(light instrumental music) - [Male Announcer] Support for Wild Nevada Memories is provided by the William N. Pennington Foundation.

- [Female Announcer] Millie Hopper and Millard Reed.

- [Male Announcer] Gail and John Sande.

- [Female Announcer] Margaret and Charles Burback.

- [Male Announcer] And by individual members.

- [Narrator] It's been 20 years since Wild Nevada first appeared on public television.

Over the years, many people have asked what's it like to travel around and make the show.

So let's celebrate the 20th anniversary by reliving one of our favorite adventures and sharing some Wild Nevada Memories.

(energetic folk music) - Welcome to Wild Nevada, I'm Chris Orr.

- And I'm Dave Santina.

And we're in Reno this morning, but that's just the start of our day.

We were weeks after the production when we shot this open.

It was hot out.

It was later in the spring and we were roasting.

- Sweltering, we were freezing the whole show, and then we go to shoot that one moment where we introduced the show and it was so warm, and we were wearing our coats.

- It was unpleasant.

- [Dave Voiceover] About 30 miles south of Reno.

It's easily accessed via Interstate 580 South and the East Lake Boulevard exit.

We arrived to see an unlikely welcoming party, a group of wild horses having a snack at the roundabout.

- That was a completely lucky break.

We had no idea they were going to be there, and they hung out, we did about five laps around that roundabout.

- I kept trying get the horses to look at the camera.

So when we were neighing and making funny horse sounds at them out of the window, probably a pretty ridiculous sight.

- Hi.

- Hi, good to see you.

- Good to see you too.

- Good morning, Jenny.

- Hi, welcome.

- Hey, thanks for meeting us out here.

- No problem.

- It's beautiful.

You know, I've driven by here between Reno and Carson City, driven by this lake a thousand times.

I don't think I ever realized it was a state park.

- It is, we're sandwiched between two urban areas, Reno and Carson City, and this is a great stop for people to come explore Nevada state parks.

- I love it.

Looking at this water, it's incredible.

- [Chris] I know, excited to get on it.

- [Jenny] Yes!

- When I first moved to Nevada, I was in high school and Washoe Lake had water in it, and then I remember over the years, it would come and go, and come and go.

- This lake has been dry more years than it hasn't in my memory and so it was special thing that we got to be on a boat on this very shallow lake.

(charming acoustic music) - In that shot there, that close up of the wake, it looks like the camera is right near the water, but it's really not.

We were zoomed in up towards the middle of the boat.

We had such good zoom lenses on it, we were able to capture that real close-up shot.

- [Chris] It's just a thrill to be outside and motoring along these waves.

So when people come out here and actually use the water on the lake on the years when we've got plentiful water, what do they do on the lake?

- So we have water skiers, jet skiers, it's a popular place for kite boarders, and then there'll be times where we'll have 20 kiters out here, and so it's gonna be a busy summer for water-based recreation.

- We're recording this in two different boats.

- So you had one camera in one boat and another camera with us, it was really cool watching our camera guys, Martin and Alex, and they were shooting at each other but not getting each other in the shots.

They did an amazing job.

(soft acoustic music) - So what's great about this park and the setting is we're flanked on one side by the Sierras, the Carson Range, with beautiful views of Slide Mountain and Mount Rose.

And then on the other side, we've got the Virginia Range.

And this is all sandwiched in between Reno and Carson City, and we're only five minutes away from Carson, so it's a great location.

- Lotta times we were either on the bow of the boat or on the stern to get some of those shots, and that water was flashing and it was cold.

- [Jenny] You've got pine trees, upland vegetation, sage brush, desert, all in one setting.

- And of course, we saw the wild horses earlier today.

- Yes, so we do have some feral horses that are in the park, and they're managed by Department of Agriculture, and they were making themselves quite at home at our day-use area (laughs).

- I'd driven by this lake so many times, and I'd never even thought you can even have boats on the water there, and first time I've ever seen a boat on this lake, I was actually on the boat.

- [Dave] Jenny points out an area that really illustrates just how much water came into the park in a very short time.

- So underneath that big cottonwood tree, there's actually a picnic table, and you can just see the top of it.

The water came up so fast that we weren't able to pull the table in time, so we're gonna have to hook up to it with a chain and pull it out.

- So when you have a lake that fluctuates this much and you're out using it, boating on it, what kind of cautions should a person take?

- [Jenny] Well, boaters just need to realize that there's gonna be submerged hazards near the shoreline, things like these trees, these willows that we're looking at, so we recommend that everyone that boats here on the lake just uses extreme caution when they're near the shoreline.

