10 June - Lake Tahoe, Virginia City and the Motorcycle Accident

10 June
This morning we headed west to the Lake Tahoe area.  What a beautiful sight, that deep blue water with a reflection of the snow-capped mountains on it's surface.  We drove to Glenbrook and then headed north around the northeast corner of the lake and along the north side a bit into California and King's Beach.  I was disappointed there were no public access areas at least that we could find.  We did slip into a couple pull-off's for a few pictures.

Looking west across Lake Tahoe.

 

A steep slope from the highway down to the lake

We then took the "Geiger Grade Road, better known as Highway 431 to Mount Rose Summit.  The original unpaved road was financed by Dr Davison M. Geiger, a local physician and built in 1862 to haul silver from the Comstock Lode.  Today's paved road is called the Geiger Grade and was built in 1936.  We stopped at the 4.6 mile point and enjoyed this great view of the Sierra.  There is a plaque there highlighting Dr Geiger.

Very windy the higher we climbed

The area is covered with old fireplace ruins

An old, abandoned well has been filled in

Another of the fireplaces with many shown in the background

Doreen climbing the rock stairs

After we left the Geiger area we continued to climb towards the summit.  We found another pulloff that shows the snow at that level.  It was cold, also.  Temps were down to 44F!

  

 We finally reached Mount Rose Summit at 8260 ft.  The ski chalet was closed and the parking lot was empty but you could see the ski lifts easily.

The chalet

One the way down we stopped tat a nature center where they were doing a class on geocaching.  We continued down to Virginia City which was a rough old western town back in the day.  Now it is a tourist area with old west saloons and other buildings along the main drag.  

Entrance to the city

 

Downtown street parking

Old west building construction

Folks in western costume

The downtown area was virtual gridlock and there was no place to park, let alone trying to park a RAM 3500, so we took some pictures and headed back to the campground.  About 20 miles out of Fallon traffic ground to a halt and there were some sheriff cars blocking travel, so we pulled over along with everyone else and waited.  Suddenly a volunteer firefighter/EMT from Fallon approached our truck on the shoulder and had noticed my firefighter license plates,  He said there had been an accident and asked if I was an EMT.  I told him I had been but it had expired a few years ago and he asked if I would assist anyway, so away we went.  A young man was operating a Harley motorcycle and caught a gust of wind with severe dust and he lost control at highway speed.  He and the motorcycle slid down the pavement a very long ways.  We worked together to stabilize the patient until the paramedic ambulance arrived.  Memories of my firefighter/EMT days!!

He had severe road rash on his arm and back, and some broken ribs causing severe pain and shortness of breath.  Luckily he had his helmet on as it likely saved his life.  Soon the paramedic unit arrived and not long after that the air ambulance arrived.  They flew him to Reno trauma center for advanced care. Traffic started to move while I was still at the scene, so Doreen got to drive the big truck off the traveled portion all by herself!!  We are proud of her!

We drove over 250 miles today and tomorrow we will likely stay closer to Fallon and relax a bit.  Monday morning we depart for Sacramento.