Lake Tahoe 2001

We flew into San Francisco on Thursday, September 27th and met Julie (Zach's sister) and Doug (her husband) at the airport. Our first stop was Fisherman's Wharf for a trip to Alcatraz (which we had missed on our last trip to San Francisco). We roamed around the island and the jailhouse area (including the isolation cells) for a couple of hours and caught the boat back to Fisherman's Wharf. This was not a place to spend a lot of time. Then it was on to our walking tour of the very steep hills of San Francisco. With Zach in the lead we walked past Lombard Street, through Chinatown and finally caught a trolley back to where we started. Zach said it was training for all the hiking we would be doing in the Tahoe area. We had the chowder in a bread bowl (Doug and Zach's favorite) for dinner. We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge in the dark on the way to our hotel near Napa Valley.



On Friday we drove through Napa Valley and ended-up in St. Helena. We stopped at a number of wineries most notably Sterling, where we road their sky tram, Beringer, where we took the winery tour, and Sattui, where we had dinner that we bought at their deli with wine from their winery.



Saturday was a busy day. We started with a side trip to Muir Woods to admire the giant redwoods and took a six-mile hike through the forest. From there we went to Sonoma where they we having their annual Harvest Festival. We toured the mission and barracks and watched 18 different fire departments from the area compete in a contest that involved spraying a beer barrel connected to a wire line with hoses. To win they had to move the barrel past a certain point on their opponent's side of the street using only the stream of water from the hoses. Then it was time to head to Tahoe. On the way we stopped in Fairfield and took the tour of the Jelly Belly factory. There were billions of the candies there. We also bought an ample supply. Our next stop was Old Town Sacramento where we walked the streets and ate dinner. When we arrived at our timeshare at Tahoe about 10:30 that night, we all sat in the car with a look of disbelief at the number of stairs we had to walk up with our luggage to get to the time share (no elevators). Julie counted the stairs, 79 in all. We walked those 79 stairs many times during the week.


Lake Tahoe is about 6200 feet above sea level and our time share was at 7500 feet. On Sunday we took the Tram from the lake to the top of Heavenly Mountain where many of the ski slopes are located. The mountain is a little over 10,000 feet high. The tram ride takes about 15 minutes. After arriving at the top and enjoying the spectacular view of the lake area, we went for a "short" four-mile hike. At the end of the hike Zach had us climbing straight up the side of the mountain. He called it a short cut. It was but it was tough getting back to the top. After riding the tram down, we went to Bijou Park to play 27 holes of disc golf on a challenging course. At least we though it was challenging at the time. After dinner we went to the casinos where Doug and Zach played blackjack and Julie and Cathy played the nickel slots. Doug and Zach left winners, Julie and Cathy did not.

Monday was our day to start exploring the area around the lake. Our first stop was the Forest Service station where we were able to observe thousands of Kohanee Salmon spawning in streams. We drove on the west side of the lake and stopped at the overlook at Emerald Bay on Lake Tahoe (one of the most photographed places in the US) to hike up to Eagle falls and down to Vikingsholm. The hike to Eagle Falls was a mile. Only when we arrived at the falls did we realize there was no water flow since the falls are dependent on the snow melt. The hike down to Vikingholm was two-miles from the falls. Vikingholm is right on the shore of Emerald Bay and is fashioned after a Viking Castle. After hiking back-up we drove north to Tahoe City where we rented mountain bikes for a ride along the beautiful Truckee River to Squaw Valley and back. We had a nice dinner at a place called Rose's Café in Tahoe City.


On Tuesday we went on the other side of the lake driving through Carson City to Virginia City. Right outside Virginia City we drove through Silver City and Gold City which were thriving town during the gold rush but are now populated by only a few people. We walked the streets of Virginia City and toured one of the elegant homes from the mining days that were still in good shape. We also saw the "world famous" suicide table that was used in one of the 150 saloons in Virginia City's heyday. During the gold days Virginia City's population was over 30.000, now it is less than 2000. Before leaving we rode the Virginia & Truckee Railroad to Gold City and back and saw some of the abandoned mines along the way. From there we went to Ponderosa Ranch in Incline Village and took the tour of the Ponderosa home from Bonanza. It looked just like it did on television.

On Wednesday we went our separate ways. Julie and Doug took a boat ride on the M.S. Dixie II on Lake Tahoe. Cathy and Zach climbed Mt. Tallac. It's a little less than 10,000 feet and the climb was about 3500 feet over five miles. It took them three hours to summit. From there the view of the lake and the surrounding area could only be described as incredible. After the climb we all joined up for some disc golf on the Zephyr Cove course. The course is on the side of a mountain with some great views of the lake. The holes either went up through the trees or down through the trees and were very challenging but very fun. That night we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Chevys that was great food with huge servings.


Thursday morning we played more disc golf at Kirkwood Resort. It was another great course on the side of a mountain. This was a very special course. It had a hole that was 1200 feet long which Doug pared followed by one that was 667 feet long which Zach pared. (The average disc golf hole is around 250 to 350 feet). From there we went to Grover Hot Springs for a hike and some rock scrambling along a river and waterfall. The hike was followed by a long dip in the hot springs. The water from the hot springs is 148 degrees and is cooled to 105 degrees for the pool. That night we went to the local bowling alley where Zach set a new high score of 232 with eight strikes in the game.


Friday we went to Bodie Ghost Town, a real ghost town that is maintained by the state of California exactly as it was left. It was a mining town that had a population of 10,000 for about four years and when the gold dried up so did the population.

The next day it was time to leave. We drove back to San Francisco where we toured the Presidio, took pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, saw some other parts of the city and ate dinner at the Cliff House.