Spring Hike/Walk Without Snow

 Are you a hiker? Are you coming to the South Shore? If you want a place to go for a nice long walk that isn't buried in snow and has gorgeous views, come to the Tallac Historic Site. There are very few tourists this time of year, and the views across the lake are grand.

View of Mt. Tallac, the biggest mountain directly on the shore of Tahoe.

How to get there?

At the "Y" intersection where Emerald Bay Road turns north from Lake Tahoe Blvd., drive northwest out Emerald Bay Road. About three miles out, look for signs for Camp Richardson. There's a General Store, a classic old hotel, lots of cabins, etc.

When you go past the General Store on the right, continue a quarter mile or so and watch for the sign to Valhalla, again on the right.

Just after the turnoff (which is closed) to Valhalla, there is a gravel parking lot on the right where you can park. (There are also many other places where you can simply pull off the highway and park.)

From wherever you park, you will find numerous trails and paths and roads that head north to the shore of Lake Tahoe. When you get to the lake (about a quarter mile) head west along the shore. Take your time exploring. You will find the Heller Estate: https://valhallatahoe.com/valhalla-grand-hall/ , the Pope Estate, the Baldwin Cabin, multiple beaches etc.

Enjoy the old-growth Ponderosa Pines at Valhalla, monster trees that are 7 feet in diameter. Check out the spectacular view of Mt. Rose and the surrounding mountains, 30 miles north. And of course, there is nearby Mt. Tallac, the tallest mountain that sits directly on Lake Tahoe.

You will find miles of snow-free trails and beaches worth exploring. This time of year, you can enjoy these places like locals, unencumbered by the hordes of tourists that will descend come July.

McKenna And Spot In The Vaccine Line

TAHOE HERALD 

News Flash

Byline: Glenda Gorman

A reliable witness reports seeing a tall man with a giant Harlequin Great Dane in the vaccination line. This reporter suggests that the overwhelming likelihood is that their identities were local detective Owen McKenna and his 170-pound dog Spot. The witness said that Spot dutifully followed McKenna up to the booth where the shots were being administered. 

After McKenna received his vaccination, apparently Spot showed substantial disappointment at not being allowed to get his own shot. As McKenna pulled Spot away by the collar, Spot kept turning and pulling as if to go back. The witness said that Spot's brow was furrowed. 

Later, the witness allowed that it may not have been the vaccination that seemed enticing to the dog as much as the charming nurse who administered the shot to McKenna and then whispered something in Spot's ear, which made the dog wag with vigor.

Subsequently, another person saw McKenna and Spot over at an ice cream stand, where McKenna bought his dog a vanilla cone, perhaps as a consolation for not being able to spend more time in the vaccination booth. McKenna reportedly held the cone so his dog could lick the ice cream and enjoy it at a leisurely pace. But Spot opened his mouth - described by the onlooker as a yawning chasm reminiscent of the size and pink color of the canyons near Sedona, Arizona - took the entire cone in his mouth, and chomped down on it. McKenna tried to intervene, but Spot would have none of it. He quickly ate the treat, then shook his head as if he had an ice cream headache. 

When this reporter called McKenna and asked if the vaccination hurt, McKenna said he'd hadn't felt a thing and that the cost of his dog's ice cream was many times more painful. 

Don't Despair, Ski Resorts Are Open As Late As May

 

Here ski resort closing dates as reported in several places. The list moves roughly from the South Shore to the North Shore.

Kirkwood         April 11

Sierra                April 11

Heavenly          April 18

Homewood       May 5          

Diamond Peak  April 11

Northstar           April 18

Mt. Rose           May 5

Squaw-Alpine   May 1

Sugar Bowl       April 25

Tahoe Donner   April 4

Donner Ski Ranch April 1

Soda Springs      April 18

Boreal               April 11

As always, check before you go. Make sure the resort is still open, and make sure you have reservations if they are required.

Enjoy!!!

 

Does Tahoe Get The Most Snow In The Sierra?

 Here's an interesting bit of trivia (to me, anyway) about snowfall in the Tahoe region.

Everyone knows that Tahoe gets tons of snow. Does more snow fall because Tahoe is at 6,250 feet above sea level? How about nearby areas like Kirkwood at 8000 feet?

Yes, but not for the reason you probably think!

When storms push off the Pacific and rise up the Sierra, the clouds cool, and they can't hold as much water vapor. So they drop their moisture as precipitation. Here comes the surprise trivia. 

