Today was the second day of a compact three-day swing through western Nevada and the Lake Tahoe region, climbing various peaks of varying size. Yesterday I had hiked a biggy, Mount Jefferson in Nye County, then followed that up with a short hike up Mount Davidson in Storey County, above old Virginia City. By the end of the day I had taken refuge in a somewhat run-down "economy" hotel in Carson City. There was an amusing sidelight in town: while driving down US-395 through downtown Carson City, there were all sorts of beautiful women walking beside the road, too many at one time to be random. Turns out it was some sort of beauty pageant taking place in town. That was nice!

Carson City is separate from any county, a stand-alone "independent city". It was part of old Ormsby County, which slowly lost land as new counties were formed from it to the point that it was nothing more than Carson City itself and a little surrounding countryside, so it made sense to absorb the city and county governments into one. This happened in 1969. Carson City was also home to my maternal grandfather, a man I barely knew for most of my life as he was essentially estranged from our family. In later years we saw him a little more often and I got to know him a little better. He was a master stone and brick mason and an aspiring entertainer: he was a comedian, supposedly, at various VFWs and other little out of the way places up there in the 1970s-80s. I would give my right arm to have seen him up on stage! He died in 1993, so yeah, Carson City has a little smidge of "family" meaning to me.

The plan today was to hike two relatively short peaks, Snow Valley Peak here in Carson City, and East Peak in neighboring Douglas County. I was pretty sore from yesterday's hikes and was not up for some giant monster hike again. Snow Valley Peak offered a mountain-biking option which was attractive. East would require a hike but it wasn't too long.

Early in the morning I got rolling, but didn't have far to travel to get to the trailhead for Snow Valley Peak. It's just a few miles up the US-50 grade west out of Carson to the junction with state route NV-28 near Spooner Summit, and the entrance to the Spooner Lake Recreation Area. I paid a small day-use fee, parked and got my stuff together. It was early but already there were many vehicles, including horse trailers, suggesting I may see people on horseback along the route as well (I did). The route to the summit is about 5 miles one way, but four miles of that is along a wide gravel forest road, closed to public vehicles, and perfect for mountain biking.

I had brought my bike for just this occasion. I hopped on and slowly pedaled onto the road. The first three miles is mostly flat with very lenient grades, gaining a total of 600 feet with some simple uphills and downhills along the way. The last mile is a little steeper, gaining 500 feet to a junction with the side road that would lead to the summit. I made good time but realized that hiking muscles do not necessarily translate into biking muscles, and I found myself needing to walk the bike some of the final portions of the last section. A regular mountain-biker probably would have no trouble at all.

At the junction, I walked my bike up the side road a little bit and then stashed it in some brush, locking it against a small tree out of sight from the main road. Evidently, most hikers, bikers and horse-riders just go along the main road, which leads in about another mile north to Marlette Lake, a dammed reservoir than spills into nearby Lake Tahoe (itself just a couple miles to my west but hidden from view by the hills). Not many people hike to Snow Valley Peak, it seems. I walked up this side road as it gained steeply to top out on the main ridge at a saddle directly north of Snow Valley summit. From here I followed the Tahoe Rim Trail south a little bit but realized it only bypasses the top, so I left it shortly and made my way up easy open slopes to the summit area, featuring some rock outcrops kind of spread around, with a couple being contenders for *the* highpoint. I visited anything that looked promising and enjoyed the lovely views of Lake Tahoe, now visible behind the foreground hills.

It was breezy but very nice overall and I spent a little while enjoying the top and the various views. No one else was up here. For the descent I followed the forest road down to the saddle and from there back down to my bike. The four-mile egress on my bike took only 20 minutes back to my truck, and it was still just mid-morning when I arrived back at the trailhead. Overall, a very successful hike made more fun with the bike. A hiker's option is to take the Tahoe Rim Trail from US-50 all the way to the top. The trailhead is a bit east of the Spooner Lake entrance.

My next objective, East Peak in Douglas County, was just a few minutes' drive south of Spooner Lake. I arrived there about noonish, traffic being my only hindrance, and had a fun second hike for the day on East Peak. My only regret is my lack of photographs. I had a lousy camera and I just didn't bother with any real photographs along the way. You'd think with Lake Tahoe nearby...