Paddle around Emerald Bay

Mostly pics in this one.... hope you enjoy.

This morning, Mike and I decided to wake up early and paddle out to Emerald Bay.  We've always wanted to see it from the water.  The weather was P.E.R.F.E.C.T.  It truly could not have been better.

Just us on the super calm lake... 

Perfect temp... no humidity... sun coming up... hot air balloon taking off from the lake...AWESOME

Stopping to hydrate 

Complete peace. 

Mt. Tallac 

Those rocks are DEEP. 

At the mouth of Emerald Bay. 

Eagle Falls in the distance... and Fanette Island off to the left. 

Took a rest on a sandy beach... to hydrate and apply sunscreen. 

Looking out toward Lake Tahoe. 

We were watched by big Osprey. 

We paddled up the creek at the back of the Bay. 

Accidentally sat on the pull cord for my personal flotation device... and it blew up.  Oops!  Feeling like an idiot. 

Mike with Fanette in the background. 

Momma duck and her 6 ducklings.  Precious.  Oh, and pollen.  Lots of pollen. 

Hiked to a waterfall.  

Then hiked to a BIGGER waterfall!  

Yep, it's growing that way. 

Big Sequoia trees in this area.  Not as big as some we've seen, but still large. 

After ALL that paddling and hiking, we strung up the hammocks, ate a snack, and took a rest.  Not a bad view.  

Fannette Island.  The "tea house" is the little castle-like structure at the top.  Mike is the paddle-boarder in the distance. 

Thought the paddle back was gonna be windy/rough.  Totally FLAT AND CALM! 

Mt. Tallac and that beautiful "alpine carribean" water of Lake Tahoe.  I can't get enough of it. 

Stopped for a break on the paddle back... Mike was brave and jumped in.  

Serenity.  Mt. Tallac and Taylor Creek. 

Where Taylor Creek meets Lake Tahoe. 

I'm not sure if we have had a more perfect day since we've lived here.  The weather was unbelievably in our favor today!  And because we were out early, we had Emerald Bay completely to ourselves for a few hours.  It was seriously magical. After a LONG paddle, we headed to Riva Grill for lunch where we sat on the deck in the shade, looking out over the most beautiful lake in the world.  After lunch, we headed home for naps!  I took my little siesta in my hammock... catching some quality zzzz's under the shade of the trees.  Awesome day.  

Can NOT wait to see our friends coming soon to visit!!!!

SUPin' the Truckee

No pics with this blog.  My sincerest apologies for that, but it would NOT have been easy to take pics.

Today was a half day at work for me, so Mike and I made plans to SUP the Upper Truckee river in the afternoon.  We loaded the boards up before I left for work, and we met at the marina around lunch time.  This way, we had 2 cars.  We left my car at the marina and took his truck to the starting point, about 5 miles up the road.

Other people have done this river on paddleboards and everyone offered different advice.  Some said to take the fins off the boards so you won't catch on rocks and limbs whole trees.  Others said leave the fins on because it's easier to steer around obstacles.  We opted to leave them on because my fin is a pain to put back on.  Not sure if that was the best idea.

The river is flowing pretty well right now from the melting snow in the mountains but, overall it's pretty shallow.  The current will catch the fin and push your board sideways, so maneuvering was a little tricky but we got the hang of it.  Mike stood on his board the ENTIRE time (like a pro).  I alternated between standing up in the calm areas, and paddling on my knees in the "rapids."

I'd be lying if I said we didn't fall in.  Mike took a few tumbles, falling FULL body into the cold water.  He was leading the way so he hit most of the obstacles and I got to avoid them.  He lost his HAT down the river... but caught up to that... he lost a SHOE in the river but a kayaker ahead of us grabbed it... and he lost his PADDLE down the river but was able to paddle with his hands to catch up to it.   He was so sweet to go first!  I lost my balance when my fin got caught and jumped into waist deep water.  Thankfully for both of us, the Truckee is actually much warmer than Lake Tahoe.  It was cold, but tolerable.

