Moab

We are in Moab doing the final packing for our Green River adventure which begins tomorrow morning, and since I have a few minutes I thought I would share a few pictures of our weekend in Moab.  Peter and Roque joined us in Moab for a weekend of adventure in the Red Rocks.

Saturday morning Calvin, Peter and Roque biked the Slick Rock trail while I went shopping in downtown Moab, where 

kokopelli is king of the gift shops.

In the afternoon we all hiked to a great swimming hole that Roque had visited about a year ago.

Peter and Roque braved the freezing water of the pool...

and even jumped off a cliff into the pool.

This morning the bikers rode the Gemini Bridges trail

while I tracked down some really great petroglyphs.  This is the famous birthing scene found up Kane Creek Canyon. I took dozens of photographs of petroglyphs.  You can find petroglyphs all around Moab. It has been a cool place to visit for millenia.

Cherry Creek Canyon September 6-8

A couple of weeks ago Calvin and Peter took a hike in the Sierras.  I discovered Calvin's pictures hiding in the camera, so although I didn't go on the hike I'll share the views.

 Peter coming down the trail

A nice looking beach

Their tent is snuggled up next to a pine tree about in the center of the picture.

Cherry Creek without much water.

Peter 

For more details talk to Peter or Calvin.

Lake Tahoe Kayak Tour 2012

Last week Calvin and I took an inn to inn kayak tour of Lake Tahoe.  Calvin arranged about 45 miles of kayak touring and places to stay on the west side of the lake.  We have never kayaked on the west side of the lake, so this was all new territory for us.  We started at Commons Beach in Tahoe City.

Commons Beach is a very nice public park with easy kayak access. 

Here we are ready to start toward Kings Beach to our north.

The classic picture of Calvin as we leave Commons Beach behind.  We paddled as far as Carnelian Bay and had lunch at Garwoods with the rest of the boating crowd.

One problem we encountered is that hotels aren't usually labeled on the "lake side" so it was sometimes hard to find them, especially our first night at Mourelatos.  A second problem was that if the hotel doesn't have a restaurant you have to walk to dinner.  Our first night we walked to the Safeway store in Kings Beach and had a take out dinner on the beach.

This is the view from our balcony.

Tuesday we turned back south around Dollar Point, past Tahoe City and on to Sunnyside.

This is looking back on Kings Beach. 

Sunnyside does have it's name on the dock.  It was a very welcome sight as we had struggled against a headwind for the last few miles.

I liked Sunnyside.  It is kind of like the old lodges you find in the National Parks.  We had dinner on the deck that night.

Calvin on the beach at Sunnyside ready to start Wednesday morning.

 We pointed the kayak toward Meeks Bay

You can tell that this is a different day because Calvin is wearing a different shirt.  You can see how smooth the water is in the morning.  Easy paddling.

This is Meeks Bay, it is absolutely gorgeous, but the Washoe tribe runs the concession for the Forest Service and they aren't really interested in attracting any clients to their lodging.

I got up early on Thursday morning to watch the sun rise on Meeks Bay.  I had the beach to myself.

We had just a short paddle on Thursday down to Bliss State Park. We found a nice private beach that we only had to share with..

 a flock of Merganser.

We paddled back to Meeks Bay for a second night where we had a full moon paddle.

We took a lot of pictures trying to get the moonlight on the water.

This is the view from the other end of the kayak.

Friday morning we paddled all the way back to Tahoe City.  We were very happy to have the wind at our backs, and very happy to see Rosie and Jay who met us at Tahoe City and spent the rest of the weekend.  A great end to a fun week.