Monthly ArchiveOctober 2009
Hiking & Truckee Meadows 25 Oct 2009 05:00 pm
Truckee River Trail / Sparks
A Fall afternoon walk on the Truckee River trail in Sparks, Nevada, from Rock Park eastward to the end of the paved trail. This is a part of the planned Tahoe-Pyramid Bikeway. Urban wildlife report: geese, three large feral cats, one skunk, and a herd of mule deer in the fields across the river.
Statistics:
8.90 mi (2.94 mi uphill, 2.63 mi downhill, 3.33 mi flat)
40 ft total ascent – 6.7 % uphill grade, 99.6 % downhill grade
2:51:23 total time (2:49:45 moving, 0:01:38 stopped)
0:19:04 pace (3.1 mph average speed, 5.7 mph max speed)
3.944 difficulty, 8.813 effort
Hiking 18 Oct 2009 11:58 pm
Pah Rah Mountain
Wild horses in the Pah Rah Range
A nice fall hike on the top of the Pah Rah Range. There’s a road up to a radar and microwave antenna installation on Virginia Peak. From there, we followed the ridge northward to Pah Rah Peak, which overlooks Pyramid Lake to the north. Good views of Warm Springs Valley, Reno, and Mt. Rose to the west and of the Truckee River valley to the east. Part of the area is proposed for a major new wind energy farm; the only sign of that was two towers with anemometers. Plenty of wind, from our limited observation. We encountered this group of wild horses (photo), who were perturbed at having company but let us get fairly close anyway.
Statistics:
6.38 mi (2.70 mi uphill, 2.48 mi downhill, 1.15 mi flat)
574 ft total ascent - 13.8 % uphill grade, 65.0 % downhill grade
4:24:00 total time (3:11:41 moving, 1:12:19 stopped)
0:30:00 pace (2.0 mph average speed, 3.4 mph max speed)
10.274 difficulty, 19.055 effort
Hiking & Truckee Meadows 10 Oct 2009 11:59 pm
Verdi Ridge
Our goal was to hike along the ridge overlooking Verdi and Reno from the Dog Valley Road all the way to Verdi Peak. From town the ridge looks like open country, lightly forested. But after the end of a fire road we were stymied by heavy brush and only made it to a rocky hight point 3.5 miles in. From there the views were very nice, Truckee Meadows to the east and Stampede Reservoir and the Sierras to the west. Took a very steep descent to avoid bushwhacking the way we came.
Statistics:
8.66 mi (3.87 mi uphill, 3.39 mi downhill, 1.32 mi flat)
1400 ft total ascent – 12.7 % uphill grade, 93.3 % downhill grade
5:27:37 total time (4:36:55 moving, 0:50:42 stopped)
0:31:58 pace (1.9 mph average speed, 5.4 mph max speed)
13.255 difficulty, 24.245 effort