By Jamie Biesiada, Travel Weekly

From a projected increase in Americans traveling this Memorial Day weekend to a steady growth in air travel, all signs are pointing to a very healthy industry, one of the most robust that some executives say they have seen.

“If I look at this historically, I think we are currently at one of the healthiest times we have ever been at on the leisure side of the business.” said Scott Koepf, senior vice president of sales at Avoya Travel.

Consumer confidence, an end to uncertainty surrounding the 2016 election and pent-up demand for travel are among the factors contributing to that health.

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Th Boat Owners Association of the United States has issued its 2017 Top 10 Boat Names. The names come from tallying up requests for boat names to the BoatUS Graphics service. 

Top 10 Boat Names: 

• Serenity: The utter calm and quietude boating brings
• Seas the Day: A nautical wordplay on the Latin saying “Carpe diem,” taking boating to its fullest
• Andiamo: “Let’s go!” in Italian and a perennial favorite boat name
• Irish Wake: Mourning and merrymaking after the death of a family member or friend
• Freedom: Patriotic name that first appeared on the Top 10 Names List in 2004
• Adagio: Italian for “at a slow tempo.” Represents how boating reduces stress in our hectic lives
• Ohana: From the Hawaiian culture, meaning “family” in an extended sense
• Oasis: A fertile spot in a desert where water is found; symbolizes boating’s ability to refresh and nourish our daily lives
• Happy Ours: A playful take on the good feeling you get at the afternoon communal cocktail time
• Firefly: Making the list for the first time, it’s thought that the kids picked this one.

To the community,

Adventure Mountain owners Jim and Linda Mueller are longtime and enthusiastic supporters of Bread & Broth’s Monday meal. 

“Bread & Broth is a great organization serving delicious meals to the South Lake Tahoe community,” commented Jim Mueller.  “Adventure Mountain and our family always enjoys helping out such a great organization and getting to spend time with our community members.”  

It was a family/business affair with sons Max and Luke and longtime friend and Adventure Mountain retail supervisor Cathy Vogelgesang completing the Adopt A Day sponsorship crew.

As an Adopt a Day sponsor, Adventure Mountain hosted the May 1 meal by donating $250 to cover the costs associated with providing the full course meal to those attending the dinner. Having the Adventure Mountain sponsor team was an extra bonus thanks to their cheerful and helpful family business attitude as they worked with the B&B volunteers throughout the evening.

Thanks to the generous support of donors like the Muellers, B&B is able to not only provide meals every Monday, but serves a soup and simple entree meal at the Lake Tahoe Community Presbyterian Church every Friday. Additionally, for the past two school years, the B&B 4 Kids program is providing weekend food to students in need throughout the school year. Kudos to Adventure Mountain for donating time and funds to help feed those in need.

Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth

Tristan Klasko of STHS, second from left, gets ready to compete. Photo/Provided.

Three girls’ swim teams from the Tahoe-Truckee area finished in the top seven at the Division 3A state championships in Carson City over the weekend.

Boulder City High School dominated the competition, tallying 214.50 points. In second was Truckee High School with 75 points, Incline High School was sixth with 33 points, and South Tahoe High School with 30 points.

Boulder also captured the overall boys’ title in that division with 132 points. Second was Truckee with 99 points, STHS was sixth with 28.5 points, and North Tahoe High School tied for 13th with 11 points.

Individual girls’ 3A:

·      Kate Rye, Incline, tied for first with 18 points

·      Megan Burrill, Truckee, fourth, 15 points

·      Alexandra Otomo, STHS, tied for 12th, 10 points

·      Courtney Engberg, Truckee, tied for 12th, 10 points

·      Grace Bronston, Truckee, tied for 15th, 9 points

·      Adrienne Parker, Truckee, tied for 21st, 6 points

·      Olivia LaGrandeur, Truckee, tied for 27th, 4 points

·      Maia Smith, STHS, tied for 31st, 3 points

·      Anna Kates, Truckee, tied for 31st, 3 points

·      Ciera Winberg, Incline, tied for 31st, 3 points

·      Sophie Stewart, STHS, tied for 31st, 3 points

·      Hannah Lucas, STHS, tied for 40th, 2 points.

