At Donner Lake, the Donner Party confronted one of the biggest and earliest series of snowstorms on record (October 1846), and the rest is history. As weather/historian, Mark Mc Laughlin, noted in an article here on Tahoetopia, the Stephens Party had crossed Donner Pass two years earlier (1844) in November without any major problems. Roller Pass is the next pass south of Donner Pass. Roller is on the Sierra Crest at the head of Coldstream Canyon; the bottom of Coldstream is in the Donner Memorial State Park just west of Truckee.

We reached the top of Oneidas Street in South Lake Tahoe, and the sky was beginning to clear and show slices of blue. From the Oneidas trailhead at 8,000 feet it is about seven miles and 2,800 feet of climbing to reach Freel Peak.

The trail crosses a creek and follows a drainage three miles to Armstrong Pass. With two inches of snow in the deep forest we walked through a little taste of winter with views of the bright yellow leaves of fall. At Armstrong Pass we met the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) and started the long steady uphill to Freel Pass.

Tree Carvings
The carvings at Spooner Summit (7,100') on highway 50 to Carson City were put there by Basque sheepherders at the turn of the 20th century. The art, on the white trunks of aspens, is an early example of graffiti. Look high on the trees; time has passed!

Kokonee Salmon
During October and November 20,000-50,000 salmon spawn in Taylor Creek at the US Forest Service Station--Camp Richardson, near South Lake Tahoe. Visitors may descend beneath the stream to the Profile Chamber and view the underwater activities.

Schnebelen was a crafty entrepreneur known for brokering several resort deals in France, including the development of Tignes and Megeve. He was looking for opportunities in America.

Hope Valley, which is 15,000 rolling acres, made an immediate impact on the Frenchman. Up high 10,000-foot mountain peaks ring the valley, and there are grassy, well-watered meadows punctuated with graceful aspens. Ranchers have used Hope Valley since earlier times for pasturing their cattle.

I have been to the trailhead in August and found no cars there, and I have done the entire trail without seeing anyone. While the trail has no lakes alongside and it starts at the end of a remote dirt road, it makes for a wonderful day trip, especially if you start from the Truckee area, only 20 miles away down highway 89. (Driving instructions are below.)

On September 24, in keeping with tradition, Father Nelson Van Gundy blessed this year's wine grapes with snow saved from last winter. This blessing marks the beginning of harvest when grapes arrive at the “Big Red Barn,” otherwise known as the Truckee River Winery.

The grapes were hauled over the Sierras from Lodi, Nevada County, and the Santa Lucia Highlands. They will be used to start the current production of merlot, zinfandel and award-winning pinot noir wines.

While the Sierra is not New England when it comes to fall colors, our aspen groves in the fall can be quite spectacular. One of my favorite places for beautiful trees is Page Meadows, right in Tahoe City’s backyard. (Some people spell it “Paige” incorrectly, according to the authoritative book Tahoe Place Names, by Barbara Lekisch.)

The sport is soaring and your wings come in the form of a sailplane, a modern-day pterodactyl that is made of aluminum, fiberglass, carbon composites and specially treated fabrics.

Sailplanes vary in size from under 40 feet to over 80 and are designed to withstand G forces more than that of an airplane. They’ve also been known to fly at altitudes that jetliners cruise.

Sailplanes have a glide ratio from 35:1 up to 50:1. Glide ratio is the horizontal distance covered divided by the amount of descent.

The size and vastness of this massive chunk of granite dwarfs the human form. Located a stone’s throw away from U.S. Highway 50, the superb walls of Lover’s Leap loom over the hamlet of Strawberry, 40 miles east of Placerville and 18 miles southeast of Lake Tahoe.

The Leap's steep, north-facing walls are at least a half-mile wide, and several climbing routes on its main and western walls rise dramatically to 600 feet. Rugged points of rock form a cliff band that separate into four distinct and forbidding bluffs.