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Every year since I've had a channel I have been covering Bike The West's signature bicycling event America's Most Beautiful Bike ride; though, over the years I've varied dramatically on how I have chosen to cover it. By tradition, I always cover the bicycle race on foot to give me a different perspective to the people who cover it on bicycle helmet cams or in a car.

It's that time of year again. The county fair, full of funnel cakes, carnival rides, animals, music, exhibits, wheelbarrow races, wine and beer competition and good old fashioned fun.

The El Dorado County Fair opened on Thursday and runs through Sunday, Father's Day at the fairgrounds in Placerville. The theme this year is "Photos, Fathers and Fairs."

The County Sheriff's Office invites community members to stop by their booth and see the brand new state of art patrol vehicles. They'll have a new SUV and sedan on display so people can see inside and check out their new features.

What's more fun than a new summer read? The Friends of the Library sale on August 16th will have hundreds of previously read, some new, and all loved books. 

Remember FOL members get in at 9 AM for the best selection.

Not a member, join today or the morning of the sale. The Alan Miller Trio will be playing music on the lawn in the afternoon. Grab a new summer read, a picnic basket and a group of friends for a great day at your SLT library.

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The official dedication of South Lake Tahoe's 1.2-mile shared-use bike path that connects Elks Point and Round Hill Pines and provides access to Rabe Meadow with Nevada Beach and Round Hill Pines Resort will be held on Thursday, June 19 at 12 p.m.

The second segment of the Stateline-to-Stateline Bikeway, South Shore Demonstration Project adds to the existing path for a total of 2.2 miles. Meanwhile, the North Demonstration Project is expected to begin construction in 2015 and the first phase will connect Incline Village to Sand Harbor State Park.

The U.S. Forest Service has released details of the final BMP project for the Tallac Historic Site. The project will reconfigure the three entrances to the site in order to reduce confusion of travelers and create a more efficient use of paved surfaces. There will also be an internal road created to serve as a connector between Tallac, Kiva and the Visitor Center so vehicles will not have to exit to Hwy 89 to move about.

This project was first proposed in January of 2011. Work may begin in Spring of 2015 and is expected to take 10 years to complete.

The competitive landscape of the American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe will dramatically alter in 2014 with the addition of LPGA great Annika Sorenstam.

The legendary golf superstar, winner of 89 international tournaments and over $22 million, is among the most successful players in history. A part-time resident of Lake Tahoe and mother of two, Sorenstam will play on even terms with pro athletes in the nationally televised, 54-hole, $600,000 competition at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course.

Fox & Hound of South Lake Tahoe brought home honors from the May 18 San Juan Bautista Rib Cook Off. Eight award winning rib teams cooked up thousands of pounds of ribs and sauces for the festival goers and judges. The Fox & Hound won 1st Place for their ribs and 2nd Place for their sauce!

The local restaurant, located at the top of Kingsbury Grade on Tramway Drive, has just begun competing in cook-offs but they have been bringing home the trophies.

How can you live a longer, healthier life? The answer is complicated and simple. “Experts” claim every conceivable option: cleanses, hormones, pills, exercises, diets, the list goes on. The options are dizzying, even to healthcare professionals.

South Tahoe Now sent a questionnaire out to all of the candidates for Douglas County Sheriff. We will be posting them in the order received. This is the second of three to be received.

1. What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department?

Labor Day weekend in South Lake Tahoe has been known as the place to be for wrapping up the summer with a firework's show and, for the last four years, Sample the Sierra.

Spend Labor Day Weekend sampling the region's best food & wine at Bijou Community Park on Sunday, August 31, 2014 from noon to 5 p.m.

The yellow jacket queens have already been seen in South Lake Tahoe, and if you don't want your backyard volleyball game or summer picnic ruined by them, now is the time to take action.

The queens are the only bee colony member to hibernate in the winter. She emerges in spring and begins to look for a suitable place to build a nest and begin her new colony. By the end of summer one colony can have 4,000 to 5,000 yellow jackets.

So if you take out one queen, you eliminate thousands of bees.

South Tahoe Now sent a questionnaire out to all of the candidates for El Dorado County Supervisor. We will be posting them in the order received.

1) What do you see as the Number 1 issue facing residents of District 5? Outside consultants, developers and various other alphabet agency’s telling us the same thing over and over again on what we need. The County and community has already done the work on what decisions need to be made with the final decisions being made by the residents of our area.

