May 23 Around Lake Tahoe

 It's so nice to get up and have breakfast with cousins!  We make sandwiches for lunch and we're off to circumnavigate Lake Tahoe.  Due to the traffic back-up we experienced yesterday, we decide to go around the lake starting with going through Incline Village.  Hopefully, that will help us avoid the bad construction traffic.  spoiler alert - it does.  We didn't have to deal with traffic stoppages at all.  

Our first stop is at Sugar Pine State Park where we eat our picnic lunch with a view of the lake.  There are several historic buildings where we peered through the windows to discover old boats.  Some quite simple and others quite elaborate.  One was a racing boat from the 1920's.  A small place that was for the caretaker and a large place that was a seasonal hotel in the 1920's.  Hmmmm. As I go back to put pictures with the text, I see that I was more interested in taking pictures of the lake than the buildings.

Valerie is into Geo Cashing so we went off in search of one.  I found it!  There were lots of little trinkets but I really didn't see anything that I wanted.  We left a little Chinese coin that Valerie had gotten in Chinatown.  There was another one in the Emerald Point area that we looked for but it would involve fording a little stream that was a little wider and faster and full of melted snow than we wanted to deal with.  

Really cool tree

The next stop was up high, looking down on the lake rather than the lake level of Sugar Pine.  Emerald Bay is at about the exact half way point around the lake from Incline Village.  There's snow up here!

It is obvious when we get to the Nevada state line.  CASINOS!  None of us are into gambling so no temptation there.  But, there is an ice cream shop and we give into that temptation.  The Baked Bear specializes in ice cream sandwiches.  You chose the kind of cookie or brownie that you want (you can have two different kinds) and the kind of ice cream in the middle.  MMMMMMM!

Almost back around the lake.  We stop at the grocery store and get things for dinner.  It's always challenging at a grocery store that one isn't familiar with.  Nick makes California Sherry chicken for us for dinner.  After dinner hot tub.  And sweet dreams.  

May 22 To Lake Tahoe

 We have a nice breakfast with Ellen and  Bob in their beautiful backyard.  Ellen has given the backyard a lot of love, and hours through the years and it really is colorful and beautiful.  Oatmeal with fresh fruit and nut toppings.  

We must have stopped for lunch somewhere but since I'm writing this several days after the fact, I really don't remember where 

The drive to our place in Incline Village takes longer than expected.  Going along nicely.  Gradually see more and more snow along the roadside.  We go along I-80.  That's the same interstate that goes by Pella.  Get on that and drive about 4 days and you'll be in Pella.  

We're almost there - Waze says it's 3.7 miles to our destination.  Complete stand still.  Wait for about 10 minutes without moving.  An occasional car comes from the other direction.  One signals to turn around so we do.  MISTAKE!  We figure there must be another way through.  There isn't.  We turn back around and now are further back in the back-up.  It finally does start moving and we get to the place about an 1 1/2 after we expected.  BUT  Valerie and Richard are there to greet us.  They have already gone shopping for dinner tonight.  All is suddenly fine and beautiful.  The place is comfortable with big open space on the main floor and a balcony looking out to mountains.  (can't see the lake but that's okay).  Downstairs are 3 bedrooms.  2 of them opening onto another deck with a hot tub, which we enjoy before bed.  

We have a good steak dinner with a big salad and lots of good conversation.  Oh, and that really good beer that I like so much.  Brother Thelonious.  We picked up several of them and the Russian stout - Rasputin.  

Tomorrow we will drive around the lake.

May 21 Yosemite and visit with Ellen and Bob

 

More campsite drama……  This is the night that they decide to change Camp 4 from first come, first serve to reservation.  The website to reserve them is working for Android phones but not for Apple phones.  We find a ranger who is able to help us but we can only reserve the site for one person.  He says not to worry about it so we don’t.  We see him again later and he says that it is a problem to have 2 people when the reservation is one but there will probably be some cancelations around noon.  We continue on with our plans to hike up to Columbia Point look out.  

It is a hard hike, at least for me.  It is continual uphill for about 1 ½ miles with about 1000 foot elevation gain.  We cross a stream that is probably usually dry but has water crashing down the rocks on one side of the path and dropping off the other side.  It is cool and people are taking turns crossing it.  Several more switch backs and graciously stopping to let faster hikers pass me, I finally get to the lookout point.  It is gorgeous and a great view of Half Dome. 

Looking down on Mirror Lake where we hiked yesterday.  Since our tent is bright orange and rather large, we could spot it from the lookout. 

Because we feel that we need to get back down to see about those campsite reservations, we don’t dawdle at the lookout.  Nick goes down at a much faster pace than I do.  With my knees, I need to be cautious.

