Hosted by the Lake Tahoe Ski Club Foundation, the 13th annual benefit will feature lamb by Osvaldo Ancinas as well as food from Christy Hill, Wolfdale's, Graham's, Jake's and other notable North Shore restaurants. A giant raffle plus silent and live auctions will add to the festivities.

In attendance will be Olympic gold medalist Julia Mancuso and other current and past Olympians, National team skiers, and Far West alpine competitors. Several Lake Tahoe ski racers will receive awards for their 2005/2006 achievements.

Emerald Bay
On the West Shore, the Rubicon Trail begins on the beach of Bliss State Park. The trail runs along the shore of Lake Tahoe to Vikingsholm; the trail is open and extremely beautiful from May on when the sun is bright.

Sunnyside
The famed, "Lake Tahoe Monster," stuck its head above water off Sunnyside just before sundown on Friday. A large gathering of participants in the five-day Mountain Travel Symposium was enjoying refreshments and the view across the wind-swept lake when suddenly a shout was heard above the din: "There's Tessie!!"

Antonucci gave a short overview of the many things accomplished in 1960, at Sugar Pine, for XC competition. Then the band of colorfully dressed visitors headed off through the tall trees on the Blue Trail. With the group was Martin Hollay, a local, who worked on the trails from January 1959 until May of 1960. He gave a brief overview of what he did to help create the trails and then remove them after the Olympics. At the time, the land was all privately owned.

Dave Antonucci discovered the 45-year old trails in the late 1990s. He did research and found that they were not old logging roads, as first suspected, but the 60km of trails actually used by Olympians. After the Olympics the trails were restored to their natural conditions or, in some cases, covered over by subdivisions.

While the Sierra is not New England when it comes to fall colors, our aspen groves in the fall can be quite spectacular. One of my favorite places for beautiful trees is Page Meadows, right in Tahoe City’s backyard. (Some people spell it “Paige” incorrectly, according to the authoritative book Tahoe Place Names, by Barbara Lekisch.)