Stan's Reno / Tahoe Blog

Teenage golf phenom Michelle Wie is going to play in the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open. She was granted an unrestricted sponsor exemption, giving her a spot in the field of 132 PGA Tour pros for which she would not otherwise qualify. The Open kicks off on July 28 and runs through August 3 at Montrêux Golf & Country Club in Reno. This 2008 edition of the Reno-Tahoe Open is the only PGA tour event in northern Nevada. The title sponsor is the Legends at Sparks Marina, a large entertainment and retail complex currently under construction by RED Development, LLC.

The Reno-Tahoe Open is more than just golf. Numerous sponsors will be offering a variety of activities, including the family friendly Kidz Par Tee Zone, Vino 100 Wine Walk, and a Montreux Home Tour. Learn about what's going to be happening on the What's New web page. Another way for golf fans to have fun and support a good cause is to participate in Birdies for Charity. Make a pledge and guess how many birdies the players will make during the tournament. Your donation is tax deductible and you have a shot at winning a flat screen TV and Nintendo Wii from Best Buy.

This event supports numerous charities through the non-profit Reno-Tahoe Open Foundation. You can purchase and print tickets to the Reno-Tahoe Open online or order by phone at (775)322-3900. Daily tickets can be purchased at the tournament site. If you are new to PGA golf tournament spectating, the Reno-Tahoe Open website has a good section on how to be a proper spectator.

Aliens land in Reno!
Photo © Stan White

More Reno / Tahoe Wordless Wednesday blogs...

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Incline Lake and over 750 acres of surrounding forest, long a private enclave for the rich and famous above Lake Tahoe's north shore, will soon become public property. It took several years for the U.S. Forest Service and Incline Lake Corporation to work out a deal, but a compromise has been agreed upon and the transfer is in progress. According to a recent article in the Reno Gazette-Journal, public access will be restricted for the next few months while structures are removed and restoration projects are implemented.

The Incline Lake property is on the west side of the Mt. Rose Highway (Nevada 431) between Tahoe Meadows and Incline Village, less than 30 miles from Reno. Reports I've read say this is an extraordinary place and a great addition to the Reno / Tahoe recreational scene. With today's high cost of going anywhere, I'm looking forward to yet another beautiful place to visit that's close to Reno.

Fire restrictions in the Lake Tahoe Basin are now in effect. The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the U.S. Forest Service has placed limits on campfires, smoking, and other outdoor burning activities in order to minimize the chances of human caused fires around Lake Tahoe. Be sure to check this out if you plan on recreating at Lake Tahoe this summer during the fire season.

With gas prices through the roof, I've gotten out of the mindset that you have to drive a long way to have fun and been seriously scrutinizing places to go that are closer to Reno. One of these is Lakes Basin Recreation Area in Plumas National Forest. It's about 70 miles from my front door and quite doable as a day trip, though accommodations from primitive camping to fancy lodges are available throughout the area for those wishing to linger.

Lakes Basin is managed for multiple uses, including hiking, boating, swimming, camping, and fishing and hunting. Being hikers, my group and I did the Lakes Basin loop, which starts and ends at the Round Lake trailhead near Gold Lake Lodge. From here, you can do the whole loop of about 9.5 miles, which is fairly strenuous, with an elevation gain and loss of almost 1500 feet. Your reward is expansive views of the surrounding mountains, including the sawtoothed Sierra Buttes, and a look at the extent of Lakes Basin itself. You can see five or six blue gems at the same time from some places along this hike. Those with less time or ambition can hike out either branch of the loop and reach several lakes before the serious climbing begins. Either way, you will walk through lush meadows of wildflowers and enjoy the sweet fragrance of pine and sagebrush. Be sure to take plenty of drinking water, sunscreen, and bug repellent. The flowers grow where it is damp and so do the mosquitos.

The Plumas National Forest Lakes Basin Recreation Area website is a good resource for information about the area. If you are a hiker, check out the book Hiking Northern California by Ron Adkison. To get there from Reno, go north on 395 to Hallelujah Junction (intersection with highway 70) and head toward Portola. Continue through Portola and turn left on highway 89 toward Graeagle. Just past Graeagle, look for the sign to Lakes Basin Recreation area, which is a right turn onto the Gold Lake Highway. In about 7.5 miles, look for a Gold Lake Lodge sign and turn right into the trailhead parking area.

If you have other good ideas for fun places to visit close to Reno, please post a comment and let everyone know.

We're two weeks into Artown. Many great performances and events have already happened, but some of the best is yet to come. Here are some of the highlights you can see and, in some cases, participate in until the Artown finale on July 31.

