Quick Catch-Up from Medford, Oregon

What day is this, Tuesday? Yeah, I think so. So, this must be Medford. Yup. Nice, posh hotel room w/ fluffy king-sized bed; full-time strong internet connection; large shower w/ a shower head that towers over me; hot & cold running food at the breakfast bar downstairs; Mother waiting for me at the top of the hill; no mice… LOL

We arrived in Medford late Saturday night (11:00) after cleaning our little cabin by the Lake & taking the “scenic” route home. All b/c I wanted to stop by the ranger station & get that cute Desolation Wilderness water bottle I didn’t buy there earlier. Instead of returning the way we came, thru the desert of Carson City & Reno, we went up the west side of the Lake & took Hwy 89 all the way until it hit I-5 at Mt. Shasta. Much better way. Longer, but better.

Hwy 89 takes us thru Mt. Lassen Nat’l Park. What a little gem that is! Well worth the $10/wk entry fee, even if we were just passing thru. It took us 2.5 hrs to travel 22 miles on what turns out to be the highest hwy in the Cascades (we topped out at 8500,’ or something like that), right to the base of the southernmost active volcano in the Cascade Range (the northernmost, interestingly enough, is Mt Girabaldi. Hmmm…)

We took lotsa pix at Lassen, of course, but these are just a few.

We leave Medford tomorrow & head over to Cannon Beach for a couple of nights & then on to Redmond for a couple more nights. This trip has really had it all: High Sierras, Big Blue Lake; Cascade peaks; drive-by desert (that’s enough desert for me!); two mothers, a brother & a long-time friend; Pacific Ocean beach; snow (above); sun; a drop or two of rain; & hopefully 30+ miles in our hiking boots before it’s all said & done. I really do hate to see it end, but we have many more adventures this summer!

I finally put together some pix of our Cabin by the Lake:

Be it ever so humble, it was home!

Another little side-note… while here in Medford I just started to search the job boards on-line just to see what was out there, even tho I’m not gonna really look ‘til Fall. The Guide Dogs are looking for an asst. trainer. I have no experience w/ dogs & no experience w/ the blind, except for my volunteer gigs in high school, but what the heck? The job’s open ‘til mid-August & starts in September. And it’s w/in walking distance from home! A lady I used to work w/ on staff was saying that she was praying for something totally different for my next job. Well, this is totally different…

 

Tahoe Rim Trail: Spooner Summit South

Today starts Spread the Spark Weekend! SparkPeople members around the world are wearing the SparkGear to help promote the website. Local SparkTeams are holding SparkRallies this w’end, but since I’m on the road, I’m a Rally of One. I excitedly put on my I ♥ SP T-Shirt today & Rich was kind enough to take pix of me on the dock here at Zephyr Point.

I also love my little $2.50 thrift store board shorts I bought last year thinking they would never fit. :-)  The hair’s a little out of control, but authentic! Hahaha

Today Rich & I tackled 3.5 miles of the 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail. Since we had to get back to our car, it was a 7-mile hike. The TRT was built by volunteers & is a splendid piece of trail craftsmanship. It’s one of the most unobtrusive trails I’ve hiked, making minimal impact on the surrounding wilderness & is even hard to see where we’re going & where we’ve been. Our little sub-segment took us along the southeast rim w/ views thru the trees of the vastness of the great blue expanse that is Lake Tahoe.

This was the view from our Lunch Log. It was kinda hazy today, but you get the idea.

Sadly, we leave the Lake in the morning. We realized tonight that we could stay here another week and hike seven more splendid, uncrowded trails.  What’s w/ that? Where are the people? OK, it’s not the height of tourist season yet & we figure most people are on the water or in the casinos. Their bad. Our good. But, anyway, we head back to Medford & Mom, tomorrow.

And despite what I said in an earlier blog, we could totally stay here at Zephyr Point again. I don’t know if we’re ever going to have an opportunity to return, and if we do, we’re going to incorporate a trip to Yosemite, too (it’s soooo close!).

