Hello Friends,
The weather in Tahoe these past few days has been outstanding with clear warm days and cool nights. The Aspen, Cottonwood, and Maple trees are all turning color. Red, yellow, gold, and green are gracing the hillsides and drainages around every turn. We are in the middle of a gorgeous fall.
We found a new hike the other day. It is not a new trail, having been around for a couple of years, but it was our first time hiking along this path. The hike is known as the Summit Canyon Trail. It traverses land purchased a few years ago by the Truckee Donner Land Trust.
The trailhead is located a little over ¼ mile up Old Highway 40 (Donner Pass Road) from Donner Lake. First you pass Wolf Estates on your right then two paved driveways to your right. Next look to the left and you will see a gravel pull out with 3 large forest service style signs (maps, and historical data). Park at these signs and head off to your right on a dirt road. The trail (a dirt road for the first half) winds through beautiful forested areas filled with tall trees providing good shade.
Later it winds up hill where you get great views of the shear granite walls that make Donner Summit a climbers heaven. We viewed a number of climbers scaling the granite walls. Farther up the trail you reach granite slabs just off Highway 40 near Rainbow Bridge where thousand year old petroglyphs can be viewed. From this vantage point you look up toward the old railroad sheds and see China Wall. This is a well known rock retaining wall that was constructed without mortar by Chinese labor imported to build the transcontinental railroad. There area views of Donner Lake, Donner Peak, Mt. Stephens, along with a few plaques describing the history of the area which includes portions of the Old Lincoln Highway. The trail actually includes portions of the Old Lincoln Highway.
This is really a lovely trail that is not too difficult to follow or hike. A moderate hike of about 6 miles round trip with about 1100 feet of elevation gain.
Today we walked the Sagehen Creek Trail north of Truckee. This is about 5 miles round trip and is relatively level. It follows Sagehen Creek, which was flowing nicely today into Stampede Reservoir. We enjoyed staring at bright yellow Aspen trees set against a deep blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds. We looked for spawning Salmon in the creek, but only found a couple. It is hard to stay in the office on days like these.
Enjoy your day,
Andy Wertheim
Great report Andy. Can’t wait to check out that trail.