An Iconic Tahoe Weekend

The summer and fall months in Tahoe are probably best known for mountain biking and hiking.  Tahoe has some amazing biking trails.  Mike has a bike... I don't. Luckily, one of my amazing friends from work let me borrow her mountain bike for the weekend. So on Friday, Mike and I rode The Flume trail... one of the most popular biking trails in this area.  It was an 11ish mile ride with great views of Marlette Lake and AMAZING views of Lake Tahoe. 

  

 The trail rides high above several coves along the east side of the lake.  Below is a picture looking down on Thunderbird Lodge... we paddled around this cove a few weeks ago.  The color of the water is amazing. 

 It's an awesome trail, but the views are so amazing that it's hard to keep riding... we kept stopping to take pictures!  

Sand Harbor and North Lake in the background. 

Sand Harbor

I'm so grateful to my friend Chris for letting me borrow her bike!  And now I'm in the market for a bike of my own (even though the last thing I need is ANOTHER expensive hobby). 

Saturday, we decided to go for a hike.  Mt. Tallac is one of the most popular mountains in this area because of the beautiful views from the summit... so we decided to tackle this hike.  It's 10 miles round trip but the climb is pretty steep which adds to the difficulty.  The cool fall temps made the uphill climb more tolerable.  The breathtaking views along the way helped too!

On the way up... we passed Fallen Leaf Lake. 

 We also passed Floating Island Lake... and Cathedral Lake. 

Looking up at Tallac from along the trail. 

Cathedral Lake

Fallen Leaf Lake on the right... and of course BIG Lake Tahoe. 

 The climb to the top of Tallac offers AMAZING views into Desolation Wilderness... including views of a lot of the alpine lakes in Desolation. 

 Looking down on South Lake Tahoe... 

 It was pretty cold at the top.  

The Tahoe Keys... a neighborhood of canals where every home is waterfront. 

Taylor Creek. 

Emerald Bay and Cascade Lake.  

With Fallen leaf Lake in the background. 

A cool tree on the hike down. 

 The last few weeks, we've been checking Taylor Creek regularly because every year in the fall, the Kokanee Salmon run upstream.  We got lucky enough to see some of the salmon swimming. 

This place is amazing. 

Summer to Winter Overnight

Last weekend, we had some interesting weather. Friday, it was sunny and breezy.  Overall, it was pretty warm.  We decided to take a hike up to Marlette Lake with a friend of ours, Ann, who just moved to Tahoe with her husband.  Mike knew Ann from college.  Anyway, Marlette Lake is known for it's fall colors because it's surrounded by Aspen trees which turn yellow in fall.  Well, we went a few weeks too early... not much fall color... but still a great hike with awesome views of Tahoe.

Looking down toward Sand Harbor from the trail. 

 First glimpse of Marlette Lake: 

We hiked around 1 side of the lake... stopped on some rocks and hate some lunch. 

Mike, Ann, and Zater on the rocks... finding a spot to eat lunch. 

Marlette lake has crawfish... BIG ones!  

The fall colors will be amazing in a few weeks.  We were a little early.  

Mike and I on the hike back down... with Tahoe in the background. 

So, Friday we hiked in shorts and tee-shirts (when we were climbing up the trail and working up a sweat).  Saturday... it was cool, and dreary.  The forecast called for rain, but in higher elevations we actually got some snow!  We drove out to Kirkwood, which is the first place we spotted snow:

By the time we got home, it was beginning to snow at our house.  There were also Christmas movies on TV and earlier that day we bought hot chocolate at the grocery store... it was so strange.  I really wanted to start decorating for Christmas but decided it was a bit too soon. 

Anyway, the snow didn't accumulate much.  It was way too warm.  But it was nice to see it falling, and it's hopefully a good sign of the winter to come.  My dear husband is ALL about SNOW and I know he's praying for a good ski season this winter.  

20 miles in 2 days

A few clouds and slightly cooler temperatures + a smoke-free Tahoe basin made for some pretty good hiking over the weekend.  On Friday, we drove up to North Lake to do some shopping and Mike got new hiking boots. Later that afternoon we decided to put them to use on a "short" 8 mile hike.  We recently got Zater some booties to protect his feet while hiking because the Tahoe terrain can be pretty rough on a dog's feet.

New boots for Mike AND Zater.  

In the higher elevations, we were able to catch a glimpse of some early fall colors!  

On Saturday, we headed up to Emerald Bay to do another "short" hike into Desolation Wilderness.  We planned out a 7 mile hike but it ended up being a 12 mile hike.  Once we were in Desolation, we decided to extend the hike to see a few other lakes in the area.  On our 12 mile hike we saw 8 different lakes.  

We hiked up Bayview Trail which obviously had pretty good views of Emerald Bay.  

After a steep climb up the ridge, we came to Granite Lake: 

Continuing up the ridge, we got awesome views of Lake Tahoe, Emerald Bay, Granite Lake, Fallen Leaf Lake, and Cascade Lake.  You can also see Baldwin beach on the south shore of Lake Tahoe.  

Walking along the ridge top, you can see into Desolation Wilderness and Eagle Lake (bottom right):

We finally made it to Upper Velma Lake which was originally going to be our "turn around point" to make it a 7 mile hike.  Instead, we decided we were prepared enough to push on to Middle Velma, Fontanellis Lake and Dick's Lake.  

Upper Velma Lake: 

After resting and having lunch at Upper Velma, we followed the trail to Middle Velma: 

From there we hiked to Fontanellis Lake... one of my favorite of the lakes we saw.  

The trail ran along the shoreline of Fontanellis Lake.  It was SUCH a cool place.  Lots of rock islands and different canals, etc.  

And last but not least we came to Dick's Lake.  Another personal favorite.  

There is something SO cool about seeing these high elevation lakes.  You know that they are virtually untouched by man.  Not everyone gets to see these lakes.  Even though we passed lots of people on the trails, you get the feeling of being far from civilization.  

We headed up from Dick's Lake... along a ridgeline... 

... and then back down the mountain toward the Velma Lakes (seen in the middle of the picture):

Then it was a steep downhill hike back to the car... passing Emerald Bay one more time as the sun was starting to set.  

Saturday's hike was one of my favorites so far.  It was steep and difficult but the views were amazing!  After the challenging workout, we stopped by a little local ice cream shop where we each ordered single scoops in waffle cones!  It's my new favorite ice cream place because their single scoop is really more equivalent to a MASSIVE DOUBLE scoop!  

Such a great weekend!  We are trying to take advantage of the amazing place we live in and we can't wait to do more hikes into Desolation!  There is a LOT more to see.