REME Mountain Tour 2006 - LAKE TAHOE

Labor Day Weekend will be when Redwood Empire Mini Enthusiasts will be having the second half of the REME Mountain Tour 2006 (the first half being in June with our Trinity-Mount Shasta-Mount Lassen Run). We will begin the second half of the run on Friday morning, September 1 and end on Monday afternoon, September 4.

The routes are all planned and are posted online.

Members from SinCity have expressed interest in joining us on this run as well. More information will be posted on the REME MegaBBS.

We now have the route maps posted online. Because we are driving in less traveled areas and in State and National Parks land, the mapping software is not too reliable. There may be multiple route maps for a single run to span areas that our mapping software says roads do not exist. Rest assured that Howard has driven all roads listed on the maps and will be leading the runs through the Tahoe area.

September 1: (Maps 1a, 1b, 1c) We will begin our run in Auburn, CA at 9am (many members will be spending Thursday night in Auburn), drive a convoluted route through mountains and valleys, near small lakes, and through National Forests. Dinner and evening activities are on your own.

September 2: (Map 2) We will meet at t 9am and leave at 9:30am. We will drive through the Eldorado and Tolyabe, National Forests, around Topaz Lake, with lunch in Bridgeport, After lunch we will drive back arriving to the hotel around 4pm. Dinner and evening activities are in Sparks at the Rib Cook-off or on your own.

September 3: (Map 3) We will meet after breakfast at 8:30am and leave promptly at 9:00am for our tour around Lake Tahoe, Virginia City, and Carson City. Lunch may be on the road if we are running late, or a late lunch may be on your own back in Lake Tahoe if we are on schedule. Dinner at Fire & Ice at 5pm.

September 4: (Map 4) We will leave from the hotel at 9am and take the scenic route to Placerville for lunch at Original Mel's. After lunch, everyone will head back to home via the route of their choice.

The routes are subject to change. Please download and print run maps a few days prior to the run. Restaurants and stops may change based upon suggestions from local members. Please RSVP for the September Run.

This will be a free event. Participants will pay for hotel rooms, gas and food. No cash will be collected by Redwood Empire Mini Enthusiasts.

To ALL REME Members,

Since we will be visiting many California State Parks during this summer, it might be a good idea to purchase a California State Parks Pass. These are good for one year and gives you free visitation (car day pass) to all California State Parks. If you are going on our mountain tour runs, it would save you money.

If you need any details, drop me an email.

norm@redwoodempiremini.com

Wanted to let you know that SierraNevadaMins will be joining you perhaps on day 2 and 3 of your runs. These are areas that we have driven before and would very much like to be a part of this event. As a member of your club i know we are welcome as stated by Peter in his invite. Glenn in Tahoe

Cool. This should be a fun group and a great place to drive.
A little local knowledge is always helpful.

Just figured out that Burney Falls is a California State Park and Lassen Volcanic is a National Park. That will mean that if you have a CA park pass, Burney is free and if you have a National Park pass Lassen if free.

I never realized that growing "OLD" has it's benifits. They all offer senior discounts for these passes. If you plan to travel and go to any of the State or National Parks, it's a great deal to get a pass.

Cheers and keep the rubber side down!

Ordered my annual pass, thanks for the heads up . Had Golden eagle for national parks years ago. This is for California state parks. Glenn

Sounds like an awesome event! I love driving around the Lake, and Mammoth/Bridgeport are such beautiful places too! Hopefully we can wrangle together a substantial group.

Reminders:

09/01/06 Hell Hole Run to Tahoe (175+ miles): We will be meeting at Burger King (13446 Lincoln Way, Auburn) at 8:30 am with a departure time of 9 am. We will arrive at Best Tahoe West Inn at about 4:25 PM (4107 Pine Boulevard in South Lake Tahoe (800) 700-8246). This is the location that the majority of participants will be staying at. After a long day in the car, evening activities will be on your own. Locals will recommend watering holes and restaurants. More info to follow....

09/02/06 Bridgeport Run (190 miles+): We will be meeting at the Best Tahoe West Inn (4107 Pine Blvd., South Lake Tahoe) at 9 am with a departure time of 9:30 am. Those returning to the hotel will arrive at 4 PM. Those deciding to continue on to Nugget Rib Cook off in Sparks for dinner, entertainment and music will arrive about 5 PM. Food and entertainment at the Nugget continues until 9 PM. (Route maps will be revised shortly).


All food booths will be open from 11:00 am–9:00 PM, Wednesday–Sunday and from 11:00 am–5:00 PM on Monday.
Food and concessions will be available during event hours only. Enjoy great food and great music on six different stages all weekend long!
The Best in the West Rib Cook-off takes place on Victorian Square in Sparks, NV at 1100 Nugget Avenue.


