1)  MEEKS BAY CROSS COUNTRY TRAIL?

There's a parking turnout and an unplowed road entrance with a Forest Service type gate on Hiway 89 on the W shore of Lake Tahoe, just at the southern edge of Meeks Bay.   (It's at road marker 24.50 or 0.3 mi N of the Valley View Road entrance to the Tahoe Hills subdivision).  

Lured by curiousity I skied up this road a few days ago, following a lot of boot marks but no other ski tracks.  After about 1/4 mile the boot tracks ended and the road turned into a narrow path which ascended steeply up to the left.  

About 100 feet up this path I came out into lovely open forested terrain on a kind of shelf or broad shallow secondary valley on the N or NW side of the ridge, with a steep face rising up on the left (SE) side and a drop to the Meeks Creek area on the right.

Since it's a N face with good tree cover, there was still substantial snow under the trees, and I ascended gradually for about a mile heading SW, with the steep ridge face on the left and increasingly nice views out over and across the very flat Meeks Creek valley to the right.  Half a dozen monster houses in the Tahoe Hills subdivision were also visible through the trees, high up on top of the ridge, for the first 1/4 mile or so.

As I got futher in I could have climbed up to the ridgetop on the left and probably gotten some spectacular views to the S, toward the Lake and down into the Emerald Bay area, but I'd gotten a late start, not to mention being lazy.

What surprised me is that although this is a lovely, easy, readily accessible area (and I think is Forest Service land), comparable in attractiveness to the Angora Lookout trail but much easier to get to from Morth Tahoe., yet I saw no signs of any other ski or showshoe tracks or trail markings anywhere in the whole area; and I don't recall seeing this area mentioned in any of the Tahoe area backcountry or snowshoeing guides.  

Anyone know anything else about this area?