Ski Resorts Open, I'm Watching Harness Racing Horses Under Palm Trees

Some ski resorts are now open, and the rest open soon.

Mt. Rose, Alpine Meadows, and Squaw Valley are all open. Heavenly is due to open soon, and the rest won't be long. Yes, the territory is currently very limited. However, winter weather is supposed to hit us on Tuesday.

No snow where I am... I'm exhibiting books down at the Sacramento Harvest Festival at Cal Expo for my last major book launch event. It runs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

What do I love about California? Well, among other things, the weather is spectacular.  It might be cold up in Tahoe, but before the Harvest Festival opens each morning, I walk over to the race track and watch the Harness Racers in training. With a backdrop of palm trees, they come around the track, trotting and pacing.

For those who are curious, when trotting, horses move their legs on the diagonal. Left front and right rear at the same time, then right front and left rear.

When pacing, horses move both right legs forward at the same time, then both left legs. I'm told that pacing is faster than trotting. (When I was young and had horses, they didn't pace, they only walked, trotted, cantered, and galloped.)

As always, regardless of gait, horses are gorgeous animals.

Whole Foods Is Open In South Lake Tahoe

Whole Foods is open. Judging by the parking lot which was way overflowing, people are at least curious if not very excited. The vibe I got was very exciting.

It's on Lake Tahoe Blvd, just a half-block to the west of Ski Run Blvd. For those of you who know the town, that's a half block west of The Red Hut Cafe.

The address is 3600 Lake Tahoe Blvd. Phone number is 530-578-4555. But judging by the crowds at the slowest time of the year (early November), don't expect them to answer their phone now or maybe ever.

Talk about a hot business. Is it because Amazon bought them? Or is it simply that people want whole foods?

Spring In The Fall

Speaking of snow - you do remember that I wrote about snow last week? - there are multiple places where we still have snowfields left over from last winter. The Crystal Range on the west side of Desolation Wilderness. Steven's Peak. Mt. Tallac even has a few patches left. Just a bit south of Tahoe in Hope Valley, you can see large snowfields on Roundtop and The Sisters, and on Highland Peak and Raymond Peak down by Markleeville.

Would you like a dose of Spring during the Fall? Hike up to one of those snowfields and look in the soil/Grus just to the edges of the snow. These are areas that were covered with snow a week or two ago and they have just melted. In those places, you'll find plants that have suddenly felt the warmth of the sun after being buried in snow for most of a year. Those plants have evolved to take advantage of this sudden, short "spring" in the beginning of November. They do a little bit of growing in the few hours of sunlight that they see each year. They have to be fast because they could get covered by snow any time and be buried again for 12 months. Or more.

Major Daily Temp Variation

Last week we had beautiful sunny days, but some really cold nights. Check out the National Weather Service report. 47 degree difference between day and night. You see this in high deserts. But you won't generally see it in the Midwest or Back East. And you'll never see it in the tropics.

P.S. While Tahoe has some high desert temperature characteristics, we usually get so much snow in the winter that our annual precipitation (water equivalent) is up there with places in the east that regularly get summer rain. Tahoe gets no summer rain outside of the rare thunderstorm.

The Sierra foothills to the west get even more precipitation, however that precip is mostly rain in the winter. It adds up to more precipitation than most places in the US outside of the Pacific Northwest. Parts of the West Slope of the Sierra average over 50 inches of precipitation.

I knew you'd want to know this...