- Really nerve wracking to shoot next to the water, even when you're on the shore, there's just such a bad relationship between water and electronics that bringing a camera close to the water always gives me a little shiver.

- [Chris] As we head back to shore, we both get to revel in the fact that for the first time, we've been out on Washoe Lake in a boat.

It almost feels strange, but it's a fun adventure when the area is enjoying a wet season.

- [Dave] Back on land, Jenny takes us less than a mile away from the boat launch to an entirely different kind of experience.

- So we're at a little different part of the park, and I'm excited about this part.

- We are, this is the equestrian area.

It's a very popular place for equestrian users.

- I've been horse crazy since I can remember, as a little girl, and I just love the chance to ride.

- But one of our new editions to the park is an obstacle course for horses.

But I'd like you to meet Beth Kauffmann, she's an avid user here at the park.

- Hi Beth.

- Nice to meet you!

- Who is this?

- This is Durango.

- (laughs) I love meeting a new horse, let me tell ya.

- This is where Chris stops talking to the humans and just talks to the animals.

- I was trying to behave myself on camera.

'Cause all I wanted to do was literally pet the horse.

- You bring a dog out, Chris forgets that there are human beings within 10 miles, it's dog, it's a horse, it's horse.

Humans just drop out of her memory.

- People traveling across the country can come here and park and spend a couple nights and enjoy this wonderful area, ride in the park and ride up in the hills.

So we get a lot of use out of this park.

Plus, it's a great place for running and mountain biking.

- [Chris] I'm excited to get to meet Durango.

- [Beth] Well, how would you like to ride to Durango?

- [Chris] I would love a ride, I was hoping you would ask.

(all laughing) - Okay.

Durango likes to go, so just sit back and hold on.

Okay, well why don't we get you on Durango, and then we'll go try the obstacle.

- I was lucky to grow up around horses, but it's been too long since I've gotten to ride one.

I'm so excited for the chance to be in the saddle again.

And Dave put together the schedule for the show and when he found out about the equestrian center, he offered me the chance to ride.

- I was fine letting Chris ride the horse, she's more experienced, she loves it.

I don't mind it, but I'm not good at it.

And for this segment, we needed it to stay within the schedule.

So there was no doubt that this was the best way to go.

- So I need to tell Dave, thank you.

I really enjoyed that part of this trip.

- [Beth] And then spinning him and just walk him over it.

He should just go and then just keep him straight.

Good, good.

The obstacles are so much fun.

Yay, we did it.

- [Chris] We are using Beth's horse Durango to encourage the Zippy to try the bridge obstacle.

- I remember this, and this horse was looking at me like it didn't know what to do with me sitting there right at the end of that walkway.

And I was so happy to see him just keep on walking by as I was getting that shot.

- It doesn't look like it's that big an obstacle.

But when you're on a horse that high off the ground, it's a little daunting.

You can kind of understand why the horse either goes or doesn't go.

It's still a fun and a great way to tour the equestrian center with one of its frequent users.

- Well, they were on horseback, but we were on foot.

So we were just following those horses all over the place.

And we got a good exercise for the day.

- [Dave] It's a very short ride from the equestrian area to our next adventure, where we meet the park interpreter Kim Zuch, who introduces us to a location with a very ominous name.

- We're at the Deadman's Creek trail head.

So we're going to walk up to that gazebo, and it's a 280 foot elevation gain, but we'll be overlooking the whole valley.

We can see the lake.

- Looks high from here.

- Our guide was warning us about all the rattlesnakes in the area and to really keep our eyes peeled for them.

We had to get behind these bushes to get these shots.

So we definitely kept our head on a swivel while we were filming this part.

- [Dave] So Kim, I have to ask the obvious question.

Why is this called Deadman's Creek?

- There's a story about a ranch that was located in the Southeast corner of Washoe Valley in the 1860s.

There's a man that started a ranch, and he was farming produce to sell it to the miners around Virginia City.

And in 1864, he sold half his ranch to a partner.

And no one knows exactly what happened, but on June 6th, 1865, both men were found shot dead in their cabin.

So at first I guess they thought it was a double murder.

And then later they decided maybe it was a murder-suicide.

That's what gave the name to Deadman's Ranch and then Deadman's Creek to the area.

This was the original trail that Boy Scouts helped build.

But then a fire came through here and it was closed.

This trail was closed for revegetation and restoration.

