Day Hikes part 1

This fall we have taken a few delightful day hikes.  The crowds are mostly gone and the weather is still delightful in the Sierras.  

Our first destination was the Lakes Basin, northwest of Reno.  We did a loop trail that passed 5 lakes. Interestingly, camping is not permitted at any of the the lakes. The hike was about 5 miles on a well established trail, but Calvin decided it would be a good time to practice using his GPS. So we started out with satellite support and a 20 year old guide to wildflower walks in the Lakes Basin.

Just a short walk from the trail head we came to one of the many Big Bear lakes in California. This was closely followed by Little Bear Lake.

Up around a bend we came to a vista of one of the many Long lakes in California. Which made a good spot to admire ourselves as well as the scenery. It is clear from these pictures that Calvin has a much better phone camera now that I do.

Our lunch destination was Silver Lake.

After lunch we saw our 5th lake, Round Lake, but it wasn't quite as scenic as the others.  And...Calvin and his GPS were making serious tracks toward the car. So I didn't stop for any more pictures.

The final leg of the hike was on a very nice trail that was probably was an old mining road, but unfortunately that road did not lead to the trail head where we parked our car.  So we skirted back around Big Bear Lake again and found the trail to our parking lot.  It is apparently an easy thing to misplace your trail head.  When we arrived at the correct trail head we met a couple who had also misplaced their trail head.  We knew exactly where theirs was and were able to give them a lift back to their car.

Labor Day 2015

We had a surprise visit from Rosie, Jay and Alice over Labor Day weekend.  It was so fun to see everyone again.  Reno traditions were observed: sushi was consumed, ribs were eaten, and Lake Tahoe was visited.Jay took a monster bike ride that Calvin was not even tempted to ride and we enjoyed lots of sitting around with the family.

Rosie, Alice and I tried to ride the train at Idlewild, but it wasn't running so we took time to "smell the roses" in the Rose Garden instead.

Lake Tahoe was beautiful as usual.  My random shots all seem to center around Alice. Strange.

But the lens strayed away from Alice once in a while

And I have absolutely no explanation for this one.

Another Superior Weekend

A few weeks ago we went to Superior, CO to celebrate Zach's eighth birthday and baptism.  It is always fun to visit Butch and his family and having a special celebration made it even more fun. Zach had a cool Lego cake and even got to light his own birthday candles.

His BIG birthday present was a new basketball hoop which Zach and Austin immediately put to good use. It is a perfect addition to their new backyard patio.

Zach looked so happy on his baptism day and obligingly posed for LOTS of pictures. These are a few favorites.

In the afternoon we drove up the canyon for a picnic. Eating pictures are never very flattering, but I love getting together with family and I love having a picture to remember.

And just because both Sarah and Rosie were there and they are both expecting new arrivals...

Hiking 2015

Calvin had a number of hiking trips planned this summer that didn't all turn out quite as well as he planned.  He had planned to backpack a 16 mile segment of the Gold Rush trail for us from Caples Lake to Tragedy Spring. This was my request, but I wasn't all that enthusiastic about backpacking all 16 miles.  He planned to start at Caples Lake and go west and I wanted to start at Tragedy Spring and go east following in Lucy Nutting's footsteps.  So a couple of weeks ago we took a day hike east along the trail from Tragedy Springs to Mud Lake, about 4 miles each way if you trust the 49er journal excerpt on the marker at Mud Lake. The trail from Tragedy Springs heads through a rather pretty pine forest. 

Most of the trail follows a ridge line and the views were pretty spectacular and still undeveloped.

There were even a few big trees that might have been there in 1848 when Lucy passed through.

We were following the trail in reverse order from our trail guide, so it was reassuring when we found a trail marker along the way.

We thought this was Mud Lake at first. Since it is a severe drought this year this looked like it could have been a lake in a good year.

but... it turns out that this is Mud Lake

which actually looks like a pretty nice lake. And even in a drought year in August there were still a few wild flowers.

and the grave of one George Cottowood, no other details known. It took courage to take this trail.

After our slightly truncated hike on the Gold Rush trail Calvin got to go hiking in Colorado with Butch, Zach and Austin, which might turn out to be his most successful hike of this year. They actually got to sleep in tents. 

And have a big campfire.

And cross a raging river

Life just doesn't get much better than this.

An evening at Tahoe 2015

One of my favorite things to do is spend a long summer evening at Lake Tahoe.  This year we spent the evening with some of my very favorite people.

Alice was the first one in the water and would have happily stayed there all evening. 

Especially if she gets a little swing action.

There are rocks at Lake Tahoe

Small ones for building

big ones for climbing

 and posing for pictures like this one titled Smith boys on a giant rock. Even though you can't really tell they are on a giant rock.

And once you are on top of a rock what else are you going to do but jump off.

One more time

Of course a big pile of rocks makes a great target for a sunset swim

One of the best things to do is just hang out on the beach.

And when the light gets that nice golden color, grab the cameras for family pics.