VITAL WINTER SNOWPACKS
BY DON DOUCETTE
News reports today about eight feet of snow predicted in California has reminded this writer of a brief visit with California friends while touring the beautiful Lake Tahoe shoreline and including a stop in the town of Truckee, the site of the Donner Party Memorial.
TRUCKEE RIVER IN WINTER
The 7,088-foot (2,160 m) high pass above Truckee Lake became blocked by early snow in November 1846. Both the pass and the lake are now called Donner.
The Donner Party was a pioneer group hopelessly trapped by deep Sierra snows and eventually for some members to survive, resorted to cannibalism.
There is a large memorial to that tragic event and its height, as I recall, represents the depth of the Sierra Mountain snows during the Donner Party incident.
DONNER PASS
The Donner Pass is a major highway and rail transport corridor between Sacramento, California and Reno, Nevada. For train buffs, the passage of Union Pacific street-level multi-engine trains through Truckee center offers lawn chair viewing opportunities up close and with “full sound.”
YouTube TV video also offers snowblower train engines of great import required during the long winter months to keep this strategic rail artery clear of frigid obstruction.
‘’The curious 120 mile long Truckee River Watershed gathers on the eastern slope of the Sierra and includes spill flow from Lake Tahoe, flows downslope eastward through Reno and on to its Pyramid Lake dead end – Lake Lahontan, the remnant basin of an extinct ancient sea which once covered portions of this parched western Nevada region.
Flying west from eastern destinations toward Sacramento and after passing the Great Basin Salt Flats, Pyramid Lake looms as a prominent land feature before crossing the Sierra Range.
Heavy winter snows throughout the Sierra Range are so important for filling the recently needy westward reservoir systems of the greater California region. The water dependent Central Valley is extremely vital for our national food production requirements.
All said, annual winter snow pack in the Sierra Range is so necessary to accumulate slow release melt waters so urgently needed to supply thirsty population center reservoirs, sustain wildlife and fauna and feed millions of people far and wide.
Don Doucette
“Ten Mile River Rambles”