And so while this part of the trail was closed, the new one was built, and as you can see, even with a fire going through this canyon, it still is looking pretty good and green.

- I certainly wouldn't have known, it's a gorgeous little spot, even though the disturbing story of how it got its name is going to haunt my dreams forever, but that's all right.

- That's part of what makes it a real Nevada trail, right?

It's got to have a great story behind it.

- Right near that spot on the trail where we were talking, there were some nettles, stinging nettles.

Chris has had some bad experiences with those on other shows, so we remembered, when she saw that she said, "I'm not going anywhere near those.

Those things are mean to me."

- [Chris] The park hosts a number of programs for the public.

Kim occasionally leads moonlight hikes up this trail when the weather allows.

- Oh, the old ant walking up the tree.

Anytime we see an insect or lizard, we gotta get it 'cause who doesn't like seeing footage of ants and lizards.

- [Dave] And when you visit, be sure to get a State Parks Passport and get a stamp on the Washoe Lake page.

- [Chris] Not a bad office you guys have.

- [Kim] No, it's not a bad office at all.

During hiking, you have to decide, you look at the view and trip or you look at your feet and miss the view.

(Chris laughing) (dreamy acoustic music) - The wind seems to get stronger as we climb higher.

When we reach the top, a gazebo welcomes us to enjoy the stunning view.

- Sometimes the music and the nature scenes, the way the videographers capture them, makes you suddenly feel like you're watching one of those atmospheric videos.

Like you get online where you can just play it all day on your TV or on your computer screen, and it's relaxing.

And you just feel like you're in that environment.

- [Chris] It's hard to hear each other with the wind, so we find a little shelter and relax for a moment.

- Yeah, that's right.

We couldn't even talk on camera there because the wind was whipping.

- Best solution was hide behind the rocks (laughs).

And we only climbed a little bit on that hike, but it gave us an amazing view.

- From this vantage point, you can really see our two campgrounds that we have.

We have a total of 49 sites that are available for the public to come and camp with us for a weekend.

And we also have group areas.

So at our equestrian area that we went to earlier, you can reserve that and then you can also reserve our main group area, and it has a covered shade structure, kitchen area, your own bathroom and the beach right as a backdrop.

- Pretty cool.

- [Kim] We also have a kids playground area.

It's a maze with a natural playground inside that has obstacles for children.

- How fun.

This has been such a great day.

There's so many things a person can do out here at the park.

Thank you for giving us a tour.

- You're welcome, thank you.

- We'll go back down and get our passports stamped.

- Absolutely.

- That's great.

- We love our State Parks Passports.

This was the first day in the episode, but in reality it was the second day of us recording.

The first day was actually what you see next.

When we went snowshoeing and that's where I was an idiot.

- We head back south on Interstate 580, but only for 12 miles.

This was one of those winters where we had so much snow.

This was the perfect activity, so excited to get to go do it.

Little did we know what was ahead (laughs).

Hey Ben, thanks for coming out.

- Hey Chris, how's it going?

- Morning Ben.

- Hey Dave, good to see ya.

- So what are we gonna do today?

- We are gonna go up to Chickadee Ridge, about a mile from here.

It's on the edge of the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Hopefully we are going to see some birds and get a good view of the lake.

- Sounds great, sounds good.

- Let's gear up and do it.

(light acoustic music) - We hadn't done snowshoes in maybe, almost 20 years.

So we had to try some on and rent them.

And I got some shots of Chris standing in the hallways of the TV station trying on her snow shoes to make sure they fit before we went out and did this.

- [Chris] It's another changing weather day.

So we'll be ready for whatever Mother Nature has in store for us.

Up here, you wanna be sure to bring everything you'll need.

- [Dave] Ben, so it looks like you're all ready for winter.

You got the full head gear and everything.

- You can see our tracks going off there to get that shot.

One or the cameramen or both of us will have to run pretty far away to get those big wide shots of them walking through the frame.

So this one was particularly challenging because we were in snow shoes.

So we would have to go treking off through that powder.

- You wanna have your layers and outer shell and just be prepared to be out here for an extended period of time.

It's the difference between having a great day and having to go back to the car early and disappointed and cold.

- Ben, you referenced hydration as being important when you're out snowshoeing.

Why is hydration so important?

.

- Because a lot of times people think of it as something for the summertime when it's really hot and they forget about it in the winter time.

- You'd never know it from these scenes, but when you're the third one in line where I am, you can't hear anything.

