Thoughts about…

Taking a Break. Sort of…

This month I decided to take a break from writing an essay as I’ve been going non-stop for weeks, and I feel exhausted as a result. But I see a light at the end of the tunnel!

As I mentioned in last month’s newsletter, most of my stress and mental energy this summer has been tied up in the vehicle selling/buying experience. Thankfully, however, that saga has finally come to a close as I sold my 2005 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon and now own a 2023 Subaru Forester Wilderness.

As much as I loved a lot of things about the Jeep, it was at an age where it needed to be serviced way too frequently. So I’m not even going to bother tallying up just how much I spent on fixing that thing over the past seven years as it would probably be too depressing. ha!

Anyway, I look forward to all of the adventures I’m going to have with the Subaru 🙂

My parents came out to visit me in August. It was the first time in nearly five years that we actually spent time together in person. So hard to believe!

We chat on the phone multiple times a week, but seeing someone in person is always so much more meaningful. So we had nine fun days of visiting, hiking, eating, drinking, and sharing time together.

Needless to say, I shelved everything other than work during that time to be with them 🙂

We had lots of rain storms during August here in Tahoe. So funny because it rained at least a little bit nearly every day that my parents were in town visiting. Then, of course, the day the left we had blue skies and sunshine! But all of the rain this past month was nice because it was just rain. No lightning (i.e. no potential for wildfires).

Last week I gave a presentation to a Northern California chapter of Sons in Retirement (SIR), an organization for retired men. My topic of discussion was finding ways in which to incorporate adventure/immersive experiences in our daily lives. No surprise there, if you’ve been following along with most of my newsletters.

Lastly, I’ll be volunteering with the Donner Summit Historical Society again this fall to guide one of their many fundraising hikes. My hike will take place on September 9, 2023, and will be the Mount Judah Loop/Roller Pass Hike. It’s approximately 7 miles with 1200+ feet of total elevation gain. In preparation for that hike, I’ve done two practice hikes. One with other DSHS volunteers, and the other with my parents and friend of mine, Juliet.

In between selling my Jeep and buying my Subaru (i.e. not having a vehicle), I made do to get to work. Either I got a ride from someone, borrowed a car, rode my mountain bike, or hiked.

I actually had the opportunity to pick up my new car on August 29th by getting a ride from a friend. However, it was the last day off that I was going to have during August so I convinced my friend to go cross-country skiing instead! Watch the accompanying video to see the hiking/skiing experience.

Needless to say, that same friend hooked me up the next day by giving me a ride after work to pick up my car 🙂

Have I already said how grateful I am to have that new car and be done with the whole used vehicle thing? haha!

Thanks for being a part of my life. Until next time…

-Jared Manninen

Tahoe Trail Guide is an online resource for hiking, backpacking, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing in the Lake Tahoe region. In addition to trail data, I offer backcountry “how-to” articles and information about the local and natural history of Tahoe. Tahoe Swag is a collection of art and design products I create based on my love of the outdoors and appreciation for Lake Tahoe and the surrounding Sierra Nevada Mountains.

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Last Month’s Newsletter (aka Recap in Video Format!)

To broaden my audience and get more mileage out of these newsletters, I’ve begun to adapt them into short videos for YouTube. I’ll incorporate short video clips into these recaps whenever possible as I do often capture nature videos when I’m outdoors (but don’t use the footage anywhere else). Essentially, I want to make two different presentations with a minimal amount of extra work rather than just creating a 1-to-1 adaptation of these text and photo versions of my newsletters.