Sen. Adam Schiff joins ceremony naming Tahoe bike trail after Dianne Feinstein
Sen. Adam Schiff spoke Thursday at a ceremony to dedicate a bike trail on Lake Tahoe’s west shore in honor of Dianne Feinstein, who held his Senate seat for over 30 years.
The gathering of fewer than a hundred people in Tahoe City let local leaders and members of Feinstein’s orbit, from her granddaughter to former staffers, reminisce about the longtime icon of California politics who died in 2023. Speakers at the ceremony said Feinstein relished visiting Tahoe throughout her life and devoted herself as a senator to the lake’s preservation.
“It is no exaggeration to say that a lot of what we love about Tahoe, and the pristine waters of Lake Tahoe, would not have been possible without Senator Feinstein’s work,” Schiff said, with people behind him carrying water tubes to float in the Truckee River.
Eileen Feinstein Mariano, Feinstein’s granddaughter, said she could tell Tahoe was her grandmother’s “happy place.”
Mariano told a story her grandmother would often share about visiting Tahoe as a girl and once biking around the lake without brakes.
“There is no way to bike around the lake with no brakes,” Mariano said, drawing laughter. “But until the day that she died, she insisted that she did it, and so maybe today is the day that I finally — the day that I believe her.”
Feinstein died in September 2023 at age 90, after refusing to resign despite public signs of her declining health. Among her accomplishments, Feinstein’s efforts to protect Tahoe’s natural environment received the most attention at the trail dedication ceremony.
Julie Regan, the executive director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, said Feinstein would invite a small group of women leaders to meet with her after the Tahoe Summit, an annual event that Feinstein helped establish in 1997.
“The senator brought our professionalism up a notch to the summit,” said Regan, whose agency coordinates officials between California, Nevada and the federal government, as well as scientists and nonprofits.
“There will be disagreements, but we knew every August we had to answer to Senator Feinstein and our delegation,” she added.
Schiff, a prominent Democratic antagonist of President Donald Trump who was elected to the Senate last year, on Tuesday rode on a boat used by the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center to track the lake’s clarity. He formally hosted the Tahoe Summit on Wednesday.
Thursday’s ceremony served as a reunion for people who knew Feinstein personally, either from working on her senatorial staff or working with her on Tahoe preservation. At one point, about a dozen attendees raised their hands for recognition as former Feinstein staffers, some of whom now work for Schiff.
John Pang, 68, the retired fire chief of Meeks Bay on Tahoe’s western shore and a board member of the Tahoe City Public Utility District, recalled hiking with Feinstein and her husband.
The family sold a waterfront compound in Meeks Bay for $36 million in 2021, The New York Times reported.
After a half-hour of speeches, Schiff, Mariano and others unveiled a sign for the Dianne Feinstein West Shore Tahoe Trail, the new name of an existing 12-mile path from Tahoe City to Meeks Bay. Schiff said bike trails around Tahoe help ease congestion and are part of Feinstein’s vision for a bike path around the entire lake.
Most of the group biked a few miles down the trail. Schiff, a triathlete, wore cycling shorts for the occasion.
“It’s just so healthy to get out in the environment, to breathe the fresh air, to just be awed by the immense natural beauty of the place,” he said in a brief interview. “It’s a great antidote to all the stress and strain of the political situation.”
This story was originally published August 8, 2025 at 7:44 AM with the headline "Sen. Adam Schiff joins ceremony naming Tahoe bike trail after Dianne Feinstein."