Sunday Dinner will be at Fire and Ice in South Lake Tahoe at 5 PM. We have made reservations for 30 people only so please let me know if you intend on joining us for dinner. RSVP on the REME MegaBBS, email or PM me. We will be eating outside sitting in groups of 4-8 people. The cost of dinner is $18.95 per person plus tax and drinks. This is guaranteed to be a fun dinner and night out on the town.

09/04/06 Original Mel's for lunch, Placerville (94+ miles): We will be meeting at the Best Tahoe West Inn (4107 Pine Blvd., South Lake Tahoe) at 8:30 am with a departure time of 9:00 am and should arrive in Placerville by 12 noon for lunch and goodbyes.

Your run will be great up here in the Sierras. Lake Tahoe, Kingbury grade, Geiger grade, Mount Rose hwy are all places wev'e been. Nice. Will try to get SNMC to join sat and sun runs. PLEASE read your personal e-mails Norm as I have important information. Rib cook-off is not to be missed. Worth the parking to go and walk around and pig out if you want. Live bands too.About 50 min drive from South lake Tahoe. See you all soon, Lisa

Too bad my fiance and I will miss this. Tahoe is an excellent place to run our mini's. Have fun.

We, SNMC, will be pulling into your hotel parking lot sat am hopefully by 8:45. Please see products at front desk. Gordon Gray, red mini with brit flag on roof, will be there already. Glenn I suppose will meet sat am also, he lives up there. I hope to have 5 of us coming from Carson. Motor ON. Lisa

Just got home from work. Very busy running around today. Will meet my club at the Tahoe motel sat. morning. Welcome to Tahoe REME. Hope everyone is ready to enjoy my Country. Remember it's a Holiday weekend and plenty of CHP out and about. Glenn

See my post snmc. I couldn't do the on line comment sheet last shasta run so I'm just posting comments for everyone to see. Thank you for coming to Nevada and sharing our awsome roads.Lisa

Here is a link to my little movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTdNvFONLhY

Hi everyone!
I just returned home at 3:50 PM... a little tired after fighting I-80.
I wanted to thank everyone of you that attended the second half of our (Labor Day Weekend) 2006 REME MINI Mountain Tour in beautiful Lake Tahoe (and surrounding areas). It was truly a wonderful weekend of driving on beautiful Sierra Nevada mountain and valley roads! The weather was equally as accommodating as the local SNMC participants. Thank you SNMC members who joined our run!

Please post your photos on the REME MegaBBS (I forgot my camera).

The official mileage is in totaling 1016 miles this weekend (your mileage may vary depending on routes traveled).

BTW... great Day 3 slide show Rob!

Thanks everyone for a perfect weekend! and the fireworks were awesome. I really enjoyed myself thanks again to all and the Sierra Nevada MINIs for sharing, you guys rock

Well it’s now in the books, the second leg of the Redwood Empire MINI Enthusiasts 2006 Summer Mountain Tour. This leg, the “Lake Tahoe” portion, was as good, if not better, than the Shasta-Redding run in June. Here again REME, “the crusin’ club”, put on another 1,000+ mile, four day run.

For Jesse & I, the run started with the 4:00AM alarm on Friday morning. A quick shower, cup of Joe, last minute packing into the MINI and out the door by 4:30AM to meet up with Peter on the Windsor green before 5:00AM. Then after some last minute plans, a quick radio check, topping off of gas, it was “On the Road Again”. This time to Auburn in the Sierra foothills outside of Sacramento to meet up with the rest of REME at 8:30AM.

In Auburn, we handed out the run maps, cell phone lists, and copies of the REME’s Cruisn’ Tunes CD, prepared by Jerry & Gerri Del Castello, for a fun assortment of “car” music. The CD included some Beach Boys, Beatles, Bee Gees, Jan & Dean, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Rolling Stones, and more.

We had a scheduled start time of 9:00AM, but got delayed about 10 minutes as one of our members, Garrett Davis, had just flown in from Spain and grabbed his keys and MINI and ran out the door. He didn’t have time to pack any clothes or even a tooth brush. But the dedicated MINI cruiser that he is, he looked at his watch and said “If I leave right now, I can catch them!” And so he did. Later he need to do some shopping for socks, underwear, and a toothbrush.

Once we were all in line, it was off on Day 1 (Friday) (Hell Hole). Up North on Bowman Rd., Lake Arthur Rd., thru Applegate, Twin Pines, Weimer and Canyon Way to Colfax for a quick “potty break”. From Colfax it was off on Donner Pass Rd. to Foresthill and “Hell Hole”. After a beautiful visit and stop and photos in “Hell Hole” we preceded on to South Lake Tahoe via back mountain roads through the Eldorado National Forest and a short stint on highway 50 over Echo Summit to Pioneer Trail and on to our hotel in South Shore.