Overall, it's a very mellow paddle.  A little bit of current... lots of turns... pretty shallow... and clear water so you can see obstacles ahead.  There is a bit of a catch though: there are a LOT of fallen trees across one part of the river.  We had to keep stopping, taking the boards out of the water, carry them around on the shore, and then put the boards back in the water.

There was also one stretch of "rapids" - none of which were truly whitewater - where the current picked up around a bend in the river, and there was a HUGE fallen tree across the river with just BARELY enough room for a kayaker to go under.  We got out and walked the boards around but several people behind us just "went for it."  Two guys in a canoe T boned a huge rock in the current, which spun the boat around, and they went under the tree backwards (laying down in the canoe because there wasn't enough clearance for them otherwise).  Crazy.

It was a LONG float/paddle (3.5 hrs) but SO much fun.  We're really glad we did it.  And afterward, we loaded the boards on the car and headed straight for a brewery.  Next time: river floats + a cooler float + friends!

Echo Lakes

If you read the blog regularly, you'll notice that lately my blogs are all about weekend activities.  Well, that because the real world hits HARD during the week and there's just not much time to do anything besides work (and occasionally work out).

But on Fridays, the adventures begin.  The forecast was calling for the weather to be in the 70's starting on Friday and lasting through the weekend.  So we decided to take advantage of the warm weather by paddling out to our favorite little island on the lake.  It was pretty windy all day which must have kept everyone else inside (or everyone was at work), because we had the entire island to ourselves the entire afternoon.  Mike and I napped in the warm sand while Zater sniffed everything and chased all the birds away.  We put on sunscreen before leaving the house but because it was SO windy, we couldn't feel ourselves getting burned.  Obviously we live closer to the sun because we BOTH got very weird/splotchy sunburns.  

Saturday morning, we lazily decided to go hiking by Echo Lakes.  We thought we would just hike about 2 miles or so, then turn around.  It turned into a 9 mile hike to 5 different lakes.

We started at the marina at Lower Echo Lake and followed the Pacific Crest Trail to Upper Echo Lake.  The two lakes are connected by a very small channel and there is a boat taxi that will pick you up and carry you back to the marina if you don't want to hike back out.

Following the trail along Lower Echo Lake. 

First look at Upper Echo - with lots of rocky islands.  

Awesome weather... awesome scenery.  

We ate lunch in the shade by the lake, let the doggie cool off by swimming, and decided to continue hiking for another mile or so to see 3 more lakes.  From this point, we were entering desolation wilderness and I LOVE that the sign says, "You are about to enter a special place."  

Us... with Upper and Lower Echo in the background. 

We also saw Tamarack Lake: 

 And then we came to Ralston Lake... my personal favorite: 

Zater staring at all those sticks under the water.  

He just had to go after them.  

Unbelievable water.  Absolutely beautiful place. 

 Ralston Peak is the highest peak in the picture...

 ... we skinned the OTHER side of Ralston Peak back in February... 

Near the top of Ralston... with Pyramid Peak in the background - February 2013. 

We also passed Caglin Lake, but didn't walk down to it.  

After hanging out by Ralston Lake for a while, we headed back to the trailhead at Lower Echo.  

We got a few good pics on the way down too!

Mike and Zater crossing the log to stay out of the water.  

There was even a distant view of Lake Tahoe! 

 And after a nice long hike, we sat on the docks at the marina, drank some water and ate some trailmix, while soaking up the scenery.  

Those are some tired feet. 

It's ironic but I felt exhausted and rejuvenated at the exact same time.  

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the Earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts." 

-Rachel Carson 

Freedom

This weekend was all about freedom!  Freedom to do whatever we want for 4 days straight!  Such an amazing feeling and we certainly don't take it for granted.  Last year Mike would have been at work at the dealership and I would have been at home by myself.  This year, we planned a weekend FULL of adventure... which is easy to do here.

