More than 200 competitors are expected at the four-day Tahoe Tennis Classic in July.

Now in its 34th year, the July 27-30 all-doubles tournament is introducing a 6.0 category for men and women. The 14 divisions are mostly are based on ability level, with two related to the combined age of players. The tournament consists of women’s, men’s and mixed doubles.

At the 2016 tournament there were 184 competitors ranging in age from 12 to 81 who came from nine states.

While Douglas County owns the courts, it is the nonprofit Zephyr Cove Tennis Club Foundation that maintains them and the entire tennis facility.

Entry fee for the various divisions is $80, with the second event $30. Every player is guaranteed at least two matches. The deadline to signup is July 20. More information, as well as the registration form, is available on ZCTC’s website.

By Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle

Winter is horning in on summer in the California mountains, where a stubborn blanket of snow is preventing several high-country camps from opening just as swarms of seasonal sojourners are itching to head for the hills.

Summer officially begins Wednesday, but the historic storms that rolled through this winter deposited so much snow in the Sierra, Cascade and Siskiyou ranges that roads are still being plowed, tent sites are still being dug out and damage is still being assessed.

The lingering ice has been a particular problem in Yosemite National Park, where officials last week announced the shutdown of the famed High Sierra camps — only the third time in a century that the scenic back-country sites have been declared off-limits for the entire summer because of thick snow.

In many places, camp operators are hustling to dig out and restore access. At the city of Berkeley’s Echo Lake Camp, in South Lake Tahoe, winter and spring storms damaged 37 of the 45 cabins while burying the site in 15 feet of snow. Workers could not get in to fix anything until early June, when the road leading to the camp was finally cleared.

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Lake Tahoe Windjammers Yacht Club’s annual sailing skills clinic will be June 24.

It is for any experience level.

Registration starts at 8:30am, with instruction beginning at 9am. It will be at the group’s clubhouse in the Tahoe Keys Marina in South Lake Tahoe. Lunch will be provided. On the water instruction will be in the afternoon on a member’s vessel. Social hour is at 5pm.

Cost is $35 for members, $45 for others. Preregistration is required.

By Bailey Schulz, Las Vegas Review-Journal

After struggling during the Great Recession, boat sales are surging again in the U.S. and Nevada.

Recently released data from the National Marine Manufacturers Association and its 2016 recreational boating statistical abstract said the $36 billion U.S. boating industry is at a post-recession high.

“The industry has been growing 6 percent each year for the past four, five years,” said Thomas Dammrich, association president. “We’re not completely back to where we were before the recession, but we’re the highest we’ve been at since.”

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By Dan White, Outside

The Pacific Crest Trail doles out hazards in cruel ways. Thousands of hikers on the 2,650-mile trek face perils including rattlesnakes, exposure, corneal flash burns from snow glare, and heatstroke. But 2017 is shaping up to be one of the most frightening years in the national scenic trail’s history, thanks to the massive snowpack in the Sierra Nevada combined with the trail’s unprecedented popularity.

Just a couple of months into hiking season, thru-hikers are posting stories of near-death experiences. 

Jack Haskel, spokesman for the Pacific Crest Trail Association, is fielding calls and hearing stories “every week, if not every day” involving avalanches, falls on slippery slopes, exposure, and dunkings in chin-high creeks. “There was a pretty serious incident in which a hiker fell and punctured a lung,” he says. 

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By Sammy Caiola, Sacramento Bee
 
 Last winter’s Sierra snowpack is melting fast in the summer sun, and backcountry streams are running high. Thirsty hikers may be tempted to gulp from the alpine springs, but experts say look out – the clear mountain water could be full of microscopic organisms just waiting to wreak havoc on your stomach.

Wilderness water can contain disease-causing agents such as giardia, E. coli and salmonella. The higher up and more remote the water is, the less likely it is to be contaminated by human and animal waste, but it’s always a good idea to treat natural water before drinking it, experts said.

Parasites, viruses and bacteria from feces can make their way into the watershed and lurk, invisible, until hikers slurp them up. Outdoor stores sell dozens of water filters and chemical treatments that are easy to carry and will keep you safe from water critters. When you’re shopping, look for products that block bacteria and parasites, such as giarda and cryptosporidium. If it removes viruses that’s even better, said Maggie Brandenburg, outdoor and youth programs manager for the Tahoe Rim Trail Association.

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Actor-comedian Rob Riggle, right, indulges in a selfie with a fan at Tahoe’s celebrity golf tournament. Photo Copyright 2017 Carolyn E. Wright

By Emily Harrington, Moonshine Ink

Being an “adventurer” used to mean something different. It was a solitary act; something people did to get away from normal life where they could find meaning away from the modern world of technology, money, fame, and ego. Or rather, that was the intrinsic definition we once gave to the act of “adventuring.”

It was the Stone Masters in Yosemite Valley, who climbed walls once deemed impossible to conquer, but told no one, only to have the legendary tales leak out through word-of-mouth and rumor. It was similar with big ski descents in the High Sierra. The saying goes, “There’s no such thing as a first descent in the Sierra, because someone surely did it back in the day. You just didn’t hear about it.”

Nowadays adventuring is a business. Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, etc. — every outdoor company and professional athlete are expected to promote themselves and the brands they represent in a shamelessly overt and public fashion.

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An Asian clam control project will start this month at Sand Harbor.

The goal is to treat a small, isolated population of Asian clams at Sand Harbor before they spread to an unmanageable level. Treatment will be accomplished by covering approximately 4 acres of the lake bottom near the boat ramp with thin rubber barriers.

The barriers measure 10 feet by 100 feet and are placed by divers over known populations of Asian clams on the bottom of the lake. Steel rebar on top of the barriers keeps them in place and deprives the covered clam population of oxygen.

To help ensure the success of this project, boaters are asked not anchor on top of mats or disturb the mats, sand bags and/or rebar.

Asian clams stimulate algae growth, which reduces the quality and clarity of Tahoe’s waters. Once dead, Asian clam shells wash ashore, creating hazardous conditions for boaters and the recreating public.

Placer County is using $250,000 in transient occupancy tax funds to support the design and construction of the Martis Valley Trail.

It will be a 9-mile long, 10-foot-wide paved multipurpose trail connecting Northstar Village with the town of Truckee and ultimately Lake Tahoe.

The total cost of the Martis Valley Trail is estimated to be between $10 million and 13 million. More than $1 million has come from transient occupancy tax funds generated in North Lake Tahoe.

The funds approved this week will support completion of environmental review of a trail segment proposed to cross federal land, as well as design and construction of the segment between the Northstar Drive roundabout and Northstar Village. Construction of those segments could begin as early as 2018.

Rafters this month paddle through the class V Maytag rapid on the Yuba River. Photo Copyright 2017 Carolyn E. Wright

By Scott Smith and Hallie Golden, AP

Massive waterfalls in Yosemite National Park and rivers raging in mountains throughout the western United States are thundering with greater force than they have for years – and proving deadly as warm weather melts the deepest mountain snowpack in recent memory.

Record snowfall on towering Western peaks this winter virtually eliminated California’s five-year drought and it is now melting rapidly.

But it has contributed to at least 14 river deaths and prompted officials to close sections of rivers popular with swimmers, rafters and fishing enthusiasts.

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