No luck getting a campsite reservation for me.  Being the law-abiding citizens that we are, we were not sure what to do.  Nick came up with the great idea of calling my cousin, Ellen, in Sacramento and seeing if we could crash at her house that night. “Hi, can we show up at your doorstep in about 3 hours and stay over night?” 

“Sure!” 

We break down camp and carry all that crap the 2-3 blocks back to the car.  There’s more to carry back as we had been carrying a few things to the site each time we passed that way for the last 2 days.  We are both quite exhausted and sweaty after the big hike and then promptly taking down camp. 

The drive to Sacramento is uneventful.  Ellen, Bob and their 3 dogs greet us warmly when we arrive.  We feel to grungy to give them hugs until we’ve had showers.  Hugs and then we go out to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner.  

The bed and clean sheets sure do feel great and we sleep well.

 

 

 

May 20 Yosemite

 I got behind on writing the blog and I think I've gotten some of the Yosemite things a bit our of actual order but it really doesn't matter.  I'm not sure which day we did it, I think it was the first day at Camp 4.  We took the shuttle to the Half Dome picnic area and guess what?  We ate our picnic lunch with Half Dome as our backdrop.  

From there, we walked to Mirror Lake.  It was obvious that the lake was higher than usual as many trees were standing in water.  The path was nice and flat.  Sometimes with big boulders beside the path and sometimes it was more open.  I don't remember if it was on this walk or a different one, but there were a few places where very nice cool air flowed out from between a couple of boulders.  Nature's Air conditioning.  On the hot days, that was certainly a good place to take a break.  

May 19 Yosemite

We get up bright and early, pack up the tent and head over to Camp 4. We start to take our stuff to the site we scoped out last night.  But, look at that one over there.  It looks really nice and is on the edge of the campground.  That’s the one we take.  Nick’s back is bothering him so I do most of the lugging of tents, sleeping bags, air mattresses, camp chairs…….

It is so nice to be here for 4 day so we can sit back, relax and just enjoy our awesome campsite.  Each campsite can have up to 6 people on it.  It’s first come, first serve.  You just walk around and see if there is a site with fewer than 6 people and then claim it.  Our site is at the back with the camp ground boundary right next to  our tent.  Our site is us, a very quiet Chinese couple that stay to themselves and 2 other young Chinese people.  She just graduated from Michigan with a BS in Astro-physics.  Her friend doesn’t know much English.  He is hoping to go to school here in CA for digital imagery.  He has big fancy cameras and is working on his portfolio for applying to programs.  The campsite next to us is full of East Indians (like 15 of them) Last night they were cooking a real feast and had Indian music playing until pretty late in the night.  Today they have a rotisserie going with some big chunk of meat smelling amazing.  Maybe they will throw us some scraps. 

Nick makes an eggs and bacon breakfast with cuties on the side.  After breakfast, I go take a shower.  This is a happy event for me and probably those around me as well.  Last shower was at the motel at Joshua Tree. That makes 7 days and not 7 days of sitting in an air-conditioned house.  Seven days of hiking in 90 degree heat! Pretty ripe!  There are shower closets for the entire campground which has about 100 sites with potentially 6 people per site.  Yesterday there were regularly 4 people at the picnic table waiting their turn.  Mid-morning was apparently not when most people were showering as I didn’t have to wait at all.  But it hadn’t been cleaned and there were lots of clumps of long black hair.  Glad I had my water sandals on.  Oh, it felt soooo good.  Especially to wash hair.  Nick enjoyed a shower too.

We dawdle enough that we ended up eating the lunches I had packed at the campsite before heading off for the day.  Aw we dawdled, we chased the shade and periodically moved our camp chairs to keep us with the shade.  I enjoyed watching the rock climbers.  Apparently, next to our campsite is a favorite place to go up.  I probably watched 30 people scaffold up the cliff to at least 250’  Nearby were the real beginners.  They were learning a wedging technique and going up about 20’.

The Lower Yosemite Falls trail literally goes right past our campsite. We followed it for about ½ mile and get to the Lower Falls.  Because of the massive snow melt, the river is raging and well out of its usual bed.  There is a bridge that crosses close to the bottom of the falls.  Lots of mist!  Second shower of the day.  This one was very chilly.  Snap that picture and get on across the bridge.

We walked to the next shuttle stop which was the visitor’s center. They are quite close together in this area.  A highlight here is the Ansel Adams Gallery.  I was thinking it would be an exhibition of his work.  There were a few of his pieces but was mainly selling other artists’ work.  I was really impressed with the photography work of Charles Cramer. Bought some note cards and post card of Ansel Adams photos. 

From there we walked to the village store.  We got a few things we needed to make dinner.  But, oh dear, clouds are rolling in.  We fear that if we start walking back to our campsite we could get caught in a real down pour and also wouldn’t be able to cook dinner outside.  We sit down and wait a bit.  Hmmmmm.  There’s a hamburger stand just over yonder.  We could get something there and have our camp dinner tomorrow night. That’s what we decide to do.  Luckily, the downpour never came where we were.  A bit of a sprinkle but that was it.  Catch the shuttle back to our place.  OHhhhh, the road is partly flooded now.  The bus is big enough to make it through safely. 

