Most Impressive Drive

Last night I studied Google maps to find the least obvious way to get to Fresno and I think I did pretty well. We only went 316 mi. but it took us 10 hours...an average of 31.6 mph for you non-engineers. We started out going back up Mount Rose Road and crossing over to Lake Tahoe. It was foggy, snowing and windy at the top of Mount Rose and did not clear until we were almost at the lake.

We were really excited about the possibility of driving in the snow today. Yeah, we know that's a crazy notion, but we find it to be so much fun. Afterall we do have a 4 wheel drive vehicle that hasn't had an awful lot of chance to use it's capability...gotta a chance to test it today. It passed!







What we could see of Lake Tahoe through the snow squalls was gorgeous and the 30-50 mph winds coming across the lake towards us created waves 2-3' high.








After we crossed into CA, we listened to the road condition radio and found out that the passes we intended to take across the Sierra Nevada mountains (Luther's Pass and Carson Pass) both required 4WD or chains. We've got 4WD and the chains so we stuck to Plan A and headed out for what we hoped would be an adventurous drive. Man it snows a lot up there. Going up the east side of the mountain the snow along the road was 12-18" deep and it was snowing pretty good, but the road was clear of snow...darn. We proceeded. Between Luther's Pass and Carson Pass there is a high plateau that was just plain beautiful. There were lots of places to go cross country skiing or snowshoeing. Too bad we were on a tight schedule...yeah I said it we had an actual schedule today.

We did see a dog sled and stopped for a few pictures as they were getting harnessed. We had no idea how excited these dogs were to start running. They were barking and jumping around like crazy until they took off and then they were all just running flat out with a sled hooked to them. The musher and her 'cargo' of people must have had to hang on for dear life.







As we approached Carson Pass on the west side of the plateau the snow along the road kept getting deeper, it kept snowing harder and the road got covered pretty well. It was slow going, but great fun.

Even watching the snow plows work was great entertainment.

Kind of deep isn't it? No idea how it stays up on the hillside and not on top of us.










It was really pretty, but I ain't stopp'n....






By the time we got down off the mountain it was 60F and sunny. What a difference a few thousand feet makes. After lunch, Cindi took over driving and we followed a series of large reservoirs (New Melones, New Don Pedro and McClure) along the base of the Sierra Nevada's until the road headed west over to Fresno. The reservoirs are built in REALLY DEEP valleys and the road is barely hanging on the edge of the mountains. In the direction we were headed we were almost always on the outside edge and once again there was a 12" wide shoulder with NO guard rail...Cindi loves that...well not really. It was pretty spooky and Cindi spent half her time on the other side of the yellow line trying to keep away from the edge. I just tried not to look down. The scenery was spectacular though.

The road was already narrow, but sure enough it got narrower.

All the reservoirs were way below full (about 170' below full). Overall, CA reservoirs are about 65% of normal. I suspect that southern California is in for a water shortage this summer. Seeing these reservoirs also gave me some insight into what the environmental wacko's out here are looking at. There are so many reservoirs and they are so big that they capture almost all of the free-flowing water coming out of the Sierra Nevada's and redirect it to Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley. In one place, we were driving along the river downstream from one of these reservoirs and the river bed was all-but dry. I can't remember which one, but McClure for example has 1,500 cubic feet per sec coming in and they are releasing only 47 cfs. Whatever normally would use the water downstream (both people and/or wildlife) are in big trouble.



The four pipelines from one of the reservoirs heading up the mountainside towards Southern California.

You can see where the water would be if the reservoir was full. That small patch of blue in the lower left is the actual water level.

There is a frog jumping contest May, but we didn't see any frogs. I guess it's too early.



Once out of the mountains, we actually saw our first signs of Spring...green grass and some wild flowers. Tomorrow it's back up to the mountains in Sequoia National Park to see some really big trees...hopefully drive/walk through General Sherman.



I heard that CA drivers were wild, but this is ridiculous!







From snow to palms in five hours. Amazing isn't it?

Mount Rose and the Wind

Today we headed up to Mount Rose Ski Resort just outside of Reno. When we arrived yesterday in Reno we found temperatures in the 60's and worried about what to wear skiing today...figured we may have spring like conditions. What we found was not Spring in any form. When we arrived at the parking lot which happens to be at 8620 feet we found wind, cold and some snow flying around. Glad we decided to wear our usual gear...really glad once we were on the lifts.

On the road up to Mount Rose we noticed a very important sign. We didn't stop.

The winds were blowing between 25-30 mph at the summit (9700 feet) which was not pleasant, especially when the lift we happened to be on didn't have a safety bar. Really not pleasant when we strapped into our snowboards...anyone for snow sailing from a lift? We're thinking that this place would have some really beautiful scenery...if you could see it, but the clouds & fog weren't helpful in that department.

