Lake Tahoe Snowshoe Hikes
Experience Date: 12/31/09, 1/9/10 and 1/16/10
Stars: 5
Well, I was unlucky enough to break my wrist while learning to snowboard at Squaw Valley on January 3…bummer. This unfortunate turn of events left me starved for fun outdoor weekend activities to replace my dream winter as a Squaw snowboard bunny. Fortunately (for me) many of my friends don’t have a resort season pass this year and we began spending time snowshoe-in’ the Sierras.
The Tahoe Rim Trail Association puts together planned snowshoe hikes for various Saturdays and full moons throughout each season. Though we’ve tried, my buds and I never seem to get to the location in time to hike with the group! So I guess you could call us the Tahoe Rim Trail groupies, as we’ve now unsuccessfully hiked with the group, but had a great time on our own, at two separate Tahoe locations: Mt. Rose Meadows and Page Meadows. I just always seem to be at least 30 minutes late to anything…
Mt. Rose Meadows (Ophir Creek Trail)
On Mt. Rose Highway 431, just southwest of the summit
Any hike at the Mt. Rose Meadows results in a gorgeous view of Lake Tahoe. Following established snowshoe trails, one can expect to hike anywhere from 1 to 3 hours easily up an incline through the trees to get to the view. So far this season, we’ve hiked it twice – once on New Year’s Eve in the moonlight and a second time January 9.
New Years Eve ~ Photo by KC Mares
This is a very awkward position to be casted in! Thanks for the support, buds!
Our Snowgal
I highly recommend snowshoein’ Mt. Rose Meadows for the Tahoe view alone! Always different, the lake is beyond beautiful.
Page Meadows
From Reno, take I-80 to 89 to Tahoe City (then keep going around the lake). Around 2 miles from the highway junction turn right on to Pine Avenue. Then turn right on Tahoe Parks Heights, drive .07 miles to the top of a hill and 4 way intersection. Take the middle road, Big Pine, and proceed 0.25 miles to a left hand turn onto Silvertip Drive, follow till the end of the road where it dead ends to the meeting spot.
Diana, Holly, Patrick, Matt, Crystal & Jessie
Such Cutie Pies
Hiking Page Meadows on January 16 was fun, as our group ambled through the snow aimlessly paying no attention to the established trail but happening to find our destination anyway. (I do NOT recommend this method!) I was a little disappointed that the hike did not result in a splendid Tahoe view (you come to expect it living here!), but from what I have read Page Meadows is very pretty and alive with wildflowers in the springtime. We met quite a few cross country skiers on our trek, so this area I assume is quite suitable for both sports.
Three more weeks until I get my cast off…
Door Art
Have you ever looked around your apartment and thought…plain white doors are so 5 minutes ago?
Well a random series of events led me to think this exact thought. And the thought turned in to my very first “Door Art” project. Exhibit A:
There is no Exhibit B...
But, “What does it take to get there?” you may ask. “Can I afford it?” “Do I really have enough time, enough talent?”
The answer: Hell yes, you do. Because I’m sharing my secret to creating fabulous door art.
Door Art: The Idea is King
Get some Supplies
What you need-
- (1) door
- (1) can of spray paint in the color of your desire
- assorted acrylic paints
- assorted art sponges
- painters tape
- some killer music for inspiration…for this project, I chose The Prodigy
- an idea…
Drawr some Drawrings
The idea is your king. All hail the idea. You may have a door, paint and music readily available or as close as a Wal-mart run away, but the idea is central to any and all door art. I decided on a giant martini glass after my original idea of recreating The Scream or The Starry Night seemed doomed for failure. I think that their may also be something to be said for simplicity in your idea as well, at least for your first foray into Door Art.
Don't spray the Tree
After the idea, the rest falls right into place. Draw out several design executions and then tape out your favorite directly on to the door. Haul your door to a location safe for spraypainting, shake up that can and let loose.
When the door is dry, use the sponge and acrylics to fill in the design. When the acrylics dry, peel back the tape and wahoo! Your Door Art masterpiece is complete. Have a dinner party and enjoy the barrage of compliments from your guests.
The First Reno Review. UNR Planetarium.
Crystal and Matt make learning FUN.
Experience date: 3/28/09
stars ~ 3.5
Because 67 mph winds canceled plans to get a full day in skiing Alpine Meadows, my boyfriend Matt and I were left wide awake at 9am on a Sunday morning (which is very, very early on a weekend for the likes of us) with absolutely no plans and nothing to do in our beloved Reno.
So, after breakfast downtown at Peg’s Glorified Ham & Eggs, trips to Junkee, Plato’s Closet, Marshall’s and that pet store on Wells Avenue, it was barely afternoon. What were we to do? (Besides agree that Matt is a fantastic boyfriend, actually accompanying me to all of these places with a smile on his face.)
Enter the Fleischmann Planetarium & Science Center on the campus of the University of Nevada. Most 20-something couples don’t exactly frequent this Reno attraction on the weekends, but my scientist boyfriend and I managed to convince our friends Zach and Janet to join us for the 2pm showing of ‘Black Holes’ which included a 10-minute star show. If we were going to be awake from 7:30am on a Sunday in shitty weather, we were going to DO SOMETHING. Even something educational. (I was more than “secretly” excited though, I’m not gonna lie. I tend to be quite easily amused.)
Walking (fast) up to the planetarium the wind whipped us around, but we pressed on and entered the building. After negotiating the price (I pulled out my long expired student ID and got away with a $2 discount…hehehe) we forked over 10 bucks as a couple and headed down the stairs to the large, domed room.
We got stuck sitting on the right side, because the early birds had already arrived and snagged the middle. We leaned back in our chairs (which, somewhat disappointingly after Matt’s raving of the fabulous recline at the various planetariums he’d previously been to, didn’t quite measure up to what I was hoping for) and got ready to learn. At least I did, seeing as I knew about the big and little dipper and pretty much nothing else on the subject of stargazing and black holes.
It began, and we watched the intro video on stars. It wasn’t too shabby, and gave a pretty good overview of stargazing in the Spring, and what we should watch for. Note: I have forgotten almost everything that was overviewed. I do remember thinking “I need to stargaze tonight!” Which didn’t happen. Next up was the tutorial on black holes. Black holes, from what I now understand, are dead stars. When stars die, it means they burned up all the gases that had made them a star in the first place. The burning keeps them alive for a long time, creating the exact right amount of energy give off and therefore gravitational pull. When they burn through all their elements and get to an element such as iron, which actually uses energy in the process versus giving off energy—its pretty much the end of that star.
A black hole I’ve learned sucks up everything close enough to it and compresses it into very very very tight matter, just getting more and more powerful. But, don’t worry people—they said that our star, the sun, has about 5 million more years of burning brightly before we need to worry about Earth being sucked into nothingness. That is, if they even do exist…they are, after all, invisible.
After the show, Matt decided he absolutely needed a souvenir so we browsed for a while where he decided on growing his own crystals (the employee at the counter said don’t bother, we’d be disappointed), then a wooden puzzle (he carried it around for a while), and finally we went home with nothing but a picture in front of a huge model Earth…and a couple of smiles.
So there you have it. The University of Nevada Planetarium in fabulous Reno, Nevada. I’m giving it 3.5 STARS. Next time though, I’ll find some eager kiddies to escort. I think they’d appreciate it just a little bit more than we did.
