Day 23: Last day at Lake Tahoe :(

Today is my last day at Tahoe.  So I figure I should make the most of it andddd do lots of skiing!  It's going to be a while before I ski again.  I wake up and head off to Northstar, just to mix things up again. I stop at another fire station on the way, looking for a patch.  Turns out they don't have any at this station either.  They tell me the admin office and main station is across from Safeway. Ok, I know where that is, that is where I bought cheese that one time.  So on my way to Northstar I look for a fire station.  I don't see one anywhere.  Maybe it's the wrong Safeway.  Or maybe I am looking across the wrong street. Oh well. I get to Northstar around 11. The parking lot close to the village is full. This is going to be a busy day on the hill. I park in a lot that is quite far away and try to figure out the shuttle.  Luckily it is really easy.  I hop on and am whisked away to the mountain. 

yayyy Skiing!!!

The full parking lots turn out to be deceiving.  The mountain isn't too horribly crowded.  Throughout the day I do have a few close calls with people who are skiing or riding slow and unpredictably.  I try to pass them right as they decide to turn my way.  Luckily, they were only close calls.  I spend the day on the groomed trails.  All of the ungroomed stuff is gross and impossible to steer on. "Sierra Cement"? I think. I like to think I am a super bad ass skiier and can ski anything. I definitely can not ski this stuff and have no desire to learn. Since I see no one else riding it all day, I don't feel too bad about avoiding it. 

:)

Nice day for skiin!

Anyway, back to the stuff I did ski.  I skiied almost all of the mountain.  I think I hit every lift except the one for the bunny hill.  Most of the runs were nice and has some light man made powder on them. Nice and fast and pretty fun.  A couple times, I found myself tearing down a run to suddenly be met with ice.  That was not fun.  Especially on some of the really steep stuff.  At one point, I decided to slow myself down and ended up skidding across a lot of ice. That ended with me falling over and smashing my thumb under my ski pole.  Ow. However, the day was lots of fun.

As I am leaving, I notice a special at a restaurant: Pizza and beer, $7.  For a ski area that is pretty damn reasonable.  They are selling bud lights at the ski lodges for $6.  So I get some pizza and a Blue Moon and sit by a fire they have set out in the village.  Pretty nice.  I am tempted to go back up on the hill and ride the bunny hill lift just so I can say I have ridden all the lifts. I finally decide that is a dumb reason to go back up and head to the Northstar souvenir shop again. I really want a hat.  I am going to be camping a lot the next week with no showers.  Personally, I can not stand my hair after a day of not washing it so into a hat it is going.  I find the right shuttle and make it back to my truck. 

Perfect timing!  The sun is starting to set and is making the lake look awesome!  I pull off in a little park area and spend some time wandering around the trails there and climbing on the rocks trying to get a perfect shot.  Unfortunately, a lot of other people also wanted to watch the sunset.  It is not quite as peaceful as I was hoping for.  And the clouds were not cooperating for my pictures.  Regardless, it was still nice to watch the sun set.

I get back to the hotel and realize I need to start getting my shit together since I have to check out tomorrow.  I have pretty much moved into the place so this is fun.  I decide to check out the room labeled "guest laundry".  Score! They are free to use and they provide detergent.  I bring my laundry down and throw it in the washer.  I realize I have forgotten half of my dirty clothes.  For some reason, I did not feel the need to keep them all in the same place. I grab the rest and throw them in to. I then head to the hot tub. It is nice. 

I shower and make some dinner.  After dinner, it is time to run the dishwasher!  It is really loud and kind of sounds like it might blow up. So far, it has not.  I pull my 5 gallon collapsible water jug out and fill it in anticipation of the camping to come. My shit is still more or less thrown all over the place.  I will probably push dealing with it until the morning.

Anyway, Lake Tahoe has been great.  I would totally not be opposed to coming again.  Maybe in a winter with more snow.  I think this winter is setting a record for least snow recoded.  Even without the snow, it was a lot of fun.  I would probably stay on the north side of the lake in the future since there are a lot more ski resorts on that side. However, the drive around the lake is beautiful and definitely worth doing. Staying on the south side this time was a good call.  I have been here 7 days and have had 6 awesome days of skiing at 3 resorts.  I wish I had the time and money to make it to all of them!  Sadly, at 80 to 90 dollars a ticket that just is not feasible. Maybe next time :) I am a little sad to be leaving Tahoe!

Also, let me talk about my Epic Pass again. It is awesome.  First, it was only $500 and is a season pass to 7 resorts.  Skiing 5 days so far, it has pretty much paid for itself already.  Also, it has logged all the skiing I have done at Northstar and Heavenly. (55,000 vertical feet at those two resorts this week! Man am I awesome or what??) There are also people on those mountains with camera who will take your picture for you.  The pictures are then uploaded to your account.  Which is sweet.  My account displays how many vertical feet I have skied, how many lifts I have ridden, how many days I have skied, and other cool things. It has an overall stat and stats broken down by day. It is made even more exciting by giving me pins for reaching certain achievements (like skiing two lifts in a certain order, skiing on the Chinese new year, skiing a certain number of feet or days, etc) and I level up once I get enough points (which are gotten from getting pins and vertical feet).  Sooo, it is pretty much like a real life video game.  I highly approve.  I wish all ski resorts would all get together and do this! Ok, enough talking about how awesome my epic pass is, until I get to Colorado and start using it again!

My stats!!

I have also spent the last couple nights thinking long and hard about where I want to go next week.  I was going to go to Mammoth Mountain, but I really need a break from skiing.  And it will be quite expensive and I need to save money.  After much thought, I have finally decided on taking possibly the most round about way possible from Tahoe to Arizona.  I will be camping in 4 different national parks and preserves along the way and staying in Vegas and in Santa Clara with a friend for a few nights. I am going to drive over 1700 miles next week.  I hope T Rex is ready for that!  Hell, I hope I am ready for that.  Anyway, with the camping, my updating will not be so regular.  When I have internet again, I can almost guarantee some awesome pictures :D