Plans to extend Tahoe-Pyramid Bikeway this year
By Susan Voyles, Reno Gazette-Journal
The Tahoe-Pyramid Bikeway could be extended by several leaps and bounds in 2011, including opening the first trail in the Truckee Canyon west of Verdi, possibly gaining access along the Truckee River at the S-Bar-S Ranch north of Wadsworth and opening a new stretch through the scenic McCarran Ranch.
Once McCarran is opened to bike riders after a new bridge is built, they will have nine miles of trail to ride from Mustang to Tracy, said Janet Phillips, bikeway leader.
Phillips said work could begin this year on the first four miles of trail into the Truckee Canyon from Verdi after the Truckee Meadows Water Authority signed an agreement in 2010 making its dirt maintenance road public.
That trail, however, won’t be opened until the Fleish suspension footbridge is made sturdier, Phillips said.
A grant to cover $200,000 of a $350,000 in improvements now is in the works, she said.
Mile by mile, Phillips and a band of about 11 professionals and recent retirees now are in their seventh year of pursuing a bikeway following the Truckee River from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake. So far, 68 miles are open, and there are 45 miles to go.
Another 70 volunteers, she said, can be counted on for trail construction, pulling weeds or maintenance.
The bikeway can be a dirt trail or road or a wide road shoulder, such as along California 89 between Squaw Valley and Truckee, Phillips said. The big push, she said, is to get a bikeway opened, making improvements along the way.
