South Fork State Recreation Area, which is seven miles south of Elko, has tested positive for quagga mussel DNA.

No adult quagga mussels or veligers (larval stage quagga) were found in that waterway, according to the Nevada Department of Wildlife. The reservoir is not considered infested at this time. Infestation is declared when adult quagga mussels are found in a body of water.

All boats entering or exiting the South Fork State Recreation Area will be subject to a mandatory inspection. NDOW is telling all boaters leaving South Fork to remove their plug, drain all water and dry their boat for at least five days before using that boat on another waterway. Alternatively, these boats can undergo commercial decontamination.

Mandatory inspection will continue until the end of October.

Quagga mussels can cause irreparable damage to a waterway.

Funding has been secured to continue the invasive species and boat inspection programs at Lake Tahoe.

The federal Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force recently approved a five-year revision to the Lake Tahoe Region Aquatic Invasive Species Management Plan. The management plan guides collaborative efforts to prevent the introduction and spread of aquatic invasive species at Lake Tahoe. Chief among those efforts are boat inspections that were facing a major funding shortfall as soon as next year.

The Bureau of Land Management is providing $750,000 for the  boat inspection program through at least 2015.

Approximately half of the funding for the boat inspection program comes from inspection fees paid by boaters.

Since 2009, Lake Tahoe’s Aquatic Invasive Species Program has completed more than 37,000 watercraft inspections and more than 18,000 decontaminations.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency overseas the programs.

Expect delays throughout the Lake Tahoe Basin this weekend as competitors in the Lake Tahoe Triathlon take to the road.

There are four events scheduled – a sprint course Aug. 23; and Olympic, half and duathlon courses Aug. 24. All events start from Sugar Pine Point State Park and all will use Highway 89 for the cycling portion. Runners will also be crossing Highway 89 back and forth from the Ron Beaudry Trail in the park but will not be running along the highway.

Highway 89 will not be closed during the events, but CHP officers will be conducting traffic control at several locations along the courses, including several turnaround spots for the cyclists. Those turnaround locations are just north of Sequoia Avenue in Sunnyside (Sunday only), just north of the lakeside entrance to Sugar Pine State Park, just south of 3 Ring Road in Rubicon Bay (Saturday only) and just north of Baldwin Beach Road near Camp Richardson.

Cyclists should be off the highway by 9am Saturday during the sprint triathlon and by 12:30pm Sunday during the half, which features a 56-mile bike ride, the longest of the events, and is the only race where cyclists will ride north of the state park along Highway 89.

By Amanda MacMillan, Outside

Hal Koerner, one of ultrarunning’s best, once shared with us what University of Oregon track coach Bob Bowerman told athletes after a big win: “The next day, you just start again. Nobody cares what you did the day before.” Certainly motivational stuff, but don’t take it too literally.

Definitely take some time off, especially if this is your first ultramarathon, Ironman, or other type of extreme race. Your body needs time to recover, say the coaches we spoke with—but just as importantly, so does your mind.

“Physically we are seeking recovery on two levels—superficial soreness and deeper-level hormonal recovery,” says Duncan Callahan, an Altra Running elite athlete and official coach for this year’s Leadville Trail 100 (a race he’s won twice). “Training for and competing in extreme long distance events is not normal and not very healthy either, and I encourage folks to look at the long term when it comes to their training and racing.”

Callahan recommends his 100-mile racers take four to seven days off completely from running and training, but not from physical activity altogether; he does suggest easy cycling (think biking to the store), walking (not extreme hiking), and floating, swimming, or jogging in the water. “I encourage folks to do what they can to promote movement in a gentle fashion,” he says. “This will help with circulation, blood sugar control, and any mental anxiety from taking time off from training.”

After this first few recovery days, he allows his clients to resume light jogging, but no more than every other day for 15 to 45 minutes. If you have another immediate goal on your calendar, he says, you can start training again at about the two-week mark, once you’re feeling 100 percent again.

Read the whole story

By Jack Healy, New York Times

PARK CITY — Can a ski town survive if the ski lifts stop running?

The question is gripping this mountain town where celebrities gather each winter for the Sundance Film Festival and summer days glide by as placidly as kayakers on the nearby reservoir. Beneath the calm veneer, a ski resort’s eviction battle over land, leases and millions of dollars has erupted into a full-on civic crisis.

Businesses and town leaders worry that the festering dispute could, in the worst case, end up shuttering one of Utah’s most popular ski resorts for this winter, crippling a tourist economy that needs the chair lifts to run. Instead, those lifts could be uprooted from the mountains.

“Park City prides itself on its comity,” said Myles Rademan, a longtime resident and former town official who carried the Olympic torch when the Winter Games were held in Utah in 2002. “We worked hard to build our reputation as a place that gets along. This is all kind of a shock to our system.”

The dispute centers on the Park City Mountain Resort, a popular ski mountain in the heart of town whose lifts practically whisk visitors from Main Street to the slopes. It provides more than 1,200 jobs, draws thousands of skiers and tourists, and is an anchor of Park City’s postcard-perfect downtown.