But tonight, I still have dishes, packing & the beginnings of cabin cleaning to do!

 

Grass Lake

It’s interesting how either Rich or I am “on” on a certain day, but not both at the same time. He has a good hiking day while I struggle. I have a good hike, while he struggles. Yesterday was the prior, while today was the latter. What is so amazing & great, however, is that we are hiking consecutive days. Three days, three hikes. This was impossible when we visited the Canadian Rockies last year. Between my knee & Rich’s hamstring, we were forced a day off for healing after a hiking day. So far this summer, we are both healthy & are able to hike day after day after day after day after day.

Today’s hike had nothing to do w/ Lake Tahoe. Once we turned off the main road onto Fallen Leaf Road, we left the big blue lake behind us. Oh my. Fallen Leaf Road. A 5-mile single lane road that skirts the edge of Fallen Leaf Lake. On the road is a resort, several (many) private residences, home construction & subsequent vehicles, and two-way traffic. On a road that’s barely wide enough in some spots for one vehicle. It was a hair-raising ride into the trailhead. But after backing the car down the road & not into the lake (literally on lake edge!) to let one of those honking big p/up trucks thru, we finally made it to the trailhead, & not for the first time, the last parking spot therein.

One quick sidenote… If you’re driving down a narrow, one-lane road (consequently, we later encountered a “Road Narrows” sign. How narrow can a 2-way road get??) & you have a pull-out opportunity in the face of oncoming traffic, please take it. The aforementioned honking big p/up truck passed a driveway which he could have pulled over into, while in sight of us.  But nooooo! Mr. Road Hog Too Big For Daily Use Pick Up Truck had to come straight at us. I called him a name that I will not repeat on this forum.

We now return back to the hike.

Great hike! I loved it! Two lakes, lots of waterfalls, three river crossings, storm threat. It was easier terrain, the weather was cooler. We walked along streams, through rugged, arid wasteland (for lack of better word), thru forests. Great fun. All in five miles (out & back). Rich had a hard day.

The 2nd river crossing was a bit “tricky,” according to one hiking book. Two logs crossing over a rapid-flowing river which we later discovered was actually the top of a (short) waterfall.

Rich had a hard time. But he made it. I went back to retrieve his pack, but he made it, & I’m very proud of him.  I wound up crossing that blasted log 6 times. I finally got the hang of it by the 6th time.

 
Heading back across to get Rich’s pack. (Why did I make this picture bigger??)


With his pack, wondering how I’m gonna get back across again & nearing the end of the crossing.

 This is where the river we just crossed was heading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Grass Lake.







Waterfall at Grass Lake

 

Still Grass Lake

Happier Rich on the car side of the river. No more crossings for Rich! Yay!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little out of order. We once again entered the Desolation Wilderness. This was about 1.5 miles into the hike.

 

 

 

 
This is the Desolation Wilderness. Picture old westerns. I was half expecting cowboys & outlaws to be hiding along the trail somewhere. “Bonanza” was set in this area, after all.

Tomorrow is our last full day at Lake Tahoe. It’s gone by quickly. We’re debating about whether to head up to Squaw Valley & poke around up there or maybe tackle some of the lighter portions of the Tahoe Rim Trail.

My very quick Photoscape of today’s hike. Now doesn’t this look like fun?? (BTW, the lizard is NOT allowed to move in w/ us! LOL)

“Rustic” Cabins…

(I wrote this this morning but our kind neighbours w/ the unsecured internet connection must have turned their computer off…)

I’m not totally sure what the definition of “rustic” is. Crude. Maybe not the most modern. OK, outdated. But who cares? Rustic can be charming. Rustic can be cozy. Rustic can by home.

Our cabin at Zephyr Point is all of the above. It’s comfortable, charming, homey. So what if the furniture is from the 60’s? I can get by w/ separate hot & cold water taps in the bathroom sink. The shower reminds me of the one from our trailer – I can barely turn around in it. I have no idea if I would have fit in it 50 lbs ago! The shower head barely reaches my shoulder, but it has hot water. I’m happy to supply my own linens. This is a Presbyterian conference center, after all, & not a resort. I really don’t mind cleaning the cabin before we leave, altho I’m not really looking fwd to it.

