The REI Outessa Summit give women the chance to participate in more than 200 outdoor activities across three days, as well learn from experts.

Kirkwood Mountain Resort will host the event Aug. 19-21; then it moves to Powder Mountain in Utah, Sept. 9-11. Each location limits participation to 500 people.

Activities range from camping, backpacking, kayaking, outdoor cooking, mountain biking, paddle boarding, climbing, yoga, and hiking. Each class will have about 15 people, with various levels.

Dinners will be family-style. Elite athletes will share their stories in the evenings.

Register online.

Publisher’s note: This is in response to a letter about the loop road.

Mr. Wright,

I believe we discussed this idea at a meeting where I was presenting the project, and you brought it up. As you may recall I responded that a tunnel alternative was considered along with many others, but rejected. The entire length of Highway 50 through the core would be extremely difficult given the utilities, ground water, and ventilation requirements let alone the cost, so it was rejected. A shorter tunnel scenario under the residential area was also considered and rejected because of impacts and cost. I have attached the staff summary and attachments that went to my board of directors in April of 2013 when the five project alternatives were approved for the environmental document analysis. You will find the alternatives including those considered and rejected in Attachment A.

The public was involved and greatly influenced the selection of alternatives for the environmental document analysis including the proposed project alternative. We had numerous public meetings, association meetings, and several Council meetings seeking formal input and comments. The City Council meetings were particularly instrumental in changing the proposed project from what the District had identified to the alternative that is now the proposed action, and adding the Skywalk Alternative bringing the total number for evaluation to five.

Please contact Russ Nygaard of my staff at rnygaard@tahoetransportation.org or myself if you have questions on the materials that I have included.

Thank you for reaching out to us and for your suggestion,

Carl Hasty, Tahoe Transportation District manager

Adam Rahilly of Truckee takes full advantage of his season pass at Northstar’s golf course. Photo Copyright 2016 Carolyn E. Wright

By Kathryn Reed

TRUCKEE – Adam Rahilly and his friends don’t need anyone to tell them the golf course at Northstar is a bargain.

Still, the 18-hole, par-72 course was rated the best course for value in the Sierra Nevada by California Golf and Travel magazine.

“It’s nice, cheap and affordable,” Rahilly told Lake Tahoe News on a recent Thursday as he and four buddies finished up hole 11.

On this hole they had to launch their balls over a wide expanse to get to the green. A few holes have “forced carry” features.

The Truckee residents try to play here three times a week, preferring the back nine because it is more challenging.

Marcie Bradley doesn’t let the snow-covered runs at Lookout Mountain distract her. Photo Copyright 2016 Carolyn E. Wright

The back nine is more wooded and closed in. It’s a definite mountain feel, with thick Aspen groves and Martis Creek flowing in some areas.

The views on the front nine captivate Taylor Kramer. His foursome from Michigan is in town for a wedding.

“The scenery is great. And it’s not too crowded,” Kramer told Lake Tahoe News as he waited his turn.

The Martis Valley is what dominates the landscape on the front nine. It’s wide-open terrain, with partially snow-covered ski runs still visible.

Rich Aprile in his first year at Northstar is tasked with upgrading the level of instruction. Photo Copyright 2016 Carolyn E. Wright

In many ways Northstar feels like two distinct courses. In part, this is because of the terrain, but it also has to do with the links being built at different times. Robert Muir Graves designed the course.

Northstar is beefing up its offerings this season with the addition of Rich Aprile, who was hired to be director of instruction. He and head pro Pete Smith are certified by the PGA as instructors.

While Aprile has everyone fill out a questionnaire to gather their past experiences and future goals, ultimately he said it’s all about having fun.

“Ninety-five percent of all golf rounds are never going to break 100,” he said.

Sometimes it’s little tweaks like following through, hitting down on the ball to get lift, or up on the ball when driving off a tee that will improve one’s game.

“What golf is really all about is being consistent,” Aprile told Lake Tahoe News.

Taylor Kramer of Michigan hits out of the rough on his inaugural round at Northstar. Photo Copyright 2016 Carolyn E. Wright

At the recreational level he said it’s not that important to have a variety of shots.

Instead of practice swings, he calls them rehearsal swings – as in, a person is rehearsing what they want to do. Ball placement is another key factor.

Putt whenever possible is Aprile’s philosophy.

“It’s the most accurate club in the bag,” he said. Chipping can come later.

He’s also a proponent of losing the terms “men’s” and “women’s” tees because there are reasons one gender might prefer to start closer or farther away. Aprile prefers calling them first or second tees.

—–

  Notes:

·      A variety of season passes are available starting at $379, with single rounds ranging from $40 to $90.

