The Coast to The Lake

Leaving Portland, I headed south towards Eugene (where the University of Oregon is located). I have always had a passion for running and growing up one of my idols was Steve Prefontain. For those of you who don't know, he was a very famous distance runner who could run a mile in 4 minuets flat, with even splits. He was the test subject for early shoe designs, which later became the first Nike running shoe. As a distance runner in high school, I was more than excited to have the opportunity to visit his home track and see where trained.

Pre!

When I got there, track practice was just ending. As I suited up and headed towards the track I started thinking about how I once tripped while running wind sprints in college and broke my collarbone. Not only was this a great way to start off my freshman year but it also earned me the nickname “The Clavicle Athlete” since the spill took place in front of my entire pledge class. Hoping that no one would stop me from getting out on the track, I proceeded to run a few laps in Pre's honor.

Jog with a soft "J"

After Eugene, I started driving out towards the coast. I passed through Coo's Bay, where Pre grew up and also where Penn Bradford was born... if you don't know Penn you can find him on Facebook (watch out, he’s a poker!). 

I ended up driving until just before dark and stopped in Gold Beach, Oregon to stay the night. I am pretty sure I was the only person in the hotel considering my car was the lone man in the parking lot. After a quick bite to eat I went down to the beach where the hotel hot tub was located. Though I was the only guest at the hotel, I quickly realized that the hot tub was a popular place for the locals to come and take a quick dip. While taking a soak I was fortunate enough to meet a couple that talked extensively for 2 hours about their son and their business and everything else that was going on in their lives but never stopped to even asked me where I was from or where I was going. I guess it’s a good thing that this guy loves his life so much!

Coastline

The next morning I woke up to blue skies and crashing waves. I was eager to get in the car and head south down the coast. After about 30 miles, I crossed into California where I was greeted by the Redwood National Forest. It’s crazy to be driving with not a cloud in the sky and all the sudden hit a forest where you have to turn on your headlights in order to see the road.

Redwoods

After a few hours of enjoying the coast I headed east towards Lake Tahoe. As some of you could have guessed, I have been through some pretty crazy weather on this trip but the Acura has been able to handle pretty much everything that mother nature has thrown at it… until now. All day I had been driving with the windows down, blaring music and thinking about how awesome the west coast is when all the sudden it started raining. About an hour and a half outside of Tahoe I noticed that the temperature was beginning to drop and that snow was starting to fall. NBD, I had driven in this before. Being cautious (but still making good time) I rounded the corner to find a huge roadblock. For the first time during my trip, I was forced to turn around to go get chains for my tires. After hitting up a few gas stations I finally found what I was looking for at K-mart (FYI- the K-marts in California are just as crappy as the K-marts in the south). I have heard about these chains, but for a kid from Memphis, I had no clue what to do or how to even get these things on my car. About an hour later I arrived back at the roadblock, armed with my tire chains and having absolutely no idea of what to do.

My car is a BEAST!

Luckily, the lady that was stopping everyone and checking for chains/4 wheel drive was nice enough to come over and give me a quick tutorial on how to put these things on. While she sat there and watched me struggle, she sucked down her Marlboro Red and told me about the one time she came to Atlanta and how her wallet stolen. To make a long story short, the stop was a little bit awkward due to the fact that I kept referring to her as “Sir” until she corrected me as to what her sex was as I was finishing up with the chains.

FYI - I trimmed the beard!

The rest of the drive into Lake Tahoe was slow and slippery. From the time it started snowing until I pulled into my hotel, it must have snowed 10 inches… all I knew is that the next day was going to be a great ski day!

Lake Tahoe

Ski Patrol digging out the signs and their patrol house

I was able to get about 5 hours sleep before my alarm went off at 7. I had been watching the weather over the past week and knew that the snow here was going to be epic. I wanted to make it up for first chair and since I had never skied Squaw Valley, I wanted to have plenty of time to check out the mountain before it opened. When I arrived, I learned that Squaw Valley had hit 600 inches of snow for the season, which has only happened 3 other times. It was a very, very good day!

Hike to the top of the bowl

Tired and sore, I decided to head towards Sacramento since there was another storm blowing in that night and I didn’t want to get stuck in Tahoe City. Sacramento is about an hour from Lake Tahoe so I pulled in right before sunset. Once again, I lucked out on hotwire and got a room at the Hyatt-Regency. My room had an amazing view of the Capitol building and the hotel hot tub had pool side service!

Dippin' the toe!

After a beer and a soak I got cleaned up and headed out for some sushi. I am not sure what the place was called but it was the only restaurant in downtown Sacramento with people inside. Once you get used to it, making friends at a bar is pretty easy but gets very tiring. One thing I miss about Atlanta is that I can go out and already know people. As I write this blog I am in San Diego so I am actually about to start heading back East. In about a month I will be able to kick my feet up and relax in Atlanta while sucking down oysters at Fontaines and enjoying the weather!