Individual boys’ 3A:

·      Cooper DeRyk, Truckee, tied for first, 18 points

·      Dylan Cole, Truckee, eighth, 12 points

·      Gavin Olsen, Truckee, tied for ninth, 11 points

·      Hunter Hoffman, North Tahoe, tied for ninth, 11 points

·      Louis Martin, STHS, 16th, 9.5 points

·      Evan Opsal, Truckee, 18th, 8 points

·      Aaron Bronstone, Truckee, 21st, 7 points

·      Tristan Klasko, STHS, tied for 26th, 5 points

·      Temugen Enkhbayer, STHS, tied for 29th, 4 points

·      Logan Kasten, Truckee, tied for 36th, 1 point.

Cleo

Cleo is a 7-year-old gray tabby with medium length hair. She has lived with other cats and has been around dogs.

Cleo came to the shelter with another cat when their owner became homeless, and is a very pretty, sweet girl.

Cleo is spayed, microchipped, tested for FIV, and vaccinated. She is at the El Dorado County Animal Services shelter in Meyers, along with many other dogs and cats who are waiting for their new homes. Go to the Tahoe animal shelter’s Facebook page to see photos and descriptions of all pets at the shelter.

Call 530.573.7925 for directions, hours, and other information on adopting a pet. For spay-neuter assistance for South Tahoe residents, go online. Vouchers may be obtained at the animal shelter also, check the website for application procedures.

— Karen Kuentz

Water-covered trails are common in the Tahoe basin, which is less of a problem for four-legged hikers. Photo/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

Memorial Day weekend is usually the start of summer for most of the country. For Lake Tahoe, it’s really the end of winter.

This coming weekend won’t be any different. While the forecast is for sunny skies and highs in the mid- to high 60s, the remnants of winter will likely be felt by people who are near any body of water and on hiking-biking trails.

The National Weather Service in Reno has issued a flood watch that is in effect through 11pm May 24 for South Lake Tahoe, Truckee, Bridgeport, Mammoth Lakes, Stateline, Incline Village, Carson City, Reno and Gardnerville.
 
Unseasonably hot weather is in the forecast for this week, which will accelerate the melting of what was a record snowpack for this area of the Sierra. In South Lake Tahoe, the high today is expected to be 78, 79 on May 23, and 74 on May 24. There is also a chance of thunderstorms on Tuesday, which would convert the snow to liquid faster, as well as add to swollen waterways via rain.
 
According to the Weather Service, “Best estimates for flows this week coming out of unregulated Eastern Sierra creeks and streams are likely to be 2-2½ times current flows with smaller creeks likely to see three times current flows. Daily peak flows on small creeks and streams typically occur during the evening and overnight hours.”
 
Camping near creeks, streams and rivers is not advised.
 
Expect the rising water to impact surrounding campgrounds, hiking-biking trails and meadows. Depending on where the water is flowing, it could also destabilize already saturated hillsides, causing mud and rock slides.

Trout Creek is creeping into South Lake Tahoe backyards. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Water is spilling forth from hillsides, creating mini-waterfalls that even longtime locals don’t remember ever seeing.
In South Lake Tahoe the Upper Truckee River and Trout Creek have been beyond their banks for weeks. Trout Creek is in the back yards of people in the Al Tahoe neighborhood. The river looks like it might spill onto the runways at Lake Tahoe Airport.

The Upper Truckee River is flowing at 713 cubic feet per second, about 2½ times higher than the mean for this time of year.

For those who are thinking about venturing into any Sierra body of water should remember how cold the water is and how swift it’s moving.

Parts of the bike trail from Tahoe City to Truckee are expected to continue to be under water as the Truckee River floods.

It doesn’t take long to hit snow on some of the area’s popular trails. And many without snow are covered with measurable water. Trees are also a hindrance in some places.

The U.S. Forest Service says to expect trails about 8,000 feet to be melted by mid-July.

Here are a few reports on trail conditions:

·      According to the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit it’s possible to drive to the Glen Alpine trailhead. “The hike to the springs is a mix of dry, deep water, and snow. Above the Glen Alpine Spring, expect lots of snow. Snow ranges from 2-20-plus feet depending on aspect, elevation, and shade. Lakes are all frozen, very little dry ground (isolated rock outcroppings) above 8,000 feet.”

·      Wrights Lake Road is snow-free to the three-mile marker from Highway 50. From there it is covered in 4 to 8 feet of snow, with some large drifts that are 12 to 15 feet deep.