·      For more info about Northstar’s golf course, go online.

Rosie and John Friedrich

Author’s note: This submission, formatted as a letter to Rosie, is prompted by a “letter to the future” project by the organization Dear Tomorrow. They are soliciting letters from parents to their children about climate change, to be archived and delivered to them in the years 2030 and 2050. 

Dear Rosie,

Two days ago you turned 10.  Where does the time go?

I remember vividly the feeling of looking at you for the first time the night you were born at Barton, on the eve of Father’s Day. I sang you a song (“Danny Boy”) that I’d sung many times into your mommy’s belly. You stopped crying and gazed into my eyes, with a look of recognition. Like the Grinch, my heart grew three times that day, and nothing has been the same since.

I tell you all the time how much I love you – more than all the stars, all the grains of sand, all the drops of water in the ocean, to infinity. But words can never quite capture the feeling. Elizabeth Stone said that “making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” That’s how it is.

When I see other dads and moms with their kids, I know that they are feeling something similar. From South Lake Tahoe to Syria, Indianapolis to Iraq, the love that we parents have for our kids is universal. I’ve imagined from your first moments about how the collective power of love in the hearts of parents (and grandparents) everywhere could be harnessed to change the world. If we the parents demanded decisions be made with the best interests of all kids in mind, there could be no war, or children dying needlessly of preventable diseases, or inaction on the biggest problem of all — climate change. Parents united against global warming and global warring.

And yet, when I look around in these last days of your single digit years, I see awful spasms of violence – a mad man with a gun mowing down dozens of uncles, aunts, sons, daughters in Orlando, while bombs are dropped on hospitals tending to injured children in Syria. And I see temperatures and oceans rising, ice sheets melting at an alarming rate, droughts intensifying, wildfires raging, while the presidential candidate Donald Trump says it’s all a hoax invented by the Chinese. (He really said that, look it up).

Reading the news, a dad could sink into despair. But that would betray the pact I made with myself when we decided to have a child–to stay hopeful that a better world is possible, and that I’d do what I could to help bring such a world about. A world that is, in the words of Carl Sagan, “worthy of our children.” Your birth, and the birth of each baby, is a vote for hope and determination regardless of appearances in the moment.

That’s why I work with Climate Parents, a group of parents and grandparents around the country taking action to help prevent catastrophic climate change so that we leave you and all kids everywhere a livable planet. And in doing that work every day, I see signs of hope emerging in so many places – the solar panels and wind turbines sprouting up like daffodils in springtime, the coal-fired power plants shutting down, the students suing governments for stronger climate action, the school boards voting to teach students the truth about climate change, the countries of the world agreeing in Paris to keep temperatures from rising to unbearable levels.

We may or may not do enough. Things could go either way. But when you are reading this years from now, by the light of a solar powered lamp, know that your dad, mom and millions of others who burned brightly with love for our kids did what we could, when we knew the stakes, as we watched our hearts running around–laughing, singing, playing and dreaming of the world to be.

Love forever,

Daddy

John Friedrich works for the national organization Climate Parents. He lives in South Lake Tahoe with his wife, Kim Carr, and just-turned-1o year old daughter Rosie. 

By Paula Span, New York Times

If you’ve come to rely on opioids for chronic pain, as a growing proportion of older adults has, you may have noticed that the drugs are becoming more difficult to get.

Something had to be done, surely: More than 165,000 people died from overdoses from 1999 to 2014.

But recent restrictions on access to these painkillers are likely to disproportionately affect the elderly — despite the fact that abuse and misuse of these painkillers have historically been lower among older patients than younger ones.

Older patients are simply more apt to have chronic pain.

Read the whole story

By Amy Quinton, Capital Public Radio

Two years ago, California became one of the last states in the West to pass a law to manage groundwater. The political will to do so took decades. But the bigger battle may be putting the law into practice.

Paso Robles in San Luis Obispo County may be a perfect example of how hard it’s going to be.

The region is known mostly for it’s more than 200 wineries. But amidst the rolling hills full of vineyards, it’s not unusual to see tanker trucks delivering water to rural homeowners whose wells have run dry.

Stephen Johansen with Crocker Water is filling storage tanks for one rural homeowner. He says business is booming.

Right next door, Sue Luft, a retired environmental engineer, started to see her well fail before the drought even started.

Read the whole story

A bill by state Sen. Ted Gaines, R-El Dorado, to protect forests, property and the lives of citizens, firefighters and emergency personnel from drone interference, this week passed out of the Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection.