On Day 2 (Saturday 9:30AM) we gathered at our hotel and all started on our “Southern Circle” which took us to Markleeville (highway 50 & 89), to highway 395 through Coleville and stopping in Bridgeport for lunch at the Rhino Bar & Grill. From Bridgeport we took highway 182, to highway 338, to Wellington, then 208 to Minden. Here is where some broke off and headed back to South Shore and the rest headed North on 395 through Carson City to Sparks for the Nugget BBQ Rib “Cook-off”. There we found that too many people (thousands) had heard we were going to be in town, so the crowd was “too big to handle” and we left down 395 for a great dinner at Red’s 395 Grill in Carson City. After dinner it was a beautiful drive over highway 50 to South Shore and some evening time around the hotel pool.

On Day 3, (Sunday) we again gathered at the hotel for departure at 9:00AM. This time we drove around Lake Tahoe starting on the west shore, stopping at Emerald Bay for a break, great views, and lots of photos. We continued up the west shore of Lake Tahoe through Homewood, Tahoe City, Carnelian Bay, Kings Beach and cut off on highway 431 at Incline Village. There we headed up Geiger Grade to the summit at Mt. Rose for another photos stop, before heading down highway 341 to Virginia City for lunch and shopping. To our surprise there was a Vintage American Car Show with some of the cleanest and finest cars I have ever seen. The town was also celebrating the Labor Day holiday with a recreation of a civil war gun fight and festival. This was a fun and picturesque stop. After a 2 hour stop we got back in the MINIs and headed down through the back roads outside of Carson City. Here is where we got a chance to see the Wild Horses running through the range.

We drove back to South Shore through Genoa and over the Kingsbury Grade. There we enjoyed some time around the hotel pool before taking a short walk to “Fire & Ice”, a wonderful restaurant in South Shore where you pick out the items you want (steak, scallops, shrimp, etc.) and you take the bowl to a large (5 foot diameter) round hot grill and two chefs grill and toss your selections, adding the sauces of your choice. This process is done within a couple of feet of a 30 foot well stocked and active bar. So if you get thirsty while dinner is cooking, you can just order some refreshments while you wait. We had outside dining with and celebrated Garret’s birthday. It was clean warm mountain air, perfect weather!

After dinner we strolled back to the hotel to find that Lake Tahoe had planned a BIG fire works show (on our behalf). We were given beach passes and set up our spot on the beach for an extravagant pyrotechnic show. What an ending to a perfect day.

On Day 4 (Monday) we checked out of the hotel, gathered up and headed out Pioneer Trail at 9:00AM, to highway 50, to 89, passed Echo Lake down highway 88, then over Mormon Emigrant Trail and Iron Mountain Rd., weaving and winding our way to the “Original Mel’s” in Placerville for lunch and goodbyes, and of course, Howard’s birthday.

Here we split up and headed back to our homes, anxious for the next run and checking the websites for all the great photos.

This was by far one of the best runs we have had. The spectacular scenery, roads, food, and fun could not be matched. We ended up having 21 MINIs and close to 35 people participate.

Thanks to Howard Canfield for planning and plotting the route. Thanks to Peter Ziedrich for planning and organizing the run and especially to great dinner at Fire & Ice. Thanks to Sierra Nevada Mini Club for joining in and all the help they gave us.

And a special THANKS to all our members who were able to join in. You guys are the BEST!!! What a great bunch of great friends, with a sense of humor and a “free” spirit.

I want to thank all of you for such a fabulous fun filled weekend. It was great finally being able to meet all of you. Can't wait until we are able to organize another run with both clubs.

Melissa

Ditto on all of the above.Happy B-Day Howard ,and the goodie bag was AWSOME,who ever is responsible for the contents has raised the bar to a new standard.Q

Ditto on all of the above.Happy B-Day Howard ,and the goodie bag was AWSOME,who ever is responsible for the contents has raised the bar to a new standard.Q

Oh that's great I missed Howard's birthday Happy Birthday Howard Sorry I couldn't have been there. Glad everyone got home safe, now just keep in touch. I probably won't see you guys again until March. AMVIV IV, hurry up and get here.

Sandie

Sandie, there's lots of stuff coming up between now and AMVIV. I hope we see you at some of the upcoming runs.

As usual, the Sierra Nevada Mini Coopers had a great time mixing with the Redwood Empire Mini Enthusiasts. We look forward to the next event when we can again share the motoring experience with a great group of people.



PS I hope the motel didn't mind some of us non-patrons partaking of the donuts.