Washoe County Student Art / Music Fusion Festival (July 19, 10 a.m. - 8 p.m., McKinley Arts and Culture Center, free)

Compression: Fire Arts Festival (July 19, 5 p.m., Downtown City Plaza, free)

Art Paws in the Park (July 20, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., McKinley Arts and Culture Center, free)

Family Series Presents Brundibar (July 21, 7 p.m., Wingfield Park, free)

Sara Juli’s The Money Conversation (July 22 - 26, 8 p.m., Redfield Studio Theater at UNR, $20)

Dancing in the Park: Black Rock Dance Company (July 24, 8 p.m., Wingfield Park, free)

Artown Market (July 25, 5 p.m., Reno's Riverwalk, free)

Ringo Starr (July 25, 8 p.m., Reno Ballroom, $50 - $95)

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (July 26, 8 p.m., Pioneer Center, $25 - $49)

This is only the short list of Artown's upcoming performances and events. Get a complete picture of what's happening and when from Artown's online calendar. Artown offers weekly ongoing programs including the Monday Night Music Series, the Monday Night Family Series, Discover the Arts, Movies in the Park, Dancing in the Park, and Food for the Soul World Music Series.

To see some scenes from Artown, check out the Artown pictures gallery.

Up at Lake Tahoe, this is the 26th season of the Lake Tahoe Music Festival. Enjoy diverse musical styles, all performed under the stars at various venues around North Lake Tahoe. Stars this year include Dave Mason, Jim Messina, and big band swingers Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

Incredibly hard working firefighters and more cooperative weather have teamed up to finally get a handle on what's being called the worse series of wildfires in California history. Even if you didn't follow the story here in Reno, today you would be seeing the clearest day we've had since the lightning caused conflagration started almost a month ago. The sky is blue and colors are vivid again, not filtered through a brown haze. It's like coming into the light from some sort of murky twilight zone.

Many of us in Reno / Tahoe, including me, used to live in the fire zones and may still have friends on the other side of the hill. You can get information about the fires right here on About.com. Ingrid Taylar, our guide to San Francisco, provides us with Northern California Fire Information 2008, an in depth look at multiple facets of the fire story.

Adoptable wild horses at the Palomino Valley Adoption Center north of Sparks, Nevada.
Photo © Stan White

A crisis of sorts has been reached with regard to managing populations of wild horses and burros on public lands in Nevada and other western states where they freely roam. According to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), there are simply too many of them for the range to support without continually removing excess animals. Now, there are too many in holding facilities for the BLM budget to support. Solutions recently proposed by Henri Bisson, BLM Deputy Director, include selling horses to willing buyers "without limitation" and euthanizing animals for which no adoption demand exists. Both of these actions, banned in the original Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, were made legal in a 2004 amendment to the law.

Learn more about this issue by reading my Nevada's Wild Horses article and viewing my wild horses pictures. How this is resolved is important for Nevada, where about 67% of the land is under BLM management.

Have something to say on this subject? Go to the Reno / Tahoe Forum to enter your comments and vote in the wild horse poll.

Cooling down from the bottom up at the Victorian Square water play fountain, Sparks, Nevada.
Photo © Stan White

Reno / Tahoe Wordless Wednesday blogs...

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Railway Reflections International Art Expo focuses on the Virginia & Truckee Railroad, famously known as the Queen of the Short Lines. More specifically, the Expo is being staged to help raise funds for restoring the V & T to running condition along its original route (with a couple of minor variations) between the Comstock mines in Virginia City and the ore refining mills in Carson City. If you don't know about the V & T and why it is a major feature of Reno / Tahoe history, read this brief history of the V & T and description of the restoration project.

Railway Reflections is presented by the Northern Nevada Railway Foundation. The Expo revolves around the historic Comstock region of Carson City, Virginia City, and Dayton, Nevada. The Expo runs from July 17 to August 17, 2008. According to the Foundation's Expo brochure, "it's all things train, all month long." All those things will include a train classics film festival, art exhibits and sales, silver commemorative medallions, dance performances, railroadiana show and sale, melodrama at the famous Piper's Opera House in Virginia City, a golf tournament, and more. This whole thing looks like it's going to be major fun for everyone. If you are a steam train buff, here's a chance to immerse yourself in the history of one of the West's most significant railroads. Get additional information by calling (775) 885-6833.

On weekends during the Expo, ride vintage rolling stock at Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City. The museum has a collection of original V & T Railroad equipment. For departure schedules, check the website or call (775) 687-6953.

Kings Beach State Recreation Area at Lake Tahoe is 43 miles and less than an hour from downtown Reno. This beautiful, family friendly park on Lake Tahoe's north shore is a perfect place to go when the heat is on in Reno. There is a long sandy beach, a shallow shoreline for children, snack bar and restrooms, and water toy rentals including, paddle boats, water bikes, tubes, and jet skis.

There is a fee for parking if you use the lot managed by the North Lake Tahoe Public Utility District, but admission to the beach recreation area is free. Check out my pictures of Kings Beach State Recreation Area to see what's in store on the north shore.