Sierra State Parks Foundation is having a fundraiser aboard the Tahoe Gal on Oct. 7.

The annual fall fundraiser leaves the dock behind the Safeway in Tahoe City promptly at 4pm for 2½ hours.

Money raised will help restore the South Boathouse at Sugar Pine Point State Park. The cruise will turn around at the boathouse to view the restoration currently in progress.

Aboard, storytellers will include retired State Park Chief Ranger Brian Barton, Olympic and Twain historian Dave Antonucci, State Park Superintendent of Emergency Services Scott Elliott, Donner Party historian Greg Palmer and comedian Darleen Pierson. Emcee will be humorist Ed Miller.

Prizes will be given to those who figure which stories are true. There will also be a live auction.

Tickets are $75, $70 for members. They are available online.

El Dorado County’s Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee will meet Oct. 12 to discuss proposed ordinance changes to the cannabis cultivation ordinance and code compliance ordinance to create a civil enforcement process for marijuana cultivation.

The proposed ordinance changes were initiated through a process of six meetings of the committee. The group agreed that the first step in providing a safe environment for medical users of marijuana and their neighbors was to create an effective enforcement process.

The meeting will be from 3-5pm at the Board of Supervisors meeting room in Placerville.

Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe has money to give away.

SISLT’s goal is to fund quality projects that serve clearly identified needs of women and children in the South Shore community. The group will consider new programs, improvements and enhancements to current programs as well as supporting programs that have been proven effective in bettering the lives of women and children in the area.

Applications will be available Oct. 1 and are due Nov. 15. The grant application, criteria and instructions may be downloaded here. 

All of SISLT’s grant funding comes directly from the organizations’ largest annual fundraiser, An Evening of Food and Wine Tasting.  This year’s event will take place at the MontBleu on Nov. 10.

Have you ever wondered how Lake Tahoe was formed, why there are so many alpine lakes around here, or what all those strange rock formation are?

Dave Schnake, a Tahoe Rim Trail Association board member and crew leader, and trained geologist and geochemist, will give the low down on Tahoe geology next month. He also answer questions, and maybe even tell you about those weird rocks.

The free talk will be at the Incline Village Library on Oct. 10 from 6:30-8pm.

·      Nominations for the annual Lake Tahoe Bicycle achievement awards are open. Applications are due Oct. 15. For more info, go online.

·      The California Tahoe Conservancy board plans to go from four meetings to six a year starting in 2018.

·      Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District personnel have responded to 45 out-of-district fires; as close as Gardnerville and as far away as Utah and Arizona.

·      Trivia: President Trump is a member of the Gaming Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 1995 as a casino operator.

·      Here is the Sierra roadwork schedule for the week from Caltrans.

Caltrans is alerting motorists traveling on westbound Interstate 80 of the planned closure of Exit 184 from westbound I-80 to Donner Pass Road from 7am-5pm Sept. 26-27 for emergency pavement repairs.

The on-ramp to westbound I-80 from Donner Pass Road will remain open. Motorists can continue on westbound I-80 to the next exit at Donner Lake Road to reverse direction and access Donner Pass Road from eastbound Interstate 80.

Additionally, the on-ramps to westbound I-80 from Highway 89 and Highway 267 will be closed from 9am-5pm on Sept. 28 for striping operations. Motorists can use an alternate route of eastbound I-80 to the Overland Trail /Union Mills Road (Exit 190) to reverse direction onto westbound Interstate 80.

Expect delays to occur during the closure periods.

·      Sierra-at-Tahoe is giving out 417 passes to students in Lake Tahoe Unified School District who got straight A’s.

·      A two-CD set featuring Elvis Presley will be released in October. The May 25-26, 1974, recording was live at the Sahara Tahoe (now Hard Rock) in Stateline.

·      The Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest’s Carson Ranger District will lift its temporary shooting restriction on Oct. 1.

·      Friends of Squaw Valley want to know via this survey what people think of the ski resort’s plans to build a coaster on the mountain near the base.

·      Oktoberfest at Camp Richardson will be Oct. 7-8, 10am-5pm each day.

·      Here’s the El Dorado-Tahoe roadwork schedule from Caltrans for the week.

·      The parks bond that will go before California voters in June, assuming Gov. Jerry Brown signs off on it, would bring $27 million to the California Tahoe Conservancy.

·      The Meyers Area Plan meeting has been changed to Oct. 25 at 9:30am at the Stateline office of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. TRPA’s Regional Plan Implementation Committee will get an update. Public comments are still due Oct. 6.

·      Chris Smallcomb, warning coordination meteorologist, and Tim Bardsley, senior hydrologist, both at the National Weather Service in Reno, will give a talk about what to expect weather-wise this winter. It will be Oct. 26 from 5:30-7pm at the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences in Incline Village. Cost is $5.

·      The annual Boys and Girls Club of Lake Tahoe Golf Classic will be Oct. 16 at Edgewood Tahoe. For more info, go online.

·      Ice shelves create epishelf lakes, a rare lake system when freshwater overlies seawater. Alex Forrest will present on his usage of autonomous robotics to explore the remote Canadian Arctic and discuss how these water bodies and ice shelves are rapidly melting. The talk will be Nov. 9 from 5:30-7pm at Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences in Incline Village. Cost is $5.

·      Tahoe Rim Trail Association will be raffling one of its vistas at the annual celebration and fundraiser on Oct. 3 at North Tahoe Event Center in Kings Beach. The winner will name the view of Lake Tahoe from mile 15 of the Tahoe Rim Trail north of Tahoe City. Vistas are normally available for a $5,000 tax-deductible donation. Raffle tickets are $50, with only 100 being sold. Tickets are available online.

·      Nicole Cartwright is now executive directors of Tahoe Resource Conservation District.

·      Tahoe City’s annual Oktoberfest is Sept. 30 from noon-6pm on the lakefront grounds of William B. Layton Park /Gatekeepers Museum. No entrance fee; $10 for first beer, includes stein.

·      South Lake Tahoe and the Regan family will be hosting a re-dedication ceremony of the Thomas F. Regan Memorial Beach on Oct. 1 at noon.

·      Patricia Smith, 2014 Guggenheim fellow, and long-time collaborator and instructor for the Sierra Nevada College’s MFA-creative writing program is one of nine finalists for the 2018 Neustadt Prize. The Neustadt Prize recognizes significant contributions to the world of literature and has a history as a forerunner to the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Helicopters are expected to be the stars this year at Fire Fest.

The annual event is Sept. 30, 10am-3pm outside Hard Rock Lake Tahoe. Admission is free.

This is an opportunity for families to have fun while learning about safety and conservation.

Activities include fire engines and other big trucks on display, a burn house sprinkler demonstration,  K-9 and SWAT demonstration, vehicle extrication, home safety ideas, lots of special attractions for kids, such as water fights, face painting, fire extinguisher demonstration, campfire safety and a special appearance by Smokey Bear and other friends.