Labor Day Weekend Photos

Better late than never...Labor Day Weekend recap.

We did a lot that weekend, but these photos sum it up nicely. It was relaxing.

Yes, that is a very large oatmeal-chocolate chip-peanut butter cookie baked in our dutch oven!

Donner Weekend

In September we spent one weekend around Donner Lake, Mt. Rose, and Squaw Valley.

On Saturday Adam and his friend went on an epic mountain bike ride starting at Mt. Rose. While they did that, I road the Tahoe Sierra Century (with great views of Donner Lake!) and hiked the dogs in and around the meadows at Mt. Rose. If you haven't done the Tahoe Sierra Century before, I do recommend it. I've done the 60 mile route twice (wanted to do the 100 mile this year but didn't work out with our schedules). It starts at Squaw Valley and goes over Donner Summit to Cisco Grove and back. It's actually quite an easy ride--don't be scared by riding up Donner Summit! It's not steep and not even very long. They close the road so it's much safer and it's a fun descent on the way back. 

After our bike rides we had dinner in Tahoe City at Rosie's Cafe. I had a turkey burger and Adam had Hawaiian pizza. Adam also ordered us some drinks...after all that exercise the gin and tonic went straight to my head! Here I am looking awkward:

The Tahoe area was busier than usual that weekend because the Tough Mudder race was at North Star that same day. The guys sitting behind us were sharing their war stories from the race the whole time we were there. "Dude, when I was on the monkey bars..." Tough Mudder people were everywhere that evening!

The next day we hiked Castle Peak via Hole in the Ground trail. It was a good one, I hadn't done Hole in the Ground before but I had been to Castle Peak a bunch of times via the PCT. 

Here are a couple views from Castle Peak. It was overcast that day but nice. 

Good weekend! We even got home before dark--amazing!

Lake Schmidell Desolation Wilderness Backpacking

Earlier in August we did a one night backpacking trip to Lake Schmidell via Rockbound pass. It was awesome! (We had originally attempted this same trip on Memorial Day weekend.) The hike in is moderate (hiking over the pass was hot), and the lakes available for swimming were awesome. On Saturday we hiked straight through (just over 8 miles) to Schmidell, and spent the afternoon swimming and floating around in the lake. On Sunday, we stopped at Lake Lois, Upper Doris, and Maude for a swim on our way out. Our favorite lake for swimming was Upper Doris--it had awesome jumping rocks. Looked like there was some good camping in that area too.

Carex and Spencer (the dogs) came with us. This was Carex's first hike since her surgery and she did *great*! And, amazingly, she even went swimming with us three times, which was three times more than ever before! Totally cool.

Food details...(since we like to eat well and DIY) For lunch, we brought packets of salmon with dill triscuits. We brought our homemade dehydrated tacos for dinner--dehydrated black beans, ground meat, and salsa, all rehydrated with boiling water. We added a taco seasonings, a little shredded cheddar, avocado, cherry tomatoes, and chopped cabbage. On the side--margaritas. (Though, amazingly the lake was so warm it didn't do a very good job of cooling our tequila!) For dessert, chocolate pudding with powdered milk, graham crackers, and chocolate chips. Breakfast was oatmeal with powdered milk, whey protein powder, cinnamon-brown sugar, and dried fruit. Snacks included two kinds of trail mix, dried fruit, beef jerky, and homemade fruit leathers.

On the trail. In love with granite.

Hiking up Rockbound Pass.

After our first swim in Schmidell, we explored the lake a bit and then carried our gear to our home for the night. Note that we brought our sun hats! So comfy to wear around camp.

We used our Thermarests as lake floats. Adam went out on his first, then we decided to both use them to get to the rock island close to our camping spot. 

Just a little relaxin',

Sunrise.

Our campsite in the morning before packing up and hiking out.

On the hike out at Lake Lois. 

Canyon Creek Lakes Day Hike

After our backpacking trip up Stuart Fork and out Stoney Ridge, we decided to take the last day of our vacation and hike up to the Canyon Creek Lakes as a day hike. Mind you, we are a little crazy--this hike is about 17 miles round trip. We were really tired at the end of the day!!

