The last four days have been spent in the ski town of Truckee,which receives the most snow (usually) in the US, and sits on the Eastern side of the Sierra Mountains and the famous "Donner Pass". Truckee was a depot of sorts during the building of the Transcontinental railroad in the 1860's , and supplies were shipped by horse and cart to help the Central Pacific cut it's way over and through the pass. The Union Pacific still uses most of that original route today, but the famous snow sheds at the summit are now a fantastic walking trail. To give my fellow Aussie's an idea of how high Truckee is, at 5817 ft it is 1000 ft more than the highest town in Australia and about 5500 ft more than my home town of Brisbane!! At this altitude , hard physical work is very difficult, and even walking up a slight grade leaves the lowland person like me, gasping for breath! But I do admit, since I have been at high altitude for a while now( Denver is at 4600 ft) , I am a bit better , so I decided to hire a bike and do some exploring and rail fanning!
Now, I have a tip, if you haven't been on a pushbike for about 25 yrs, taking one up Donner Pass road to the Summit is not a good idea..LOL. The ride past Donner Lake is beautiful and level, then , the 6km climb starts, with a steep grade towards the Summit at 7056 ft, thats a rise of about 1200 feet, a big climb for anyone , let alone someone who hasn't cycled for 2 decades!! After about 8 breaks and taking nearly 3 hrs, with a few photo stops included, I finally crawled my way up and over the pass.
Having run out of water, I decided to push on down the East side and find a shop..........well, most things are closed because it's summer and up there, it's all ski resorts, so I had to go down to the small town of Soda Springs, which meant another climb back towards the summit. The reward was a nail biting ride back down the pass towards Donner Lake and home to Truckee. Now , the ride up took 3hrs, and the ride down was done in 10 minutes..LOL..what a ride. I saw many pro cyclists pass me on the way up, even a lady who did it twice in a row!!, and she advised me to go easy on the brakes, as riders have blown tires due to heat build up! After making it home safely, I rested my legs and bum, and decided to do some more sedate riding today!
The old part of Truckee has some original buildings still in use and is a very busy tourist town, even in summer thanks to spectacular trails to hike and bike. It is also the headquarters for snow fighting on the railroad, and an old Rotary snow plough sits on a siding in the yard, there is usually a modern one here as well, but recent mild winters have not need it's use, and normal ploughs are used.
It appears I'm leaving some nasty weather in my wake, my train from Denver to Truckee was 14hrs late, due to a Tornado blowing trees onto the track and hitting a freight train in Iowa, and then two days ago, Denver was hit with a Tornado with major flooding . The weather in Truckee is fine and hot ....for now! Not many trains during the day, more track work can you believe it, and the good spots require a car and some hiking, a great excuse to come back!! Tomorrow I head for Sacramento and one of the best Railroad museums in the country.
Hooroo for now.
Cheers Gregg
