DEL.ICIO.USFROM ATLANTA TO NEVADA
Add Lake Tahoe to list of places to see before you dieUniversal Press Syndicate
Published on: 08/10/08
Lake Tahoe, Nev. — It's a weird feeling to look down at a clear, blue sky. You want to grab something solid, check your bearings. A tree would be nice.
But if you happen to be drifting in a sea kayak on mirror-smooth Lake Tahoe, there are no solid objects. Everything is a dreamy blue.
 Jeremy Schmidt / Universal Press Syndicate | ||
| Mountains across Lake Tahoe are in the Desolation Wilderness Area. | ||
 Jeremy Schmidt / Universal Press Syndicate | ||
| The Flume Trail cruises high above the lake, offering views of mountains and the hook-shaped beach at Sand Harbor State Park, Nev. | ||
 Jeremy Schmidt / Universal Press Syndicate | ||
| Kayaks drift along the eastern shore of the lake. | ||
 Jeremy Schmidt / Universal Press Syndicate | ||
| Cycling to Flume Trail is a demanding, uphill climb from Spooner Lake. | ||
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Your kayak wobbles like your brain, which up to now thought it understood the fundamentals of gravity and the behavior of liquids. Sky is up, water should be down.
Smack! Your companion's paddle slaps the water. His bright-yellow boat sails into view, providing a visual reference, and your spinning senses recover.
It's the water — 39 trillion gallons so clear, it might as well be air.
For me and my family, Lake Tahoe is a new and delightful experience. A recent move pulled us from Wyoming and planted us in Reno, on the eastern slope of the Sierras. From our foothill perch, we look east across the huge, desert-dry reaches of the Great Basin. The other direction, up and over an 8,900-foot pass, practically our backyard, lies Tahoe.
Getting to know a new landscape is always a worthy activity, and particularly one as diverse and rewarding as Tahoe. Ringed by mountains of brilliant white granite, it is the largest alpine lake in the country: 22 by 12 miles and 1,645 feet deep at its deepest point. It never freezes. Even in winter, when you're walking its 72-mile shoreline, the blue seems to glow from within.
Surrounding the lake are four wilderness areas in three national forests; six state parks; seven major ski resorts and a half-dozen smaller ones; hiking trails, bike paths and back roads measuring thousands of miles; two cities and several small communities, home to more than 35,000 people; historic mansions; tacky strip malls; posh restaurants; quirky bistros; lodges both tony and rustic; and, of course, neon-flashing casinos on the Nevada side.
The menu of outdoor activities can feel overwhelming: Ski, hike, ride a bike, paddle a boat, climb a rock, catch a fish, loaf along the beach.
Sixty-three tributary streams pour into Lake Tahoe, but only one flows out. The Truckee River slips quietly out the northwest corner, then takes a short, rapids-filled plunge to Nevada, where the desert drinks it dry. Tahoe's perfect water does not flow to the sea. It ascends by evaporation, returning to the sky from which it came.
There are two appealing ways of going with the flow. By bicycle, the Truckee River Trail is an easy 4.5 miles downstream from the outlet in Tahoe City. Paved and gently scenic, it's a good choice for family pedaling.
The other option is to float on rafts, inner tubes or kayaks, even air mattresses. This section of the Truckee is relaxed and popular. In midsummer, the water is warm enough that kids will be in the water as much as in the boats. Pick a beach. Rent boats in Tahoe City, and the rental company shuttle will pick you up at the end of the run.
One fall day, my cousin called to suggest an adrenaline rush on the Flume, one of the most famous mountain-biking trails in the country. This was the day we'd been waiting for — blue sky, cool air, golden aspens. An hour later I met him at the trail head in Spooner Lake State Park. The first four miles climb 1,100 feet through meadows and aspen groves to an alpine lake that once supplied water to a wooden logging flume, a trough by which logs could be floated to a mill. The flume is long gone, but the nearly level path remains, and here is where the fun starts.
For five miles, the path is little more than a winding ledge glued to the side of the mountain. Into the shade of big trees, out around exposed rocky points, it ducks and weaves and demands attention. There are no guardrails — don't miss a turn.
The lake, in all its splendid blue-shimmering glory, is a constant backdrop. Where the flume path ends, the trail plunges back to the lake shore — a fast, bumpy 1,600 vertical feet down a fire road.
You can get gravity thrills on a mountain bike without uphill effort. Northstar-at-Tahoe Ski Resort has more than 100 miles of trails open in the summer, including some with ramps, bridges and shaped terrain like a warm-weather version of a snowboard park.
But when it comes to ski resorts, I'll take mine with a strong dose of winter. Heavenly Mountain Resort is famous for its between-your-toes views of the lake.
Of course, all that snow ends up in the lake, which brings us back to water. Mark Twain famously described how it felt to float on Lake Tahoe: "So singularly clear was the water that where it was only 20 or 30 feet deep, the bottom was so perfectly distinct that the boat seemed floating in the air! Yes, where it was even 80 feet deep. Every little pebble was distinct, every speckled trout, every hand's-breadth of sand ... so strong was the sense of floating high aloft in mid-nothingness, that we called these boat-excursions 'balloon-voyages.' "
In 1884, a scientist named John LeConte measured the lake's clarity by lowering a white plate until it disappeared at a depth of 103 feet. In 1968, clarity was 102 feet.
Since then, increased human disturbance has contributed sediment and nutrients, clouding the water and raising local concern. To protect the water, all sewage is piped out over the mountains. Dirt from construction digging goes out on trucks. Techniques are being developed to control all forms of runoff.
Wetlands, which act as filters, are being restored. Yet according to Tahoe conservation groups, the lake is losing more than a foot of clarity per year. That white plate now disappears at about 70 feet.
Nonetheless, the water is still astoundingly clear, and my want-to-do list around Lake Tahoe keeps growing.
IF YOU GO
Getting there
• The nearest airport is Reno-Tahoe International, about an hour's drive from the lake. Expect to pay $300 or more round trip from Atlanta. From San Francisco, driving time is four to five hours via I-80 (north end of Tahoe) or U.S. 50 (south end). Round-trip airfare from Atlanta is $260 or more. Visitor services are concentrated in communities at the north and south ends of the lake.
Information
• Lake Tahoe Visitors Bureau: www.visitinglaketahoe.com
• National Forest Service: Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, www.fs.fed.us/r5/ltbmu/recreation
• Ski Lake Tahoe: representing seven ski resorts, www.skilaketahoe.com
Jeremy Schmidt, author of more than a dozen books, has written for 30 years about natural history and adventure travel around the world.
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