After work on Thursday, my long weekend began with YOGA!  Here's the thing about yoga: it looks so relaxing but in reality... it hurts!  Yoga is really tough!  After that challenge, I headed home just in time to take in the beautiful sunset.

Friday morning we slept in... lazily ate our breakfast... and when we were ready, we got dressed and headed down the street to Heavenly.  There is still snow in the highest elevations.  I have new skis and Mike has new ski boots and we were DETERMINED to use them this year!  So we strapped them to our packs and hiked up.  

One of the ski trails... LOTS of big tree stumps!  

Time to stop for lunch! 

See that patch of white snow in the distance?  That's where we are headed!  

My tracks... hard to see in the soft snow.  

So Mike regularly follows a website called TetonGravity.com .  As he was scrolling through the page, he noticed that someone in the Tahoe area had taken a picture of the "fresh tracks" on Milky Way bowl.  Sure enough, they were our HARD earned tracks!

(http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php/251493-Tahoe-Weather-Conditions-Stoke-and-What-s-Up-Thread/page154)  

Mike's tracks are the pretty ones from the top... mine come in about half way down and are MUCH much wider.  Whatever... I'm still learning and he's a pro.  

Not many people will hike that far up a mountain just to get one good ski run.  Hiking in that area is beautiful... carrying the heavy packs is a good workout... and getting to ski on Memorial Day weekend is just a bonus! 

Friday night was low-key.  Mostly resting and relaxing after a strenuous day of activity.  Saturday we headed to Donner Lake for the 1st of 3 stand up paddle board races that make up the Tahoe Cup.  We didn't race... just spectated (is that a word?).  It was hosted by O'Neill and there were some big names in the SUP world present.  

Beautiful day... a little windy but better than the SNOW they've had the last 2 years!

 We missed the start of the race because we stopped for breakfast at an adorable but slooooow cafe in North Lake.  We each had egg and cheese croissant breakfast sandwiches which were DELICIOUS but took a little longer for them to prepare than we expected.

But... we made it eventually and we were able to see all the paddlers crossing the finish line!  Rob Rojas came in 1st.  This guy is an O'Neill team rider and he is a regular feature in the SUP magazines.  It was a 5 mile race around the lake and I think he finished in under 50 minutes???  Crazy.

As the racers jumped off their boards and sprinted to the finish line, the volunteers in the water would shuttle the boards down in an assembly line method... lining them up along the beach.

 

After the race there was a chance to demo some of the boards... 

Mike chatting with Ronnie Ayers - a TAHOE SUP team rider.  

Mike on a demo paddle. 

Even Truckee Police have Tahoe SUPs

 Afterwards we drove to Squaw Valley for lunch before heading to our campsite for the night. 

It was windy and a little chilly, but we had a campsite right along the Truckee river so we stuck it out.  

We set up our site and started our dinner: turkey burgers and corn on the cob on the charcoal grill.  

Despite it being a little cooler than we would have liked, we had a really good time.  We were surrounded by nature (and a highway... oh well).  

A family of geese floating downstream.  They made it look pretty fun! 

We woke up to birds chirping.  

Sunrise on the river. 

After a mug of hot coffee and a steaming bowl of steel cut oatmeal around a morning campfire, we packed up our campsite and headed home.  We cleaned and put away our gear, showered, and headed down to Heavenly village for an impromptu date night.  We rode the gondola and had dinner at a local pizza place.  It has been an awesome weekend here in Tahoe and it's not even over yet.  Thankfully, I still have tomorrow off from work.  There's a good chance of rain, so instead of sitting on the beach like everyone back in NC, we'll probably have a lazy day inside.  

Looking toward North Lake from the gondola.  

This memorial day, we are so very grateful to our friends and family who have served our country.  Without your unbelievable bravery we wouldn't be free to explore this amazing country!  It is because of veterans and those currently serving our country that we can live the life that we want!  We are doing our very best to live every single day to the fullest in appreciation of all that has been done to EARN us this freedom!  

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!!!!!!