The Food Bank of El Dorado County was in South Lake Tahoe on Wednesday to accomplish two things: Distribute emergency food supplies to locals in need, and to hold a meeting with South Lake Tahoe agencies who assist people living with hunger.

In 2013, the El Dorado County Food Bank distributed 1.8 million pounds of food to county residents with a value of $3,000,000. The agency is not county funded and gets their food from donations, private donors, growers, businesses and the USDA.

I have been part of the Community since 1989 and am now a permanent resident. The South Lake Tahoe Library does more than just books and banks of computers, our library is a place where people gather to explore, interact, and imagine. It is a place where people come to know themselves and their communities. People go to the Library looking for information and find each other there.

Dr, Daniel T. Robertson was named Barton Health's Doctor of the Year. Known as "The Hand Guy," Dr. Robertson is an orthopedic surgeon for Tahoe Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, specializing in treating injuries of the hand, wrist, elbow, and shoulder.

Each year a doctor on staff at Barton is voted on by peers and staff and awarded the honor on "Doctor's Day."

A record-breaking 100 businesses will participate in the 2014 Business EXPO –“Tahoe South in ACTION” this Friday, March 28. The event begins at 4:30pm and continues until 8:30pm in Harrah’s Lake Tahoe Convention Center. It will highlight South Shore businesses’ goods and services to an anticipated crowd of 1,200 attendees.

The following vendors will exhibit:

A Hand at Home
Acker RV Rentals
Alpine Smith Snow Removal and Driveway Sealing
American Legion Post 795
Bank of the West
Barton Memorial Hospital
Beach Hut Deli
Beach Retreat and Lodge Tahoe

A one-night-only show of progressive banjo rolling, mandolin chopping bluegrass music with the Yonder Mountain String Band and special guest The Brothers Comatose is April 3 at MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa.

Olympic gold medalist Jamie Anderson of South Lake Tahoe landed another major slopestyle victory at the Burton U.S. Open Friday. Anderson clinched the TTR World Snowboard Tour slopestyle title with her win at the snowy Vail Mountain venue. Canadian Spencer O’Brien took second and Isabel Derungs of Switzerland third in the women’s final. Canada’s Mark McMorris took the victory for the men with Norwegian Stale Sandbech taking second and Candian Max Parrot third.

The Lake Tahoe Humane Society and SPCA thanks South Lake Tahoe for the great turn out at their open house and ribbon cutting on February 25, 2014 in honor of “World Spay Day”. TahoeChamber was present to officiate the ribbon cutting and Mayor Hal Cole cut the ribbon. It was a great turn out and a good start in the Lake Tahoe Humane Society’s mission to let the community learn about all their fantastic services, such as spay and neuter vouchers, emergency pet medical care assistance and an emergency pet food bank.

Several South Lake Tahoe residents showed up at the presentation of the Tahoe Area Plan at the airport on Thursday. Most agreed that the area known as the "Y" needs to be changed with an area plan, but which direction to a take to a final plan is where people differ.

The evening consisted of a presentation by John Hitchcock, who is on loan to the city from the TRPA for this project as Planning Project Manager. After he spoke the group broke out into three breakout sessions, each focuses on one of three choices presented as the future concept for "Y" area.

City Manager Nancy Kerry today announced the selection of Mark Carlson as Administrative Services Director. Mr. Carlson is anticipated to begin his service with the City in early April.

South Lake Tahoe may just have a future Olympian in its midst. 18 year old Whittell High School graduate Ty Sprock is one of 16 elite U.S. athletes that will be competing in the 2014 FIS Alpine Junior World Championships in Slovakia February 26 through March 6.

South Lake Tahoe native Maddie Bowman is preparing for her debut at the 2014 Winter Olympics on Thursday, February 20. Maddie will be part of the inaugural Olympic Freeskiing Halfpipe event. Qualification rounds are Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Sochi time (6:30 a.m. Tahoe time) with the finals at 9:30 p.m. Sochi time (9:30 a.m. Tahoe time).

North Lake Tahoe's Julia Mancuso led Team USA once again Saturday, posting the best American finish in eighth at a rough and unforgiving super G, the final women’s speed event of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games. Another difficult course set plus temperatures in the 40s yielded DNFs in seven of the first eight racers, but Austrian Anna Fenninger dialed it in for gold on the inconsistent course.