For years, the resort had a lease that would make even a rent-controlled tenant in Manhattan jealous. While the proprietors owned the parking lots and much of the land at the base of the mountain, they leased the actual ski slopes, paying $155,000 a year for 2,800 acres of prime downhill terrain. It was an almost unimaginable bargain in a town where an unfinished house lot is on the market for $1.9 million.

But in 2011, the Powdr Corporation, which runs Park City Mountain, made what the Salt Lake Tribune called “one of the most monumental blunders in Utah business history”: It failed to renew the lease on time.

Read the whole story

Professional stargazer and astronomy instructor Gigi Giles will lead a laser-guided tour of the stars on Aug. 29 at Spooner Lake State Park.

Giles will have high-powered telescopes and astronomical binoculars to look through.

The free event is from 8:30-10pm.

Park in the upper lot. Spooner park is located off Highway 28 near Highway 50.

Dogs are not welcome. Wear comfortable shoes, warm clothes and bring a flashlight.

For more info, call 775.831.0494, ext. 224.

By Associated Press

A regional boss for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is lauding the work of a Reno-area nonprofit building a 116-mile bicycle path that follows the Truckee River all the way from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake.

The Tahoe-Pyramid Bikeway was one of eight organizations in the western U.S. the EPA named as 2013 winners of its “environmental champion” award.

EPA Southwest Administrator Jared Blumenfeld said Tuesday the group had an “incredible vision” to connect the two lakes with a bike trail traversing the “spectacular landscape.”

The effort that began in 2003 will be 75 percent complete when the newest section is scheduled to open Aug. 23 between Floriston and Farad, Calif.

The final gaps remain in the mountains between Truckee and Verdi, and east of Reno near Sparks and Fernley.

By Alicia Castro, Calaveras Enterprise

The forward progress of Bear Valley Mountain Resort will soon be in the hands of Skyline International Development Inc., and leaders of the investment company want to take the Bear Valley Mountain Cooperative along for the ride.

“The co-op is the engine,” said Skyline Chairman and President Gil Blutrich at a town hall meeting. “Skyline is the supercharger.”

Blutrich shared his vision at the gathering hosted by the co-op at the Bear Valley Lodge Cathedral Lounge. Co-op members were given information about new options – including opt-outs – and the 250 to 300 people in attendance were introduced to Skyline executives, who enthusiastically spoke to an ongoing collaboration.

“We see a partnership between Skyline and the co-op as a critical element in the future of Bear Valley by making sure Bear Valley remains a viable and productive resort operation,” Skyline CEO Michael Sneyd said. “The key to making the operation profitable is to continue to improve the brand in the Bay Area and really bring back the ski-area visits that Bear Valley enjoyed.”

Skyline is a publicly traded hospitality and real estate development and management company based in Toronto. Skyline currently owns various hotels and four southern Ontario resorts, two of which include ski amenities.

One member of Bear Valley’s current ownership group – Dundee Resort Development Corp. – and Skyline have been previously affiliated through Ned Goodman, the president and CEO of Dundee Capital Markets Inc. who served on Skyline’s board of directors until Skyline became a publicly traded company in March 2014.

Read the whole story

Tahoe Kids Triathlon is Aug. 24 starting at 3pm at the South Lake Tahoe Recreation Complex.

The event is for ages 3-13.

Registration is from 1:30-2:30pm, or register online.

First race (PeeWee – ages 3-6) starts at 3pm. Second wave (Tweens – ages 10-13) will start as soon as the PeeWees finish. Third wave (Groms – ages 7-9) start as soon as the Tweens are out of the pool.

The events are at the South Lake Tahoe Rec Center with a pool swim and flat, paved bike and run courses.

By Associated Press

A black-bear cub burned in a devastating Washington state wildfire is making a slow recovery at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care.

The cub, named Cinder, still has third-degree burns on her paws that require new bandages every other day, and she’s still on pain medications and antibiotics, the Wenatchee World reported

But Denise Upton, a caretaker at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care, says the cub has a good appetite and has been enjoying fresh fruit and trout brought in by local fishermen.

“She’s a good patient,” Upton said. “She’s eating everything we put in there.”

Methow resident Steve Love discovered the 37-pound bear under a horse trailer in his yard in north-central Washington’s Methow Valley, where the largest fire in recorded state history burned about 400 square miles and destroyed 300 homes. The fire had swept past his house two weeks earlier, and the bear was so badly burned on her paws she was walking on her elbows.

A Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officer captured her, and a volunteer pilot flew Cinder to California on Aug. 4.

Upton said it’s too soon to know whether Cinder can be returned to the wild. The bear lost some of her claws, which could make it difficult.

Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care successfully rehabilitated one other bear cub after a wildfire in 2009 and released him back to the wild, she said. They know from his radio tracker that he survived at least a year, until the batteries in the tracking device died.

Upton said Cinder doesn’t like people.

“And that’s a good thing,” she said. “I think she’s going to be a perfect candidate, once she heals.”