By the time the storms have come up over the Sierra crest at 8000 to 10,000 feet, they've already dropped the majority of their moisture!

This moisture generally falls as rain on the West Slope of the Sierra. As the storms get to the higher mountains, the air has cooled enough that the remaining precipitation usually falls as snow. And because Tahoe is colder, that snow usually sticks around and accumulates into a deep snow pack.

Once in awhile, the storms stay cold enough that the foothill precipitation comes as snow down to 3000 feet or even lower. When that happens, the greater total moisture in the foothills means that the higher foothills can actually get more snow than Tahoe! 

Tonight, we are supposed to get a moderate storm. It will be cold. As I write this, Tahoe is expected to get up to 8 inches at 7000 feet and up to 12 inches on the Sierra crest. But the higher foothills are expected to get up to 18 inches!

Because foothill temperatures are generally warmer, their snow will melt and Tahoe's snow will remain, adding to the perception that Tahoe gets all the snow. The bottom line is that the foothills get more total moisture than Tahoe. When it's very cold, that occasionally translates into more snow.

This happens a couple of times a year. 

Phew! You probably couldn't get through the day without knowing that, huh?

Chicken Ice Cream

 I've learned to pay attention to ideas I get in the middle of the night when I can't sleep. 

If I've got the energy, I get up and write my idea down. If I don't, I often won't remember it come morning. Sometimes, I just mouth the idea to myself as a memory help so I don't have to get up. That trick often helps me remember the great idea.

Last night, I had a truly great idea that I knew would solve a particular problem in the scene I'm writing. I could have my character eat chicken ice cream.

Of course, come morning, I realized it was idiotic. I guess I wasn't so awake after all!

Ah, another revealing look into the lofty world of writers.

Guaranteed Covid Depression Cure

 I was in the supermarket parking lot and saw one of the employees come out and begin gathering the shopping carts. She was clearly depressed, stooped, bundled up against winter cold, walking with no energy. She looked like it would take a miracle for her not to turn in her resignation in the next five minutes.

She saw a wayward cart over at the far edge of the parking lot and began trudging her way over toward it.

There was a man with a German Shepherd on a very long leash. The dog saw the woman and pulled toward her. The woman saw the dog and veered toward it. The dog and woman met and touched, then hugged, then romped. It took about 60 seconds for the complete transformation.

The woman became joyous and light on her feet. She smiled and gestured, hugged the dog some more. She did a pirouette in her snow boots. She attempted to move away to get the cart, then turned back and went back to the shepherd for another dog fix of love and happiness.

Eventually, she succeeded in separating herself from the dog. As she came a good distance from the dog, she came near me. I couldn't help noticing that the sad woman was now happy. Instead of frowning, she was grinning to herself. She turned for a moment and glanced back at the dog. When she turned back to the cart she was smiling even more. 

It was a profound example of what dogs do for people. A strange dog transformed this woman's life. Maybe for five minutes, maybe for five hours, maybe for five days.

Quiz - Lake Tahoe Volume Compared To Other Lakes

 If you look at lakes on the map of the United States, you'll see five big ones stand out. The five Great Lakes are big by any measure.  Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Ontario, and Erie. In addition to surface area, those are the five biggest U.S. lakes by volume as well.

So what lake comes in at number six by volume? A glance at the map shows dozens of possibilities. You know the answer of course, because you're reading my blog.

Lake Tahoe isn't huge by surface area. But it is DEEP, the 10th deepest freshwater lake in the world. And it is the second highest big lake in the world.

As for volume, Tahoe contains 36 cubic miles of water. Nothing compared to Superior. But it's kind of amazing to look at the U.S. map and realize that after the five Great Lakes, Tahoe has more water than any other lake in the U.S.! 

Saint Valentine

 Ever wonder where all this lovey dovey Valentine celebration stuff came from?

There are several competing stories, most involving men named Valentine. One of the more likely seems to be about a clergyman named Valentinus. who lived in Rome back in the third century. Christians weren't very popular back then. But Valentine was supposedly nice to them. And he even performed marriage ceremonies for Christians, or so the story goes. (Medieval stories are notorious for being just that. Stories.)

But the whole marriage-of-Christians concept had the kind of nice ring to it that allowed the story to flourish. Anyway, for whatever reason, the Romans in charge sentenced him to death for his crimes, and he was beheaded on Feb 14, 270. Centuries later he was made a saint.

