Road Trip – Farad, CA

Patty and I took a two-week road trip. We drove 4250 miles from our home in northern California to Saskatchewan, Canada and back. We stopped along the way to visit friends and to look over some new country too. Altogether we traversed six states, some twice, and one Canadian province. Over the next few days I’ll be posting some photos and video highlights of the trip. Enjoy!

Patty is a pretty good traveler. He loves it when we stop driving and he gets to explore the sights and smells of new places. But he’s content in his crate too whether it’s in the truck, in a hotel or at a friend’s home.

I brought two crates along on this trip, one hard-side unit for use in the truck and one soft collapsible unit that I can carry into hotels and friends homes. I also brought an extra water resistant dog bed. Patty often uses puddles to cool off in and I prefer a dog bed that dries quickly and keeps the wet-animal smell down to a minimum in the close confines of the truck.

Our first stop was along I-80 eastbound, just two or three miles west of the Nevada border. We’d been driving for a few hours already and I figured both of us needed to stretch our legs. The random exit that I chose turned out to be perfect!

We happened onto a segment of the Tahoe-Pyramid Bikeway. The bikeway follows the Truckee River between Lake Tahoe (on the California side) and Pyramid Lake in Nevada. We hit the trail near the old Farad hydroelectric power plant. It is no longer in service but, for you history buffs, according to NV Energy, it was the first power plant in the eastern Sierras. It was built way back in 1899 to supply power to the silver mines in the area.

I was a little nervous because the Truckee River was really flowing and Patty is, let’s be honest, not a great swimmer. But although he explored the puddles nearby, he never ventured into the fast flowing water. He did give me a scare, however, when he jumped off an eight foot high bolder instead of just running down the side. No problem, he kept right on going.

After Patty cooled down in a stinky mud-hole, I let him run through cover for a few more minutes to wipe off the dirt.  Then we loaded up and continued our road trip.