Ben's 15 feet, 10 feet in front of me and he's just talking a normal level and you can hear them on the microphone, I can't even hear him from that far back because of the crunching snow, and we're all walking together.

So three snowshoe sets crunching on the snow.

Most of the time, I'm just walking and smiling.

I can't hear what's going on.

- [Ben] We get a little sunlight and then we get some clouds again.

- [Chris] Early spring in the Sierra, right?

- [Ben] I like that it started snowing.

Gives a little extra atmosphere to this.

- [Chris] (laughs) Absolutely.

As I said, a little sun, a little wind, a little snow, spring in the Sierra.

- [Ben] Yeah, we've had three or four weather changes already.

- I'm noticing the bird staying close to us as we move.

And I quickly learn how Chickadee Ridge got its name.

(magical instrumental music) I will never forget just how, what a gentle little bit of pressure it was when they would land on you.

And occasionally they would peck your fingernails, trying to see if you did have anything for them.

And it was such a gentle little feeling.

It's so fun to have these little birds pop into my hand.

It's a great way to get a closeup view of these cute little guys.

Their gentle landings and takeoffs are all but weightless.

- It's really cool that they do it in fun.

And if you go up there, they will come and land on your hand, but don't feed them.

Because it's not a good idea to encourage wildlife to come eat out of a human's hand.

This isn't a very long distance, but of course, snowshoes make it a bit slower than a normal hike.

After we climb the first steep rise of the day, we reach a vista point.

- I think we made it.

- Nice!

- There's the lake.

- Look at that.

- So cool.

- What a view.

- [Ben] Well this is it, this is the view we did the hike for.

- What are we looking at?

- What are we looking at?

Well, we've got obviously Lake Tahoe down there in the foreground.

And if you kind of look a little bit down to the left, you can see the Diamond Peak Ski Area down in Incline Village.

- One of the added benefits of filming in the snow is you get the light reflecting off of the snow.

So it acts as a fill on their faces while we were doing these, we call them the stand-ups.

- Wanna take the time and put in the effort to get out on the snow, really, it's pretty much every kind of activity you can think of in winter is like in this little basin.

- And the view is beautiful any time of year, and it's worth visiting every season, I think.

- [Ben] Oh definitely.

- [Dave] It's incredibly beautiful, I love that you took us up here for this view.

- [Ben] Let's go down the Ridge and back out of the wind a little bit.

- [Chris] Sounds good.

- We stopped after this scene to have lunch, and Ben dug a chair, a seat, and we sat down.

- And I had a handful of trail mix in my hand and this little chickadee lands on my fist and the little stinker stole a cashew out from between my fingers, this tiny little bit of nut is showing, and he just pulled and pulled and flew away with my cashew.

- The shovel that you were using to make it, is that a standard thing that you bring out, a standard tool?

- Yeah, the shovel, I take that every trip.

- Then we went back down, and I realized that the bottom of the hill that I no longer had a wedding ring on.

And it turns out that right up here in this area, it came off while I was taking my gloves off multiple times, taking pictures, walking around, there's a photo of me, and you can see my ring is hanging down my knuckle because my hands are so cold and my fingers are shrinking.

The next time you see me sitting at this bench, that ring is gone.

I went back to try to find it.

Rusty, wonderful guy, he offered to take up his metal detector.

We went up there.

We're zeroing in on the spot.

We have a lot of pictures and we have pretty good idea.

It's not ugly up here, that's for sure.

But we're pretty close, I think, to where we were.

So fingers crossed.

Could not find the spot again because I didn't know exactly how we got there.

I just trusted Ben, and I was just walking in the back.

So we couldn't find the place, and Rusty was starting to freeze to death and we had to leave.

Went back again a couple of days later with my friend Dave, and I still couldn't find it.

We dig and dig and the metal detector shows nothing.

And there's no luck.

I go back again.

I went back probably five times with a metal detector to try to search for this ring.

And it became apparent that the ring was long gone.

So it's down at the the bottom of the snow and melted and ran down hill when the spring came, I'm sure it's down there somewhere on that hill.

So if you go to Chickadee Ridge and you find a ring, let me know.

(ethereal instrumental music) We go back down the mountain the same way we came up on State Route 431, then up 1-580 North for a few miles before exiting at South Virginia Street and following Half Acre Lane to Lone Tree Lane and the Ballardini Ranch Trail, one of the newest in the area.

- Before we went and hiked Ballardini Ranch with Mike White, he had recommended it.

And so I went out and visited it.

It's now one of my regular spots.

- Nice to meet ya.

- Nice to meet you.

