Mike, a friend from the Reno Collective, proposes a ski up Mount Rose. With our one snow dump melting away in warm temps, we give it a try. The first climb faces south, so we figure we have it made when hit our first view. A peek at the ski area Up higher the snow…

Virginia City is interesting as an authentic-looking silver rush mining town and site of the Comstock lode. We breeze through looking for a hike, and find an unusual one. It’s not too surprising to find an unsafe mine here. Unsafe Mine Or a steep power line road to a ridge with a nice view of…

It seems so clever to take advantage of dry, warm January weather to hike an easy peak with Ann and our friend Nick. At the trailhead we see only a few dozen other parties had the same idea. It turns out not to be that easy either, with much of the trail packed and slick.…

Another day of rain nearly saps our motivation, but we manage one more walk in the slush up some old logging roads on Cabarton ranch. I don’t even take photos today, but I feel better for the slog afterwards.

We don’t get the snow I hoped for overnight, but reports from the ski area sound pretty good so I head to the hill again with Jock and Becky MacGregor. Ann’s parents offer to buy me a lift ticket as a Christmas gift, so I even play by the rules today! To reward this good…

It rains all night and shows no sign of letting up during the day, so Ann, her dad, and I get out the rain gear and slush through the slop down to the Payette river. The hard part is getting started. http://www.flickr.com/photos/96029174@N00/6610357967/ We pass the cute cabin down the hill a ways. Small Cabarton Cabin…

The Payette valley is full of Ann’s MacGregor cousins. Jock MacGregor is an insatiable skier, and I have a feeling that he’s the reason a staff member at Tamarack gives me his okay to skin up a closed run. I’m ready for a good uphill workout, and go for it. Before leaving the open part…

Cabarton Ranch on the North Fork Payette River is owned by Ann’s Dad’s cousin David MacGregor, who invited us up to spend the Christmas/New Year week. I’m hoping for snow at the nearby Tamarack ski area, but so far it’s pretty bare up here, so Ann and I walk up Cabarton Road to the town…

It’s early December, cold, and we’re looking for some winter hikes close to Reno. This area in the hills east of town seems to have a big network of trails that climb up right from the trailhead – possibly good for workout hikes. We make our way up one rocky little trail and down another.…

The day before Thanksgiving we move from the high, airy Mid Hills campground at 5600 feet above sea level to the much balmier Kelso Dunes at 2400 feet. My couple of hikes in the dunes put me into a rare camera frenzy. The dunes are providers of unusual sights. A few tamarisk trees provide a…