“To think that someone would interfere with firefighting or emergency response situations to get a sneak peek or to post a drone video on YouTube is an outrage that is deserving of punishment and condemnation,” Gaines said in a statement. “I look forward to Senate Bill 807’s continued support as it makes its way through the Assembly.”

The bill would grant civil immunity to any emergency responder who damages an unmanned aircraft in the course of firefighting, air ambulance, or search-and-rescue operations. The bill stems from reports of private, unauthorized drones causing mission-critical aircraft to be grounded during firefighting and medical response operations, putting pilots, firefighters, civilians and property at unnecessary risk.

The South Tahoe Wooden Boat Classic will take place July29-30 at the Tahoe Keys Marina in South Lake Tahoe.

This is the ninth year the Northern California-Lake Tahoe Chapter of the Antique & Classic Boat Society will host the boat show for charity. The them is: Ladies and Gentlemen, You Have a Race.

The show’s cover girl is the 1939 Miss Notre Dame and her 24-cylinder Duesenberg engine.

Master race boat pioneer Fred Wickens built Hurricane IV in 1948 for Morlan Visel. Visel was a limited class driver living in Southern California, but he was also a fixture on Lake Tahoe. He would become the third partner in ownership of Sierra Boat Company along with Ollie Meek and Stanley Dollar Jr. Hurricane IV was one of the first “prop-riding” unlimited boats built. She is another of the early post war boats to be powered by an Allison V-1710 aircraft V-12 engine. Famed Allison builder, Howard Gidovlenko of Avia Union in Santa Ana was responsible for her racing speed.

Hurricane IV was heavily modified in 1950 and was remembered for her stunning top speed of 163.136 miles per hour in 1954 on the Salton Sea.

She was only topped by another Avia Union Allison engine pushing Slo-mo-shun IV to 178 miles-per-hour. She was raced on Lake Tahoe as well as the majority of the Unlimited circuit. Always a good performer, she was a local favorite as she carried the Tahoe Yacht Club burgee on her tail fin.

More than 60 boats are already signed up for the show this year, with 80 expected to show.

Publisher’s note: This letter was sent to the South Lake Tahoe City Council and Lake Tahoe News.

At a recent meeting, I believe I heard that two-thirds of the traffic on Highway 50 drives through the casino corridor without stopping.

Les Wright

I mentioned my suggestion before at two meetings that I attended: that we need a Plan F that would tunnel under existing Highway 50 between Tahoe Meadows and just past the new roundabout by the Edgewood Golf Course. Through traffic would go underground and get out of town quickly. Develop a round about at Park Avenue as well as the other end by Edgewood Golf Course.

Advantages:

1. Noise, air and visual pollution of two-thirds of the drive-through traffic goes underground.
2. Local traffic uses existing loop roads at Park Avenue and Edgewood Golf Course area to enter casinos and other businesses.
3. Have no surface auto traffic between the casinos, which would make that area a true pedestrian mall.
4. No need to tear out existing housing to create the five-lane highway around the casinos.
5. No expense for condemnation and legal fees to obtain the right-of-way of the new five-lane highway.
6. Relocation problem for residents from proposed new highway goes away.
7. Redevelopment of same so called blighted area is handled by the city of South Lake Tahoe on their timeline.
8. The two states and federal government pay the cost as it is all a state/federal highway.

I believe this is the best solution visually, environmentally, as well as legally the easiest. And it would get done sooner.

The cost would be high and the down time would be hard on the casino core, but the results would be entirely more satisfying to all concerned.

Perhaps excavation of Highway 50 could take place the same time they close Highway 50 over Echo Summit for this work.

Note the quick and efficient excavation work on the new freeway that bypasses Carson City that is just about done.

And in closing, the local public needs a say in these alternatives.

Les Wright, South Lake Tahoe

By Joseph Serna, Alexia Fernandez and Jason Song, Los Angeles Times

The fire started smoldering Wednesday afternoon off a curvy mountain road in the coastal hills north of Santa Barbara.

Then,  infamous “sundowner” winds started blowing fiercely, and the Sherpa Fire suddenly exploded. Authorities frantically shut down the 101 Freeway and evacuated hundreds of homes within a 15-mile path of the blaze, which was being pushed by 50-mph gusts.

The fire was able to move so far because it was racing through overgrown hillsides and canyons that had not burned in more than 60 years.

The state is in its fourth year of drought, and officials say the Sherpa blaze is a grim omen for what could be a summer and fall of fire.

So far this year, wildfires have burned more than 30,000 acres on state and federal land. That is about equal or slightly higher than the same period in 2015, a particularly destructive year of fire that burned  307,598 acres and hundreds of homes and left at least nine people dead.

Read the whole story