And those Cross-Fit folks did have an edge up on the upper-body heavy obstacles, which was about 98% of them.

Climbing walls and carrying kegs were all part of the hilarity.

Three course lengths were offered – beginner, intermediate and advanced.  Our 4 woman team elected to do the intermediate (blue square) course, which was 7 miles with about 1500 feet of climbing and 12-15 obstacles.  Said obstacles included everything from climbing over and through tires, carrying PBR kegs (a sponsor), boulder fields, walls to climb over, a small snow patch (hey, it was a tough winter), balance beams and a lot of hiking up and running down slopes.  The grand finale was a slip and slide at the bottom, after which the team had to cross the finish line together.

With water breaks and the lines that form at many obstacles, we did the race in just under 3 hours. This was slower than I had anticipated, but I also did not realize how much hiking vs. walking we’d be doing, or how much effort each obstacle would require.

Team OGBAMSB for the win. For reals.

Overall, it was a hoot.  I didn’t expect to have as much fun as I did, even with the various wounds I managed to rack up (including a gash to the thigh within the first quarter mile).   We learned after we finished that we’d been the 56th overall to finish, and figured it was a good effort on our part, particularly since we were doing this purely for fun.  So we were all a bit floored to learn that we’d won 1st place for our division, 4 person women’s, thus receiving a gold dog tag to add to our red ‘finisher’ dog tag.  It was, as my friend/team captain said, the icing on the cake of a fun mud and sweat filled day with friends.

Would I do it again? Apparently I have to, as I’ve been told OGBAMSB has a title to defend.  Which means that I might do a bit of training in the next 12 months.

Perhaps.

Destination Mountain Biking

I work in the tourism industry, where there’s a lot of talk about ‘destination travel’, the notion of going somewhere because of what it offers.  Think Tahoe for skiing, or Hawaii for the beaches, or New Orleans for the music.  I wanted to try to apply that to mountain biking, but on a much more micro level.

So, on July 4th we set our eyes upon a different sort of destination – Base Camp Pizza in the Heavenly Village.  To get there we admittedly took the least efficient route, but it was all in the name of food.

Riding the TRT from Star Lake

Riding the TRT from Star Lake. Photo: Jeff Glass

We began by climbing up to Star Lake and then taking the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) towards Heavenly’s Stagecoach Lodge.  This is a stunningly scenic portion of the TRT (really, what section of this trail isn’t?), one that I don’t ride that frequently.  In between technical sections there are dramatic vistas of both the Lake Tahoe basin to the west and Nevada to the east.

Views of Nevada from the trail

Views of Nevada from the trail. Photo: Jeff Glass

From the TRT we then descended the new-ish Van Sickle trail, another ridiculously scenic 3.3 mile section of trail, featuring views, technical sections and swoopy singletrack.

Sick views on the Van Sickle trail.

The Van Sickle trail ends at (wait for it) the Van Sickle Bi-State Park, located near the bottom of the Heavenly gondola…and the village.  Base Camp Pizza, located in said village, makes a Thai Chicken pizza that was enough of an incentive to ride 25 or so miles, which made for a much more decadent lunch than the smushed sandwiches we typically carry.

Destination thai chicken pizza.

After a lunch like that, a meandering ride home through the meadows was much needed, since both of us were not much in the mood to climb hills.

The final miles home.

But that said, it was a destination ride we would do again.  The pizza, and singletrack, were that good.

swimming lake tahoe

Looks cold from up here…

It’s been sort of a strange year here, one where I’ve seen more than a few reminders about life being short.  I’ve tried to use these reminders as an impetus to try new things that might be outside my comfort zone (see: 33 Dresses).

So when my swimming buddy came to me and asked me if I’d be available to do the 2.4 mile swim leg of a distance relay triathlon being held at Lake Tahoe in August, I knew I had to say yes, if only because such an opportunity doesn’t come around all that often, not in the town where I live.   Plus, life is short, so why not scare challenge myself?

Yup.  I’m doing it.  All I need now is a wetsuit.  And some time actually swimming in the lake before August 25th.