The idea of celebrating Valentinus's death with symbols of love didn't take hold right away. By some accounts it wasn't until the Italian Renaissance in the 14th or 15th centuries that people started celebrating love. (It took over one thousand years for love to take hold in the popular culture!)

In the meantime, it's always a good idea to do something sweet for your love, whether on Valentinus's birthday or not.

What Does That Character Look Like?!

My wife is doing the first of four edits on my new book. In it, El Dorado County Sheriff's Office Sergeant Bains is featured, and what he looks like is described. My wife said, "I don't remember reading what Bains looked like in past books." 

"That's because I don't think I've ever described him before," I said. (If I have, I forgot about it, and I'll get emails from people telling me I got him wrong!)

When writers begin writing novels, we often assume we have to say what all the characters look like. But it isn't necessary.

The first book in the Owen McKenna series was the fifth novel I'd written (those books are unpublished). 

Owen McKenna's sidekick Spot

I'd described a lot of characters by the time I began Owen McKenna. With this new series, I decided I wouldn't describe what McKenna looks like other than to say he's 6' 6" and weighs 215. And, just once, Glennie, the reporter, refers to his blue eyes.

But mugshot stuff? Nada. Nothing  about his looks.

There's no rule about this. If you want, you can describe a character down to the hair on their knuckles.

What happens when you don't describe characters? Readers fill it in. I can't count the number of times readers have referred to McKenna's looks. When I say that I never described them, they tell me I'm wrong. They know I'm wrong because they know exactly what McKenna looks like. Which is, apparently, proof that I've thoroughly described him!

Same for Sergeant Diamond Martinez of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. All we know about him is that he's got brown skin (he's a Mexican immigrant). Yet readers seem to know exactly what he looks like as well. They even think he's handsome. I know this because I've gotten quite a few emails from women proposing marriage to Diamond. (I know - I didn't see that coming.) In their surprisingly earnest proposals, they make it clear he's an attractive guy.

Incidentally, I do describe other characters like Street Casey and FBI Agent Ramos and of course Spot, and many many bit characters. 

Stay tuned... The next McKenna (#19) is due out this coming August. You'll know what Sergeant Bains looks like then!

 

Only 5 - 8 Feet Of Snow, And You Can't Get Here From Anywhere

 In the winter of '92 - '93, Tahoe set several snow records. One memorable event, after a particularly big storm, was when one of Tahoe's radio stations broadcast phone calls to ski resorts asking about how much snow the resorts had received. The calls to both Diamond Peak and Kirkwood were notable. Both said - in essence - "The good news is that we've got eight feet of new snow. The bad news is that you can't get here from anywhere!"

The recent storm buried Tahoe. While Kirkwood  (to the south) only got 5 feet, the Interstate 80 areas (to the north) got up to 8 feet.

Snow removal is better now than in the early '90s. However, the highways in and out of the Tahoe Basin were closed, and, for a time, you couldn't get here from anywhere!

Enjoy!

P.S. The resorts are following new pandemic rules, which require RESERVATIONS. So don't just drive to Tahoe and expect to ski. Do your research and get your reservation first.

Inaugural Poet - Great Writing...

 The inaugural poet made me cry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ055ilIiN4

Free Reading For All My Books

 Where we live in Tahoe, we don't have broadband internet. So we get DVDs from Netflix. We never consider buying DVDs. Subscription "rental" works well. Pay a monthly fee and watch as many movies as we want, subject of course to the speed of the post office moving those DVDs back and forth from us to Netflix.

So I understand the appeal of the Kindle Unlimited program. Pay Amazon approximately $10 a month and read as many books as you want. The only qualifier is that publishers have to enroll their books in the program for them to be available. Publishers have now enrolled enough books in the program for thousands of lifetimes of reading.

I recently read that 160 million readers have joined the Kindle Unlimited program. That sounds like an astonishing number. But, as with Netflix watchers, and Spotify listeners, there are readers all over the world.

All of my books are now enrolled in Kindle Unlimited. So members can read them at no cost beyond the low monthly fee. If you belong, enjoy my books! If you don't belong, maybe you should give it a try.

You don't even need to buy a Kindle, as you can download the program for free onto you laptop or your iPad or even your phone.  (Trivia: People in Japan read more books on their phones than any other way!)

You can try the Kindle Unlimited program for free. Here's the link:

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/hz/subscribe/ku?ref=ks_us_g_hK_kwd-314757834900_aE&_encoding=UTF8&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

If you click on any of the books to the left, that will take you to their Amazon page.

 Thanks very much for your interest.