We loved this hike. The Canyon Creek Lakes area is beautiful, and the river (when the trail is close or overlooks it) is gorgeous. We decided we'd definitely put this on our "we'd backpack this area to explore more" list. It's popular, but we did this hike on the 4th of July and only saw 2 tents set up! We did see a good bunch of people hiking, but it seems like there was plenty of room to spread out. We thought some of the sites along the river would be great if you just wanted to hang out by the river (possibly with your kids). It's not a difficult hike, and the way in is definitely a little more difficult than the hike out (downhill on the way out).

Here are a few photos:

At a waterfall below the first Canyon Creek Lake.

We took too many photos from the same location! 

But you can see the beauty of the steep granite surrounding the lakes:

New Year, no snow?

Still no snow up in Tahoe. We've spent some time up there recently, started 2012 out with a hike and bike on the Tahoe Rim Trail. Biking! In Tahoe! On New Year's Day! Holy cow...

The boys mountain biking TRT on Jan 1 2012.

Sunset over Tahoe.

Happy buddies.

Waiting for the bikers to return from their ride.

Hope everyone has a wonderful 2012. Fresh starts and new beginnings. Cheers!

October Sierra Romps

After the early October storm we had, Adam, the dogs, and I went up to South Lake Tahoe for a weekend.

It was cold! And snowy!

Saturday we were at Echo lake.

We even got out the doggles!

After our Echo Lake snow hike (we just did an out-and-back from the Echo Lake trailhead..didn't go that far due to increasingly deep snow), we drove down to Hope Valley to camp in our usual spot. That night it got down to 28 degrees! In the morning we were treated to beautiful frosty sagebrush view. 

My favorite. 

How good weekends end: sleepy dogs in the van!

(Way) belated halloween post

We don't usually dress up for Halloween...but this year we did some last minute dog humiliation!!

Check out Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf Dressed Up As Grandma.

They didn't mind we switched their sexes (assuming big bad wolf is male..).  Dude makes such a cute Red Riding Hood (though he is hard to capture in all of his awkward glory..). We won "best group" at our dog agility class Halloween Party!

DOGFACE II

Again, with the leaf on the face. This one wins because you can see her teeth. 

Highway 88-Kirkwood, Lake Margaret, Meiss Trailhead

So, a few weeks back we did a fun weekend of hiking around Highway 88 near Kirkwood.

We only had the phone with us for pictures this whole weekend...I apologize...
This is on the hike out to Lake Margaret.

On Saturday, we met up with a friend of mine and hiked all over the actual Kirkwood Ski area (looking for a lost ski...don't ask..! :) ). That was fun (TONS of ski run flowers!) and we probably did maybe 5 miles there. That same afternoon, we went just a tiny bit farther up Highway 88 to the Lake Margaret trailhead. Our hiking book said this was a pretty easy 5 mile round trip hike, so we decided it would be a good finish to our day.

Lake Margaret (sorry for the lack of lake pictures, you'll have to imagine here!) is a very pretty small lake, and the hike isn't easy (more like a solid moderate) but it also isn't terribly long. There are a few campsites around the lake so it could even be an easy overnight backpacking trip (even good with small kids!). I went for a swim--it was PERFECT! A lovely way to end the day.

Meiss hike flowers

The next day, we went even farther up Highway 88 to the Meiss Trailhead and hiked out to Meiss Lake. This was an absolutely stunning hike. The flowers were in full bloom, the weather was perfect, there was still snow on the surrounding mountains...really it was amazing. During the hike we kept having to yell out, "SO PRETTY!! PRETTY!" Of course, we still only had the phone with us to take pictures (so this post really is lame...telling about pretty things and illustrating them with crummy phone pictures....).

Our destination is in the background, Meiss Lake. The dogs LOVED this wet meadow!

Everyone relaxing at the lake.

Hiking out...picturesque!

Highly recommended hikes, particularly in the height of flower season! Meiss trailhead also looks like a fantastic place to go snowshoeing--we will definitely check it out this winter!

Winner for best action shot: