4/24-4/25/17
Current Location: FS Road above Detroit Lake, OR
Monday morning we repacked the van and headed back over the Bay Bridge eastbound and bound for Lake Tahoe. The Sierras had been crushed with snow all winter long, with almost all resorts between 600-700” of snow. This meant plenty of snow to get some late April skiing in. We had hoped to get a day riding lifts but we found out the ski area on our pass, Boreal Mountain, had closed the day before. Oh well, we’ll just nap instead. Which is exactly what we spent Monday doing, errands and a nap. Plus it would give us time to make Rooney his annual birthday hat! Holy crap, he's 7!!
I hate you guys...
Can I just get my treats now?
Yeeessssss! Totally worth it.
As we approached Donner Pass some wet snow flew for a while and Truckee was pretty damp as we ran around checking out the local ski/bike shop and reload on groceries. We pulled into the nearly empty parking lot of Squaw in the middle of the day and much of the resort was closed due to high winds at the upper levels f the mountain. We found a spot in the lot that allows overnight parking and listened to the wind blow and a wet snow intermittently hit the roof for a solid afternoon nap. With the weekend weary slightly averted we went into Tahoe City for a bite to eat and beer near the lake at Tahoe Mountain Brewing. We then retired back to our huge nearly empty lot with only a small handful of other vans and RV’s for the night.
The next morning we took Alex’s advice and found some really great, pretty simple backcountry routes on the west shore of the lake. On our radar was Rubicon Peak. After finding the trailhead through some neighborhood roads that rose above the lake we geared up for the 2,000’ or so of skinning directly to the summit. The lower slopes were well covered and the snow was pretty solid. As the sun came out the snow softened quickly and we even found some recent powder that was quickly turning to mush. The glop monsters arrived after about 45 minutes of direct sun and we applied a healthy amount of wax to our skins while cursing the snow every few minutes. We topped out to views directly down to the dark blue lake. The wind was calm and the sun went in and out of the clouds while we romped around the top. We figured the snow was already pretty soupy so there was no real need to rush.
We dropped in off the top to pretty good conditions, heavy but fun. It was great to look across the expanse of Lake Tahoe from 2,600’ above it on a clear day. The skiing was pretty fun for the first half and then got extremely heavy on the lower half. We slopped our way through the mashed potatoes to end a great day of exercise and great views.
With hungry bellies we stopped at the BridgeTender in Tahoe City and wandered the dam that was mightily holding back one hell of a snowmelt as the Truckee River flowed at some 1,600 cubic feet per second as compared to 2016 of 15 cfs. Feast or famine for California and their water.
We made one more stop at FiftyFifty Brewing in Truckee before settling back in our spot at Squaw, this night along the creek on the opposite side of the lot. The evening was spent debating and researching what direction we’d head in the morning. The decision was to point north.