The East Indian neighbors are in full party mode.  Never got any scraps of meat.  We did get a lot of scraps of music, loud laughter, and frivolity until about 3:00 in the morning.  BLEAH!

May 18 To Yosemite National Park

 

Today our destination is Yosemite National Park.  It will be about a 4 hour drive to our RV, Tent place.  It is about 25 miles from the park. 

The drive is through the central valley with wine vineyards, orange groves and mountains in the distance.  (I’m writing this several days late so am not remembering many details).  We get to the RV Park a early afternoon and check in.  It’s hot.  Crap.  The swimming pool is empty and they are making some repairs.  Oh my, all those big RV’s are close together!  The tent section in down the hill.  No other tents are there.  There is one site with a tree and some shade.  That’s the one they assigned us.  The picnic table has seen better days.  We decide that rather than set up the tent in the heat of the day, we’ll drive to the park, visit the visitor’s center so tomorrow, we will know what we want to do in the park.  Get in the car, set Waze to Yosemite Village.  What? 1 ½ hours?  But we’re supposed to be only 23 miles from the park.  Ah, we are 23 miles from the entrance to the park but then one drives an hour in the park before getting to anything. 

At the visitor’s center, Nick is talking with one of the rangers about what to do and where we’re staying outside the park.  She catches that we have a tent.  She asks if we have it with us because there is space for tonight in the reserved campground and then we’ll be here in the morning to get a place in the first come, first serve campground.  Avoid 3 hours of driving each day!  Hell, Yes!  We’ll forgo the overpriced RV park for staying in the park. 

We drive through the valley of the park (which is the only part that is open because of the high snow fall this year) and find our campsite.  We set up camp.  Seems that there is some kind of youth group in the sites next to us.  They are well supervised so all is fine.  After set up, we venture out to forage for food.  There is a place with a bit of a formal restaurant and attached to it is more of a fast food type place.  We opt for the cheaper choice and get chicken fingers and fries.  Pretty mediocre food but the view is phenomenal.  We drive around a bit more to become familiar with what and where things are. We find Camp 4 which is the first come, first serve campground. We walk around a bit to get a feel for how the place works and where we will want to try to get a site in the morning.  We talk with some people who are planning to leave tomorrow.  OK.  We’ve got a plan. Tomorrow we will go to that site and set up our tent and we know we’ve got a spot.   We’re set for tomorrow and settle in for the night.

Charging places are a premium.  This is in a corner of the restaurant.

May 17, Sequoia National Park

 

We want to get an early start today so we can get a hike in before the heat of the day.  Rather than cook a big breakfast and then clean up from it, we decide to run into town and get breakfast there.  What? The power is out all through the valley and has been since midnight????  Well, we drive on to another little town and find a place with power.  It is at a small airport for private planes.  Tasty and very local. 

 

Our hike today is again about 3-4 miles and starts at the Hospital picnic area. We walk along the closed road to one of the closed campgrounds.  We’re following the river upstream.  After about 2 miles, we get to the closed campground.  Sure looks fine to us and we don’t understand why it’s closed.  The path narrows once we’ve passed the campground. We go about another mile and catch up with the river.  There is a pedestrian bridge which we cross.  Wow that’s a powerful, fast-moving river!  I can certainly see why there are frequent signs warning people of the drowning danger.  Of course, I think anyone would have to be really stupid to think they could go too near the river.  We walk a little past the bridge and find some big rocks to sit on next to the river.  The spray from the waterfall is totally refreshing!  The way back to the car is much easier as it is almost entirely downhill. 

We end up eating our lunch at the campsite.  I find two trees where I can hang my hammock.  Naptime! 

One of the other campers tells us that behind site number 16, there is a path down to the river that isn’t too steep.  (There are 3 different rivers that come together in this area.  The one by our campsite isn’t the one that we hiked along earlier today).  There is an area of backwater where it is actually safe to wade a little bit.  The temperature next to the river is a good 10 degrees cooler than at the campsite.  We hang there for quite awhile.  The other camper comes back with her husband and their 2 dogs.  The dogs are having a blast in the water.  I know they have to be hot too. 

Another nap in the hammock.  Camping life is tough……

Thunder!  A few drops of rain.  I get the hammock down and put away.  We batten down the hatches around camp.  Wind is picking up.  Well, that’s about it.  Never materialized into much but it did really bring the temperature down which was nice.

Threat of rain is gone so we make our dinner of raspberry porkchops, rice, Caesar Salad and watermelon for dessert. 

 

My computer screen is the only light around and the gnats are drawn to it.  I think it’s time for bed.