The skiing was affected as well with the low visibility and high winds making the skiing so unpleasant we decided to switch to our boards right before lunch. The bunny slopes were a little too flat for working on Cindi's boarding so we took a break before trying something a tad bit steeper. Little did we know that things were about to get very interesting. You see when we came back out after lunch one of our boards went MIA...as in gone. The board simply vanished...not pleased after looking through all the racks and under the decks Cindi headed inside to report the theft of her board. Thankfully a fellow skier noticed us looking around & asked if we were missing a red board 'cause it just so happened that he'd seen it take off down the hill at a rapid rate. Apparently the high wind had blown it off the rack and gravity took over from there.

I dragged Cindi back outside to search the hills & ravines for her board...really wish we had bought our snowshoes out to the slopes because there was a good bit of snow to sink our feet into as we headed down the slope & into the woods. Thankfully we found the board stuck in some brush so we could resume our day without having to go board buying...thank goodness!

After some coaxing, Cindi agreed to head up to her first significant blue run. After some getting used to the steepness, she took to carving turns like a pro. Well at least she was making turns on some pretty steep stuff. Next, I'll have to work on her speed.




View of Reno from Mount Rose Road.

The gas station next to our hotel.

Coyotes and Dust Devils

Today we headed down to Reno, NV. It's a long way and not much in the way of excitement. Snow covered mountains are always in sight, but the drive is through mostly flat desert. There were four places where the road actually went absolutely straight for 15-20 mi. Which means it must be pretty boring if the best thing we could do was measure the straight pieces of road.

This is the road out of Boise.

The road into Rome, OR.

One heck of a straight road.

We did see a coyote cross the road right in front of the car and he stuck around for some close-ups. That was it for wildlife, no deer, no pronghorn, nothing but one coyote...oh and the usual cattle & horses sprinkled through parts of Idaho, Oregon & Nevada.








After passing through Winnemucca, NV the excitement for the afternoon was watching dozens of dust devils spin across the desert.












In Rome, OR we saw this sign. The town is composed of one derelict building so I guess the 'Congestion' refers to the six horses behind the building.



Only one more thing to say about the long drive...why does Oregon post speed limits of 55 MPH when the road is straight & absolutely nothing for miles? What's up with that...every sane person traveled much faster.

Smurf Field

We hit the road early and happily left Spokane in the rear view mirror. It was rainy and foggy for the first twenty or thirty miles but just before we reached Pullman, WA it cleared-out.


So long Spokane.




Pullman seemed to be your typical college town (Washington State) and reminded us of Blacksburg except it was REALLY hilly and there was NOTHING else anywhere close.





Here's the Washington State Cougar.











Here's the biggest thing to hit Pullman since WSU beat UW. At the time both were winless in Div. 1 but it still took OT to determine the biggest loser. UW finished 0-12, WSU 2-10. There other win was Portland State. Maybe we'll have to come back for the Lentil Festival in Aug. so we can make it back to B'burg for actual football.





The surrounding countryside is called the Palouse Region and is very rich rolling hills that have been converted from prairie to wheat, barley and lentil farming. It's really amazing that they farm virtually road-to-road. It makes the region seem very artificial but they must turn out an amazing amount of wheat. The region has an unusual earthworm, the Palouse earthworm, that is white, grows to 3 ft. long, smells like lillies and spits in selfdefense. Who knew?



Further south we came to the Snake River canyon. The road just breaks over a hill and then plunges into the 2,000 ft. deep canyon. There are no trees and it's so immense you loose all perspective and get a little (OK, a lot) dizzy. We took the old road built in 1917 and it had a million switchbacks. There was no guardrail and Cindi didn't care much for the expansive view when she was on the outside edge. I didn't care much for it when I was on the outside either.




View into the Snake River gorge. They ain't kiddn' about the shoulder either.

















"Hey, what are you looking at? I was here first, and I don't need no stink'n fence!" (Note that this was on the road down into the Snake River gorge and those rotten posts are what pass for a guard rail in the few places that there is anything.)...get this the road's name is "Old Spiral Road" at least according to George (our GPS).




From there we followed various rivers and creeks all the way to Boise. One comment on the economy was when the road followed a spur railroad that had a line of furloughed pulpwood rail cars that was 17 miles long! That's a lot of lumberjacks, railworkers and millworkers out of work. The river gorges and high plateaus were spectacular and overall this was some of the best scenery of the trip. It would have been even better if the weather was better, but at least we got a few periods of real rain that washed the car off. This was the first rain of the whole trip.


We didn't get any really good pics, but here are the best we got.











On the last downhill run to Boise we left the rain behind and got a rainbow.








This has nothing to do with anything, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't name my convenience store chain 'Stinker'. I'm really sure that if there was a convince store chain named Stinker and I was Jack in the Box, I wouldn't get affiliated with them.








Hey, what'da know, Smurf Field really is blue.





Tomorrow, Reno or Bust.