Thu, 8/18/11:
Goose Meadows NF Campground, Truckee, CA: Colder in here this morning than yesterday morning—41 degrees! It was so hard to get out from under the covers! After our morning ablutions and filling the fresh water tank, we drove down to Squaw Valley which was the site of the 1960 winter Olympics. It’s just 8 miles down Rt. 89 between Truckee and Lake Tahoe. Parked and walked around the village a little and had lunch at the Blue Coyote overlooking one of the ski runs. After lunch we drove east on 80 to Donner Memorial State Park and visited the museum there. Part of the Donner party spent the winter on the eastern end of Donner Lake and the other on a stream several miles away. Of the 90 people in the party, 48 perished and 42 survived. How these people made it through the Sierras is beyond me. In some of the rocky and boulder-strewn areas they actually had to unload their wagons, dismantle them, and then haul them up over the cliff or boulder with ropes and then reassemble them and reload them. Amazing resilience of these early pioneers. We drove up over the pass and then back down to the lake. Donner Lake is nowhere near as big as Tahoe, but it’s just as pretty without all the congestion. Back to our peaceful, quiet site and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. 85 today once the sun made it over the mountains. Once the sun dips behind the mountains though it cools down quickly.
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Squaw Valley
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| Showshoe Thompson |
Snowshoe Thompson, a native of Norway, carried the mail on his back for 90 miles over the 7500 ft. mountain passes through blizzards with winds of up to 80 miles per hour and drifts up to 50 feet high. He did this 2 to 4 times a month from 1856 to 1876 no matter what the weather. He did this on his homemade 10-ft. long 25 pound skies from Placerville, CA, to Genoa, NV. He also carried a six-foot long pole he used like a tightrope walker for balance and he pack could weigh up to 100 pounds. What a guy!
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| Picture of me in front of the Donner Memorial. The snow level at that time (1846) was 22 ft.--the top of the stonework on this memorial. |
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| Pretty Donner Lake |
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| Bridge just before the pass. This is the kind of terrain the immigrants had to deal with. |
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