Tahoe area newbie

So I'm thinking of sacking up and getting a boat and gear. The main thing holding me up is lack of partners. I'm planning on taking a lesson, and I have a bit of experience reading the river. I live on the north shore, and my schedule will allow for midweek mornings on the Truckee, with one or two midweek days off entirely to go wherever. I'd like to meet up with someone in a similar situation, or (even better) someone experienced that can show me some stuff, but I'm also wondering how easy it is to meet up with random people at a put-in. I charge pretty hard in other sports, so I am expecting to progress relatively quickly. As a bonus, I've got a solid shuttle vehicle. Any info on finding partners, gear, and just getting started in general is greatly appreciated.

I used to go to Reno in the fall and met some good paddlers at the playpark in town. Don't be bashful and exchange #'s, and if you are beginning make that clear to your partners. They'll keep an eye on you.

Maybe check to see if the local boating shops do a weekly river run?

www.boof.com

I would subscribe to gold country paddlers list serve, if you pay the annual fee for the 1st year I don't think you actually have to renew, I haven't yet. http://www.gcpaddlers.org/MemberRegistration.aspx?x=1

You can find a partner for the south fork of the american, the main intermediate run in the area (class II and class III), just about any day. Other tougher rivers obviously require a bit more effort but you can probably find partners for them too. Make a seperate folder for GCP though the plethora of C to G emails can be a bit much.