My wife and I spent the day having a Tahoe winter experience.

The morning was spent snowshoeing around Meeks bay. My wife had a long standing desire to walk with snowshoes in the snow with her dog. We decided that we would rather be cross country skiing using back-country skiis than snowshoeing. We had a great time, but cross country skiing is just more fun. The dog didn’t notice or care. He had a blast. He was running all over the place, sniffing everything, burrowing his head in the snow, chasing snowballs, barking at falling snow. By the time we came back to the B&B he was fast asleep.

In the afternoon we went cross country skiing at the Tahoe Cross Country Ski Area. This is a cross country ski area that is right on the lake. The snow is not as superb as Royal Gorge but the location is vastly more convenient. A 15 minute drive instead of a 45 minute drive each way from the west shore.This place has a certain amount of charm that the more corporate Royal Gorge somehow lacks. The trails are groomed and the few we did were pleasant. What’s really cool about the cross country area is that they allow dogs on a certain number of their trails. Which if you have a dog and have to deal with the unrelenting war on dogs that seems to be going on, brings a smile to your face. The trails are open to dogs from 3-5 PM on weekends and all day during weekdays.

We originally planned to do the Blue trail, but at intersection H we decided to take a left onto Green. We then skiied until the warming hut and had a fantasy about doing another 4KM loop. But then we realized that the cumulative energy drain that was snowshoeing+skiing was about to kill us. Hence we turned back. On the way back we wanted to do the Special Green loop, but even that exceeded our ability to move. Pushing on with what limited energy reserves we had, we arrived at the lodge, exhausted but happy.