Summer in the Sierras

Last weekend, we headed off to Lake Tahoe for a long weekend of activities. Our friend, Cassie, had got a good deal at the Marriott in South Lake Tahoe in return for her sitting through 90 minutes of timeshare talk. She shared the offer with us, so we got to stay in nicer than usual accommodation right by Stateline (the border between California and Nevada, where all the casinos are situated). The location would have really come into its own in the winter, because it’s right by the Heavenly gondola, which sweeps you up to the ski area. They were still charging you plenty to go up there, even in summer, so we didn’t bother, but entertained ourselves with the activities on offer elsewhere. And we were not short of these!

It was a bad drive up there on Friday night, because we hit lots of traffic leaving the city, then again between the North Bay and Sacramento. Jon was no doubt relieved, therefore, when Cassie offered to drive us the next day, especially since our planned activity, white-water rafting, involved double-backing on ourselves for about an hour to Placerville. The rafting was really good fun. First they fed us, in their attractively sited embarkation point amongst trees slung with hammocks by the river. Then we set off, six or seven to a raft. It was a class III rapids trip along the South Fork of the American River, through a pretty gorge. I’d been a little nervous of trying the class IV Middle Fork, which Cassie tried to persuade us to do, but on balance, I think I could have handled it, as the raft was a lot more stable than I’d expected and I really enjoyed the big rapids. We each had a paddle, and the guide told us what to do. I took a turn at the front, which was certainly the most fun/scary place in the boat! The guide realised we were out for a bit of excitement, so he deliberately took us head-first into a rock, which resulted in all but two of us falling out! (I was one of the two :-)).We also got to swim in a couple of spots in the rather cold river. It was pretty fast-moving, even in the calm bits.

That evening, we enjoyed a dip in the Marriott’s hot tub, before going out for dinner in the 19th floor restaurant of one of the casinos. After the day, we were all pretty tired, so headed off to bed before it got too late, falling asleep in front of the Olympics on the TV.

Next day we had quite a late start, because Cassie had her timeshare talk in the morning. We went off to do a hike in the Desolation Wilderness, which a couple of friends at work had recommended to me. It began at Echo Lake, which is near the high point of the road we take to Lake Tahoe (about 7,500 feet, if I remember right), just before you drop down to South Lake itself. Echo Lake is a gorgeous little spot, comprising Lower and Upper Echo Lakes, which used to have 5 feet of elevation difference between them, until someone decided to blast a channel to allow boats to pass through. To shorten the hike by just under three miles, we took a water taxi (large speedboat) across the lake and began walking at the other end. It was a fairly easy 3. 5 mile hike out, with not too much climbing, and although it was sunny and hot, it was nothing after the previous week’s heat at Pinnacles (high seventies/low eighties as opposed to 100 degrees). We passed several attractive little lakes in the high country, including Tamarack Lake and Lake Margery, where we had our lunch and spotted a couple of marmots. There were lots of alpine flowers still around, presumably because they have such a short growing season at this height. Our end-point was gorgeous Lake Aloha, a mid-sized lake with lots of tiny, rocky islands. Jon and I both enjoyed a swim to one of these islands in the cooling water and explored the rock formations barefoot, before heading back on the return journey (although, had we had provisions and camping gear, we could have kept on exploring for many more miles). Cassie’s recently injured ankle was starting to hurt, so she took the water taxi back to the parking lot at the other end of Echo Lake, but Jon and I decided to speed-hike the last 2.7 miles by the lake past a host of gorgeous cabins, only accessible by water. That evening, it was into the hot tub again and then out for a slap-up dinner at Fire & Ice.

On Monday, we decided to try jet-skiing on Lake Tahoe itself. It was pretty expensive, so we just rented one for an hour and shared it amongst us, going out two at a time. It was pretty easy to operate and a lot of fun, although I didn’t go nearly as fast as Jon, who apparently hit 60 miles per hour, bouncing over the waves. After that, we headed off to do a short hike near Emerald Bay, a very popular spot on the south-west shore. It was a short hike (just a mile out and a mile back), but there was about 500 feet of climbing. The end-point was lovely Eagle Lake, a small lake surrounded by forested mountains on all sides. There was a little island that Jon and I swam to (although it probably only amounted to about half a mile of swimming in total, I still managed to pull a muscle in my back that still aches a bit!). As we were trying to dry off in the sun (we didn’t bring towels, of course), a bear ambled across the rocks ahead of us. S/he then reappeared at the water’s edge, before disappearing again into the vegetation. It was a smallish Black bear (although brown in colour), probably an adolescent. S/he didn’t seem bothered by the people at all. It was another positive bear experience for me!