Oct 09 2011

Day 10… Lake Tahoe

I woke up this morning, looked outside and it was sever clear!! Woohoo, I can deal with sunscreen instead of ice on the next leg of my trip to Truckee CA (Lake Tahoe). After a wonderful visit in Salt Lake City with Ric Lee and Shari. It’s is off to the next adventure.

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After passing the great Salt Lake, I climbed to 12,000 ft for the 2.6 hr trip to Truckee. The air was really smooth, and I trued out at about 190 kts at 6.8 gph. This bird is sweet!

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The higher mountains had a nice cap of snow and were quite stunning!

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It was interesting to see this lake from the air. A few years back I went skiing at Mammoth Ski Area, outside of Reno an was on a 3 hr bus ride to the ski area when we passed this lake. How cool it was to see it from the air.

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In only a few minutes, I passed over Reno, the on to my destination.

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Truckee airport is located in a valley at 5,900 ft. After passing over Reno on an IFR flight plan at 11,000 ft, and clearing the mountains I had to do a somewhat quick decent in to the airport. The gal in my GPS kept screaming, “PULL UP….PULL UP” , “TERRAIN, PULL UP” in the headsets. I was a bit too busy to shut her up… boy she can get annoying! After landing I could really take in the beauty of the airport. Nice in the summer time, but last year they received 800″ of snow. Yikes!

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Tim Loloche met me at the airport and since he needed to check on his season ski pass at the one of the 8 local ski area, we had a pizza for lunch. This is a very cool roller skating ring in the summer which is coverted to an ice skating rink in the winter.

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The quick tour around Lake Tahoe was incredibly beautiful. Crystal blue water, snow capped mountains. What a stunning place to live!

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After checking out the lake Tim drove me over to Squaw Valley ski area where they had the winter olympics ?? years ago. What a beautiful venue!

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Off to Pianeta italian restaurant for a terrific dinner with a new friend.

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Tomorrow it will be wheels up around 10 am (after the fog dissipates) for a 1 hr trip to San Francisco. I only have about 3 hours left flying the bird before I reach my final destination in LA. I’ll miss her.