I am not a peak bagger, so thus summiting Freel Peak, located in the Carson Range at about 10,880 feet, has never been on my list of 1,000 Things to Do Before My Knees Give Out. That said, it's spring here at the lake, which means longer days, and ostensibly the famed Sierra corn snow is getting close to harvest time. So when a friend let us know he was going to take advantage of Heavenly's last day of lift operations to attempt skiing (in his case, snowboarding) Freel, N and I were interested, if only for the potential to ski 3,000 feet of corn snow and the chance to see the top of one of the highest peaks in the area.
A trip of this caliber is not for the weak. Clocking in at close to 12 miles of skinning up and skiing down, our route took us from the Heavenly boundary line, followed the Tahoe Rim Trail roughly from Monument Peak to Star Lake, and then veered sharply upward as we skinned to the saddle at 10,000 feet. While the 6 of us (3 skiers, 3 snowboarders) started out together, it became quickly apparent that we would have to split up, as our ideal routes differed greatly due to our equipment. So we continued contouring our way towards Freel, while our friends figured a more direct path would be easier on snowshoes.
Our friend K had to be at work that night so we decided to not try for the summit when we hit the saddle around 1 pm, which was a good call. The descent, which was not the corn snow we'd hoped for, included quite a bit of intimacy with shrubs and plant life as we crossed and recrossed creeks and drainages looking for the dirt road to our rescue car. Seven and a half hours after we left Heavenly we arrived at the truck. Never has a bottle of water and a seat looked so inviting.
- A cold storm that drops a few inches of snow (and leaves sub-20 degree temps in its wake)
- Spotting 5 bears - 3 adults, 2 cubs - during a 45 minute hike with a friend and our dogs. no I didn't have a camera with me
- Buying spring fruits and vegetables while wearing a down jacket and gloves
Lake Tahoe is very much a place akin to dog heaven. Dog owners seem to outnumber the non-dog owners, and whether in pickup trucks or old subarus, dogs tend to accompany their humans everywhere - to work, to play, traveling, etc. They have their run of anywhere non-paved, including local trails (snow-covered and not), the enormous swimming pool known as Lake Tahoe, and because of this, I think they tend to be mellower and better behaved than their urban cousins who live their lives leashed, tethered and not allowed to run free from time to time.
I was reminded of Tahoe's unique pro-dog attitude twice today. First when I stopped off at Alpen Sierra to grab a quick coffee, and happened to park next to a space occupied by a gorgeous, if graying, St. Bernard, who had pretty much taken up a parking space for himself (his human had tied him to a nearby newspaper kiosk). Said St. Bernard was unflappable and completely at ease in his state of semi-consciousness as folks like me passed by and smiled. Because who wouldn't smile seeing such a gorgeous animal? He was unperturbed by us admirers, and certainly wasn't giving up his primo parking spot for anyone, including the driver of the large SUV that started pulling in - then changed her mind.
Then this evening I opened up the local free monthly newspaper (which has no editorial merits of its own, but features interesting ads from various businesses who won’t advertise in our formerly daily paper). In it was a 1/3 page ad dedicated to a man’s dog who died in 1984 – 25 years ago. While it was poorly written (not unusual here), it was obviously heartfelt, and I was strangely touched. This guy hadn’t had a dog since this one died, and apparently the cat just wasn’t the same.
While I consider myself a dog lover, and very much understand the attitudes of most dog owners here (except for the stupid & irresponsible, but I’ve vented about that already), this was something I’m pretty sure I’ll never do. For as much as I love Soleil the wonder ‘tard, I’m not sure I’d commemorate the silver anniversary of her eventual passing to the world.
But remind me of that when I entertain blogging about it, okay?
Because despite my prickliness and love of sarcastic humor, I'm still a bit of a sucker for a sweet story. I came across this video via Twitter, and it's well worth watching all 10 minutes of it. After all, it won an award at SXSW.
While I have never been described as a warm & fuzzy kind of person, my prickliness has apparently reached new heights with the hypersensitive staff at the local Park & Recs run swimming pool. I was informed today by a friend (who is my department head for the masters swim program I'm currently teaching) that apparently I was 'mean' to the front desk clerk yesterday. Baffled, I could only speculate that my inquiry about the maintenance team's poorly thought out decision to close over half the showers in the women's locker room was taken personally. Ironically enough I thought I was being friendly about it, joking with her about the fact that 12 women were relegated to 2 showers. But maybe the flames coming out of my eyes scared her?
I have no idea how people like my mother do it - the insane travel itineraries (6 states in 4 days or something like that). Heck, two cities/states in a week just about did me in this week. Which is why I'll never ever be able to work in sales (that and I'm a pretty marginal salesperson).
This week's travels took me hither and yon to both Keystone (CO) and Fallon (NV). Two seeming opposite destinations, but the reason for both visits was for travel conferences. One was for mountain travel, the other rural - you guess which goes with each destination.
While I had been to Keystone once when I was 14, I had no memories of it. I now know why. It's a generally nondescript place, a resort 'town' stretched out over a few miles of roadway, peppered primarily with lots of grey and earthtone condos, one or two hotels, and a few restaurants. And yes, a ski resort. It was a short trip, and frankly I wasn't all that fascinated with skiing Keystone, so I left my skis behind. That this was the first time I didn't ski at one of these conferences speaks volumes for my uninterest in Keystone (not skiing).
In fact, I was so uninspired by the place that the only photos I took were of Lake Tahoe on the flight back. The views definitely helped justify the bumpiness the plane encountered flying between the mountains.
Fallon was also a new place for me, and actually had more character than Keystone. I wasn't expecting much, but in addition to the strip malls, few casinos and swath of Highway 50 that runs through it, Fallon has a naval air station, a decent Holiday Inn Express, a smallish conference center (one large room), and a pretty groovy art center housed in a renovated schoolhouse. While the latter may sound more like Oregon, I learned that there's a pretty rich rural arts community in Northern Nevada. So Fallon definitely can claim to have more culture than South Lake Tahoe in that respect.
But between the flying, the shuttles, the driving, and the exhaustion of socializing (never something that comes naturally to me), I was pretty wiped out by the time I got home yesterday. Even after 10 hours of sleep last night I'm not sure I'm quite back to normal. I truly don't know how other business travelers do it - years of built up endurance? I applaud you guys, as it's not easy.