·      Patchy snow remains on the Eagle Lake Trail above Emerald Bay. Eagle Lake remains partially frozen. Expect to post hole.

·      The Mount Tallac Trail is clear with patchy snow from the trail head to the first ridge, but as the trail nears Floating Island Lake there is 3 to 4 feet of snow on the trail and on the approach to Cathedral Lake, there is 6 to 7 feet of snow obscuring the trail.

·      For more info on trails managed by the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, go online.

·      For more info about mountain biking trails, go to TAMBA’s website.

By Foon Rhee, Sacramento Bee
 
Since the year 2000, rents have risen and so has the number of people needing affordable housing.

That double whammy means that even while building more housing, many places are failing to keep pace, according to a new study by the Urban Institute.

In its color-coded map, there’s only a smattering of counties across America with enough affordable housing for the extremely poor. In the U.S. as a whole, there were 47 affordable units available for every 100 extremely low-income families in 2000.

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Gatewood during her first successful trip on the AT in 1955. Photo/Appalachian Trail Conservancy

By Cass Buggé, Outside

In May 1955, when 67-year-old great-grandmother Emma Gatewood told her children that she was “going for a hike in the woods,” she left out a few important details. Like the fact that she was heading 470 miles from her Ohio hometown to Mount Oglethorpe, Georgia, writes reporter Ben Montgomery in his 2016 book, Grandma Gatewood’s Walk. And the fact that this “hike” was the 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail, and Gatewood’s intention was to become the first woman to solo thru-hike the whole thing.

Born in 1887, in the 2,000-person community of Mercerville, Ohio, Gatewood lived a life tied to the outdoors. A childhood defined by physical labor on her family’s farm gave way to an early marriage—at age 19—to Percy Gatewood, who allegedly physically abused her. As Montgomery writes, “They were married three months before he drew blood.” A walk in the woods behind her home often served as her only respite during her most trying times. After 33 years together, in 1940, Gatewood managed to get a divorce—almost unheard of at the time—and raised the last three of her 11 children on her own.

At some point in the 1950s, with all her children grown and out of the house, Gatewood was reading a 1949 National Geographic article about Earl Shaffer, the first man to through-hike the AT. As Gatewood’s daughter Rowena later told it, her mother finished the piece and thought to herself, “If those men can do it, I can do it.”

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By Lake Tahoe News

The El Dorado Hills Community Services District has filed a lawsuit against El Dorado County Auditor Joe Harn because he did not disburse $415,000 in development impact fees.

“Unfortunately, respondent Harn has refused to comply with, and continues to refuse to comply with, the county’s clear mandatory directive,” the suit says.

Joe Harn

Through the Mitigation Fee Act the county collects money from developers and disburses the cash to EDHCSD. The district must document how the money is spent to ensure it was done so in accordance with the law. Parks, trails, sidewalks and other infrastructure are permissible expenditures.

“The county and the CSD shouldn’t be suing each other. We should be working together to make sure there is money available to build the parks that the citizens of El Dorado Hills expect and deserve,” Harn told Lake Tahoe News. “Around $10 million of park construction funding are at stake. This potential park construction funding disaster could have been easily avoided.” 

Harn has not transferred all the money EDHCSD has requested because he believes EDHCSD has not done its due diligence.

“State law requires that the CSD conduct a nexus study every five years in order to justify the continued collection of the fees.  The CSD did not conduct the required study and did not comply with the law,” Harn said.

The county, aka taxpayers, is obligated to pay for Harn’s legal counsel.

“Right now there are two lawsuits before the Superior Court regarding this matter. One lawsuit seeks a court order requiring me to refund the fees to the homeowners.  The other lawsuit seeks a court order requiring me to pay a significant portion of the same fees to the CSD,” Harn said. “This mess could have easily been avoided if the CSD and the county would have followed the law as I have repeatedly asked them to. “ 

By Colton Lochhead, Las Vegas Review-Journal

Two members of Nevada’s congressional delegation signed onto cannabis-related legislation last week in a push to legitimize the emerging marijuana industry at the federal level.

U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Rep. Dina Titus, both Democrats, co-sponsored bills that would remove federal restrictions that the marijuana industry says hamstring participants from operating as normal businesses.

Twenty-eight states have legalized medical marijuana, and eight of those states — including Nevada — have also legalized recreational use. The moves have created an emerging industry that generates billions of dollars in sales and hundreds of millions in tax revenue for states.

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