It's amazing how different Reno and Tahoe are when they're only about an hour drive from each other. About 30 minutes south to Carson City on hwy 395, and then another 30 minutes up over Spooner to Tahoe on hwy 50. Reno is in the desert, and if it weren't for all the buildings, you wouldn't even think about stopping there. The Truckee river is nice though. A couple of dredgers working on weekends back somewhere around '78 to 81, pulled several 5 gallon bucketfuls of rings and coins out of her from the Virginia street bridge downstream quite a ways. That was a fortune. Lots of gold and silver. Big news at the time. Made a lot of people mad though. It used to be a tradition when people got divorced there to toss their wedding rings off the Virginia street bridge into the river for good luck. Years ago, a divorce there only took 6 weeks if you established a residence there during that time. For a fee, arrangements could be made to make it appear that you lived there for the duration. That was the divorce capitol for many years.
Lake Tahoe on the other hand, is a beautiful paradise that you have to experience to believe. Breathtaking forest that surrounds the beautiful lake, which is really deep. The water in most places is clear enough around the edges to see the bottom at the end of small piers. When standing on the bridge spanning the Truckee River where it leaves the lake near Tahoe City on the California (N/W) side, you can watch the schools of huge fish gathered below in the clear water looking for handouts. Fishermen out on the lake often pull big Mackinaw up from hundreds of feet deep, and their eyes pop out from the rapid ascent to the surface. Emerald Bay at the Southwest end of the lake features water that's actually a beautiful emerald color. It lives up to its name. What's funny about the Truckee River is that it goes NW a ways, then heads east into the desert to empty into Pyramid Lake. It doesn't end up in the pacific ocean like most of the other rivers of the Sierras. The Walker River also empties eastward into the desert, as does the Carson River, and probably several others.
I'm still puzzled at what I saw years ago off the end of a small pier on the west "California" side of the lake near the Tahoe City area. We were attending the wedding of a close family friend. Her brother and I walked out about halfway on the nearby small pier which was only about 100' long. While we were talking and looking down into the crystal clear water, Mike says, "hey, look at that!" There was a beautiful buck standing upright on the bottom about 30' down, deader than a doornail. Beautiful big rack, and looked like he could just walk right out and onto the beach. Dangdest thing we'd ever seen. Musta drowned in the upright position. The water in Tahoe is really cold. You can wade out usually less than knee deep in some places, and then it's so cold your legs and feet turn numb.
Out on the lake, if a person falls out of a boat into the water without a wetsuit, they can freeze to death and drown in about 3 to 4 minutes. That reminds me of the time I was working for South Shore Glass back in late '80 or early '81 when that fellow tried to set the world's speed record on water off of the Cave Rock area. There were two of us doing a mirror job in a fancy home on the east (Nevada) side of the lake just south of Cave Rock maybe a mile or more. We heard the noise of the rocket powered streamlined craft and walked out onto the deck to watch this fool. The homeowner's binoculars were handy, so I used them. He was really flying when he went behind a large grove of trees that obscured our view. The rocketship never came out on the other side. He took his big drink directly below us, maybe a little over a third of a mile away. There wasn't any big splash sound, only the sudden absence of the roar of the rocket engine. Apparently, the craft sliced cleanly into and under the surface like a bullet. The body of the pilot was found securely strapped in the cockpit when the rescue divers eventually found him.
Speaking of working at Tahoe, the coldest day of my glazing career was there on the California side of the lake. Another glazier and I were installing storefront in a clubhouse building behind the main building of a new resort. It was snowing pretty good, and the gale force winds were blowing the snow horizontally across the lake. We were working less than 100' from the shoreline. I was so cold I'd stumble over to the large space heater and stick my head close to the flames for a minute or so, and by the time I got back to the install about 20' away I'd be freezing again. We fought it for about an hour and rolled up. Don't like the winter time there. About 40 years ago and before, Lake Tahoe was probably the most beautiful place on earth. Remove 95% of the current population, and it would be again.
Lake Tahoe on the other hand, is a beautiful paradise that you have to experience to believe. Breathtaking forest that surrounds the beautiful lake, which is really deep. The water in most places is clear enough around the edges to see the bottom at the end of small piers. When standing on the bridge spanning the Truckee River where it leaves the lake near Tahoe City on the California (N/W) side, you can watch the schools of huge fish gathered below in the clear water looking for handouts. Fishermen out on the lake often pull big Mackinaw up from hundreds of feet deep, and their eyes pop out from the rapid ascent to the surface. Emerald Bay at the Southwest end of the lake features water that's actually a beautiful emerald color. It lives up to its name. What's funny about the Truckee River is that it goes NW a ways, then heads east into the desert to empty into Pyramid Lake. It doesn't end up in the pacific ocean like most of the other rivers of the Sierras. The Walker River also empties eastward into the desert, as does the Carson River, and probably several others.
I'm still puzzled at what I saw years ago off the end of a small pier on the west "California" side of the lake near the Tahoe City area. We were attending the wedding of a close family friend. Her brother and I walked out about halfway on the nearby small pier which was only about 100' long. While we were talking and looking down into the crystal clear water, Mike says, "hey, look at that!" There was a beautiful buck standing upright on the bottom about 30' down, deader than a doornail. Beautiful big rack, and looked like he could just walk right out and onto the beach. Dangdest thing we'd ever seen. Musta drowned in the upright position. The water in Tahoe is really cold. You can wade out usually less than knee deep in some places, and then it's so cold your legs and feet turn numb.
Out on the lake, if a person falls out of a boat into the water without a wetsuit, they can freeze to death and drown in about 3 to 4 minutes. That reminds me of the time I was working for South Shore Glass back in late '80 or early '81 when that fellow tried to set the world's speed record on water off of the Cave Rock area. There were two of us doing a mirror job in a fancy home on the east (Nevada) side of the lake just south of Cave Rock maybe a mile or more. We heard the noise of the rocket powered streamlined craft and walked out onto the deck to watch this fool. The homeowner's binoculars were handy, so I used them. He was really flying when he went behind a large grove of trees that obscured our view. The rocketship never came out on the other side. He took his big drink directly below us, maybe a little over a third of a mile away. There wasn't any big splash sound, only the sudden absence of the roar of the rocket engine. Apparently, the craft sliced cleanly into and under the surface like a bullet. The body of the pilot was found securely strapped in the cockpit when the rescue divers eventually found him.
Speaking of working at Tahoe, the coldest day of my glazing career was there on the California side of the lake. Another glazier and I were installing storefront in a clubhouse building behind the main building of a new resort. It was snowing pretty good, and the gale force winds were blowing the snow horizontally across the lake. We were working less than 100' from the shoreline. I was so cold I'd stumble over to the large space heater and stick my head close to the flames for a minute or so, and by the time I got back to the install about 20' away I'd be freezing again. We fought it for about an hour and rolled up. Don't like the winter time there. About 40 years ago and before, Lake Tahoe was probably the most beautiful place on earth. Remove 95% of the current population, and it would be again.