- Mike wrote this book, "50 of the Best Strolls, Walk, and Hikes around Reno."

And we asked him to take us on one.

So where are we going today?

- Well, we're in Southwest Reno in the foothills, and we're gonna walk up on the Ballardini Trail, it's a fairly new trail, and we're going to do the upper loop, and get up, see some views and maybe some wildlife.

- Sounds great.

- Lead the way.

- Okay, here we go.

(soft acoustic music) - [Chris] The complete trail covers two and a half miles over two loops.

It's a nice distance for a family hike or dog walk, and a perfect introduction to this part of the Sierra Foothills.

- I spent all of this second day, the Washoe Lake State Park stuff and this hike, with half of my mind up in the snow on the mountain where I knew that my wedding ring was disappearing for all time.

Truckee Meadows Parks Foundation has created a trails challenge to encourage everyone to get out and hike all the trails in the Reno area.

- [Chris] They also offer a guided hike every month at one of the many nearby trails, including this one.

- No surprise that it was windy again starting this segment.

But once again, the wind was just blowing that foliage around and it created a lot of action in the shot for us.

- [Mike] Yeah, well, we really live in a very fortunate situation because a lot of communities across the country are losing trails either to underfunded budgets or lack of use or whatever.

But Reno-Tahoe area has really picked up a lot of new trails.

- Sometimes we put the camera on the ground to just to get a ground level shot, to add a little variety of that mix.

But other times we're just so tired from hiking around with that equipment, we just put the camera on the ground and it acts as a nice stabilizer for us.

- [Chris] What a view.

- Yeah, it's pretty nice.

You can see all the way from up towards the airport and down around all of South Reno.

- [Dave] Beautiful.

Plus, we got a nice little show with the clouds throwing shadows on the mountains on the opposite side.

That's really cool.

- So you've got civilization on this side and then you've got the beautiful mountains behind us.

- [Chris] Gorgeous views all around.

- And I don't know if you can notice, but there's some new trail is being cut up there and that's a part of that new network.

They're gonna cut an extension from the end of the loop and run it all the way south to the Thomas Creek Trailhead.

So that'll make a really nice new addition mainly for mountain biking and patrol running.

- I love a new trail, and especially if it's close to town and I can get out on an afternoon or on a weekend.

And I have taken advantage of that new bit of trail more than once (laughs).

- It's very exciting to see new trails going in, almost on a yearly basis here.

And the adventurer in me always wants to find something new.

Now what's around that bend, or what's over the hill.

- Oh, absolutely.

- One of the real bonuses of shooting later in the day is you get that beautiful, golden light, and you can see it here in this shot with the three of them, they are just lit up perfectly during golden hour, is what we like to call it.

- I'm excited to get to go try it out.

- Yeah, no kidding.

Maybe on a day that doesn't blow us over.

(Mike laughs) About a decade ago, I got contacted by a publishing company that was going to publish one of Mike White's books.

We had never met him.

They just reached out to us to say, "Would you write a blurb for the back of this book?"

It was about trail hiking around the Reno area.

So I said, "Hey, Chris, do you want to write a blurb?"

She said, "I'll write a blurb."

And I said, "I'll write a blurb."

So we each wrote a blurb and the publishing company said, "Well thanks, that's great, we can't use all of this, but we will condense it."

So what they ended up doing was making a completely different blurb that did not resemble anything we wrote, but it had our names on it.

So we are on the back of a book.

Well, what a great couple of days we've had, we had our eyes open yesterday to what Washoe Lake State Park is.

- Then we had a lot of fun snowshoeing with the chickadees, and now got to try out a new trail with more new trail to come.

So thank you very much, Mike.

- My pleasure.

- Appreciate that.

I have one question for you now.

Will you sign my book, please?

- Sure.

- Ah, thank you.

(upbeat acoustic music) - And until our next Wild Nevada adventure, you go out and enjoy this beautiful state for yourself.

- Well, that's it.

I replaced my wedding ring and got an exact duplicate, so it all turned out okay.

But I will never forget the episode where I went up a mountain with my wedding ring and came back down without it and never saw it again.

All right, well, hope you enjoyed it.

We'll do it again.

- [Male Announcer] Support for Wild Nevada Memories is provided by the William N. Pennington Foundation.

- [Female Announcer] Millie Hopper and Millard Reed.

- [Male Announcer] Gail and John Sande.

- [Female Announcer] Margaret and Charles Burback.

- [Male Announcer] And by individual members.

(soft folk music)