October 2024
News From the Trail

Tailwinds Stories

Some of you may recall that in the September newsletter, I mentioned we were doing a bike tour in Ireland. Check that one off the bucket list! We had an amazing time, and the rain gear was used just a few times. We were very fortunate to have picked September to ride.


My cycling friends know that I love the hills and mountains surrounding Reno. Welcome to Ireland with rolling roads and peaks to tackle, with some amazing views.


On one of our favorite days, we rode from Gougane Barra to Kenmare, climbing Healy Pass and passing a beautiful lake, Glanmare, on the way down.


Healy Pass is in the Beara Peninsula. It is considered one of the most unique roads in Ireland because it is extremely curvy and on the day that we rode it, breezy up on top. It’s mostly single lane that has some of the most amazing views, grazing sheep, waterfalls, and unique rock formations.


History lesson here. This road was built through a public works project during the famine years in the 1840’s. It was to provide jobs much like our New Deal program during the 1930’s.  


This day of riding reminded me of the first time I rode up Kingsbury Grade down to Lake Tahoe. It was on the Edible Pedal. I rode it with Terry McAfee, a bicycle enthusiast in Reno. He was also a dear friend of the TPT and to Janet Phillips who passed away in 2022. It was the first year of the Edible Pedal Ride and just an amazing day. It was a very long day but full of fond memories and great views of Carson Valley and Lake Tahoe. I also treasure the memory because of the wonderful time spent with Terry. He was an amazing person who many of you knew!  


Cycling allows you to experience life from an entirely different perspective than in a car. Hikers also experience the same, definitely a type of high!  Next time you are hiking or cycling on a beautiful road or trail, remember to take the time to enjoy the view, breathe it all in and hopefully share it with friends!    

 ~ Mary Beth Roselli, Chair of the TPT Board

Photo Contest — Entries Needed!

 ~ Photo by Heidi Littenberg

This is an amazing time to be on the Tahoe-Pyramid Trail, especially with our 2nd Annual Photo Contest. The Fall colors are starting to turn and, in some spots, are at their prime.  


This week, Mark Cameron, the executive director and myself, Mary Beth Roselli, current board chair, challenged ourselves and rode our mountain bikes from Tahoe City to Larkin Circle in Sparks, the end of the continuous trail. Thank you Bill von Phul for dropping us off in Tahoe City. That was extremely helpful. It was quite a challenging day but very rewarding.


It gave us a chance to check on trail conditions, taking notes so that our trail adopters could receive some feedback on their areas, and check where work is currently being done. Mark took the field notes as I “trailed” behind stopping for the fall color shots! I kept thinking of our photo contest we have going on now until the end of October and hoping that some of our amateur photographers would get out here and start taking snapshots to enter. It’s hard to take a bad shot and it is prime time.  


I will talk more about the day Mark and I had but our photo contest needs entries. Please submit your entries to info@tahoepyramidtrail.org.  The rules are simple:


*Photos need to be taken on the TPT


*Enter only two in each category (listed below). JPEG is the preferred format.  


*When submitting, please reference the location and the month & year that the picture was taken


*You also need to agree that we can use the photos, with proper credit


*They may also be published throughout the year on social media posts


*Submitting photos assumes agreement with these guidelines


The categories are:

*Landscape

*People

*Bikes

*Flora/Fauna


The deadline is October 31, 2024!

 ~ Photo by Nikki Hussein

Ride the Rez 2024

on Sunday, October 20th!

Please join us on a mountain/gravel bike from Nixon to Wadsworth on this section of the Tahoe-Pyramid Trail, upstream on October 20th. This section consists of 1-2 miles of pavement, 11-15 miles of dirt road, and 5-6 miles of single track, one way. This takes typically 2-3 hours of riding and is considered a moderate-rated ride.  


RSVP at info@tahoepyramidtrail.org please. Use "Ride the Rez" as the title. Please list who will be attending in the body of the email.  


We will gather at the Nixon Store and be ready to leave at 9 am. Amy and Randy Collins will be leading the ride. Marie Norell and Bill von Phul will be there for support and will meet us along the way with snacks.  


There will be a shuttle for about 20 bikes but not as many riders; it always seems to work out. Many will do an out and back, using the road or another route back.  


You must purchase a day use permit for $22/car. Carpooling is recommended. Permits are available at pyramidlake.us/permits


You will need to sign the sign-up sheet and acknowledge the waiver of liability on the day of the ride. Make sure your bikes are in good working order. I highly recommend tubeless tires. We will encounter goat heads! Helmets are required and no headphones. No class 2 ebikes will be allowed. Class 1 and 3 are fine.


Here is a link to the route:  https://tahoepyramidtrail.org/wadsworth-to-pyramid-lake/


If weather is inclement, an email will be sent to all who have signed up for the ride 2 hours in advance. To do so, please send an email to info@tahoepyramidtrail.org with a title "Ride the Rez". Any additional correspondence will be sent to you directly.  

Historical Bike Ride on the Tahoe Pyramid Trail

Jill Richardson, Board Chair of the Truckee Meadows Parks Foundation, led us on a bike tour from Idlewild to Mayberry along the Tahoe-Pyramid Trail. She is an amazing historian who has researched many of our parks in the Reno area. According to the Reno Parks Department, there are 87 parks. She has traced many of them back to the local ranches that existed during the Comstock era.


We focused on the parks from Idlewild to Mayberry Park. These ranches were from names that we all know, Caughlin, Dorostkar, and Mayberry to name a few of the most popular.


We heard about the great train robbery that took place while visiting the Dorostkar Park. In 1870, five men boarded a passenger train from Verdi headed east. They detached the engine and next car, which held the money from the other cars and was stopped due to an obstruction on the tracks created for that purpose so that the robbers could enter the train. The money, approximately $41,000, was taken and no shots were fired. The men were captured within a few days and put on trial. Almost all of the gold coins were found except for some that may still be out there, possibly around Dorostkar Park! The Central Pacific Railroad section of the robbery could have been in that area! There are lot of articles written about this, presumably the first train robbery in the wild west!  


I found this article fun to read with many details of the robbery:  

Great Train Robbery Outside Verdi Nevada, November 5, 1870 (cprr.org)


We would like to thank Jill for leading us on a bike ride exploring the history of the Truckee River. Hopefully, we can do another section of the Tahoe-Pyramid Trail and learn more about the wonderful history surrounding us.  

THANK YOU to our

3rd Quarter Century Circle ($100+) Members!

We want to thank our wonderful donors that provided donations during the 3rd quarter of 2024! We were able to complete some maintenance projects with your help. We appreciate all of you for your continued and generous support!

Mary Beth Roselli, Chair of the TPT Board

Mary Beth Roselli, Chair of the TPT Board