September 22 Work Weekend

Went up to the lodge for the last day of summer (weekend) with my mom.  My goal was to put away the summer portable garage (ala screened in deck), lawn furniture and BBQ.  Also wanted to get all the loose firewood carried up from the back yard to the front and stack for winter.  And put folding chairs in attic, rearrange living room chairs around the fireplace and start building a "lean too hut" to store the BBQ for the winter.   Mission accomplished on those goals.

Since it was raining pretty heavily Saturday, Karen, Larry and Rodger had to cancel their motorcycle ride up to the lodge. Mom and I decided it was a perfect day to head over to Reno for a bit of thrift store shopping.  Reno has some of the best thrift stores!

We found some miscellaneous items that made the trip a success and went out to lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant.  We were sad to see that the Mexican store we buy our Lime Salt at had closed.  Now to find a new store for that great stuff.

After lunch, the weather kept getting colder and and more windy, so by 3:30 pm we decided it was time to head back home.  As usual, we were talking all the way to Truckee.  As soon as we passed through the border check, I noticed that the raindrops seemed to be a bit more solid and fluffy.  By the time we reached Truckee, we were seeing large snowflakes, and lots of them.

Since the road looked pretty clear, I thought we would have no issues with the summit.  My rule - take it slow in snowy weather and you will reach your destination.  Boy was I wrong.  At Donner Lake, the highway patrol had set up a road block and had stopped all traffic from continuing westward.

There were no chain monkeys out (due to the fact it was September 22nd) and I did not have my chains with me anyway.  We headed back down to Truckee to get some coffee and decide on our next steps.

The Red Cherry Coffee Shop was just about to close (5:30 pm) and they were kind enough to supply us with free coffee.  We filled up our cups and headed back to the truck.  I tried to find the Cal Trans radio snow station - but that was not transmitting yet (ah - did I say it was September 22), so I searched for info on my cell phone.

I called Katie and she advised that it was raining buckets in Davis (and hailing and lightning and thunder), so I thought our chances of getting back to the lodge were getting slim.  I suggested that she might need to ride up to the lodge (a 1 hour trip from Davis) and rescue Quincy.   Then I decided to check to see if Mary Beth would like to drive up from Chico for the night.  Mary Beth agreed (a 1 1/2 hour drive for her) so I canceled Katie's trek (she would have missed a birthday party).

We sat is the truck, deciding if we should get a hotel or wait to see if the storm would pass.  about 1 1/2 hours later, Cal Trans opened the highway and took down the chain controls.  The weather at Davis had headed south to I 50 so we had a moment's notice to get on the road and head over the pass.

Cal Trans was metering traffic and allowing about 20 cars over at a time.  We all followed a Highway Patrol car and a snow blower up and over the pass.  They left us at Yuba Gap, and we went the last 2 miles home without escort.

We actually beat Mary Beth to the lodge, found neighbors Art and Don had been stuck in the same highway shutdown (just on the reverse side of the pass).  Quincy was really happy to see us and really hungry.

All and all a very eventful weekend at the Gap. Record rain and snow in the bay area and the northern sierra on September 22, 2013.  Let's hope it is an early Jack Frost warning for a wet and snowy winter for us!

Sept 2013 Labor Day

Just back from Emigrant Gap Labor Day weekend. As usual we had a great time. Shelia and Clay came up Saturday and Sunday.  We took a short walk (hike) on the nature trail at the Bear River and finally got to see the falls there.  The falls are not anywhere near as tall as our North Fork, but still nice to see.  We did a bit of car touring at Rucker Lake. As usual, the lake was calm and beautiful. 

Sunday Clay and Shelia took a trip to Truckee (shopping and lunch), then headed home. It was so great to have them finally visit and we hope they will do so often!

Pattie, Mom, Mary Beth, Katie and John came up on Saturday and Jim on Sunday. It was also John's first visit to the lodge.  He brought us a coleman emergency light (which will come in very handy this winter).

Pattie, Katie, John, Jim and I did the hike on the back side of Lake Valley Reservoir on Sunday (somehow we lost the trail and mostly hiked at the water's edge). We were lucky to see one of the nesting bald eagles during the hike. It was perched in one of the cedar trees by the shore and looked to be a yearling.  We also stumbled across what appeared to be an old steam donkey (steam donkeys were used as a way to move large timber through the forest).  They would cable the logs and pull them using the steam monkey gears.  This one still had its cables and large round gears.  Would love to have those gears for the lodge - but alas - they are not for sale.   We also got to walk through Sky Mountain Summer Camp (great camp with lots of outbuildings on the shore of the lake) and the Lodgepole Campground.

Monday morning we woke to rain, thunder and lightning. Wow! nature can put on a great show in the Sierras. It rained almost all of Monday - but we get a brief break in the weather and were able to take Pattie over to see Emerald Pools (on the Yuba River) - our new favorite swimming hole.

No swimming Labor Day weekend as the sierras are moving into fall (can't wait to see the Aspen trees  in fall color). The American Fire was probably extinguished by the deluge of rain and we are all praying that the storm moved south to the Yosemite Rim fire.

The lodge is great in fall. Firewood cutting in September, Bonfires in October and snow (we hope) by November. Also hiking goes into full force at this time, and of course shopping the thrift stores in Reno. We hope our family and friends will be able to come up, take a break and see us.

When we arrived home, we found that we had received an email from one of the descendants of the Allen Family (Allens owned the hotel around the turn of the century).  He is the grandson of one of the Allen girls.  He sent us some pictures of the old hotel (great!).  I hope to be corresponding with him (and of course Eleanor - descendant of the Cortopassi family) in the future. 

August 21st Visit With Eleanor

Such an exciting day. I drove to the lodge on August 21st because Eleanor Richardson (the daughter of Joe Cortopassi who built the Emigrant Gap Annex - our lodge) was going to stop for a visit with her daughter Terri and son in law. It was a wonderful visit. 

Eleanor shared some additional information with me about her time at the lodge that I have added to the 1900 - 1950 section.  For example, when she was at the lodge, there was no snow shed enclosure on the side of the building.  Also, when she was little, since she was not allowed in the bar and dining hall, she spent a lot of her time with the cook in the kitchen.  The first cook she mentioned was a big burly man who once worked at the sawmill.  He made marble cake in a very big bowl.  The other cook was Yick, who cooked chinese dinner for the guests once a week.  She also mentioned that her dad put on a prime rib dinner each week and people would drive for miles to have dinner at the Emigrant Gap Hotel.  We talked about the fact that the lodge (once annex) had no kitchen and had multiple showers in the back bathrooms.  Eleanor's dad offered showers for a small fee to people who were in the sierra - but not staying at the hotel (one of these people was Eleanor's future husband - a game warden at the time).  

At one time the old hotel had a barber shop, a butcher and a homemade item store.  
There used to be a road behind the hotel that went to Fulda Creek (our current road was not there) And her father put in a tow rope in the back of the hotel for winter skiers.  

I took Eleanor and family on a tour of the building. She was happy to see what we are doing with the place and said her dad would be very happy that we saved the hotel from ruin. What a very nice person she is and I hope she is able to come for a longer visit some time in the future.

While at the lodge, I was able to make sure that all was well (our neighbor's cabin got broken into August 20). Of course it was fine - but I did see that one of the downstairs bedrooms had a window left open (which I closed). 

Finally I talked with some of the fire people about the Americon River fire across the Royal Gorge - they were driving around notifying camp grounds and hotels about the poor air conditions due to smoke - and they told me that the fire has been halted from moving our way so - no way it will get close to the lodge.