There were some things we had to put up with… Two-prong outlets throughout the house, w/ either sawed-off three-prong plugs or the 3rd prong just hanging out of the old extension cords. One lamp’s cord just had the wires stuck in the plug; another one popped (exploded?) when Rich tried to unplug it. Our deck was scary shaky; the glide rocker just about fell apart when we sat in it. All minor inconveniences, which Maintenance, much to their credit, promptly addressed once we brought it to their attention.

But there is one little item that I’m having a hard time “writing off.” We are sharing our cozy, rustic dwelling w/ a mouse. He’s a cute little guy, but he poops on our counter. He took a bite out of our rubber scraper, and evidently didn’t like it, b/c there was a mouse-sized bit of rubber scraper next to it. He makes things go bump in the night, including my heart.

When we alerted the office about our housemate, they said, “I don’t know what we can do about the mouse. We have a bit of a mouse problem here.” Nice to know. But there was no evidence that they even tried to do anything. They fixed the leak under our sink yesterday, but no evidence about the mouse. Especially since we saw him run across the living room into the bathroom last night.

Oh, we also found a cockroach last night. I saw something crawl under the microwave. Good thing Rich used to live in Venezuela & has experience w/ cockroaches.  I think squishing the mouse in a paper towel would be more difficult & more messy than the cockroach.

We’re getting used to storing our cereal & dry goods in the oven & our bread & fresh fruit in the fridge. We thawed our pork chops in the microwave yesterday. No power, but a mouse-proof part of the house. Last night I laid awake in bed wondering if we could move to a hotel or something, but we only have 2 more nights here.

Out of the blue, Rich just said: “I’m glad mice are nocturnal. I would hate to chase him around all day.” Indeed.

I dunno. I’m pretty disappointed w/ ZP. I understand the nature of the place, but this has been a pretty special location for our family. Both my parents have a sweet history here, both separately & together, having managed it, as a couple, from 1958-1960. We were going to bring Mom here this week, but it was just too much for her. I think it’s probably for the best that she didn’t come. We’re wondering how she would have handled the whole mouse thing.

It’s very sad, but I think this is our last stay at ZP.

On another note, I Photoscaped some photos this morning. Here are the results:

This is a 2-page spread of our drive from Medford to Tahoe:

 
That’s Mt. Shasta in the upper right, & Burney Falls in the lower right. The mtn in the rear-view mirror is a lava dome (?) near Mt. Shasta.


Mt. Lassen in the lower left.  We didn’t clue in to actually stop for the “Welcome to (insert state name here)” signs ‘til we got to Nevada. But 3 states in one day. If this was Canada, that would have taken us a week! LOL

Sunset at Zephyr Point, Tuesday, June 23
Lower left is “Robin’s Flight,” a potentially butt-kicking flight of 175 or so stairs up the hillside. Upper right is the amphitheatre where they hold vespers & stuff. There are 4 of those pillars there. I really don’t know why there are 4 since the Trinity has 3. Only 3 fit in this lay-out anyway. :-)

Butt Kicking at 7600’

Mt. Tallac (9735’)

Meet Mount Tallac. We have taken many pictures of this monolith, but none from as near as the one above. Mt. Tallac is a landmark here at Lake Tahoe. It is recognizable, as my mom pointed out, by the cross of snow that it almost constantly wears on its face.

Before we came to Tahoe, I had visions of hiking to the top of Mt. Tallac, b/c, well, my brother did it the last time we were all here, in 2001. Heck, my mother did it when she worked on summer crew here at Zephyr Point when she was in her 30’s (?). I absolutely nailed yesterday’s hike. How hard could it be?

OK, so the Mt. Tallac hike is rated “Strenuous” or “Difficult,” depending on the trail resource you use. Yesterday’s is rated “Moderate,” altho I’d call it “Easy.” It’s nearly 10 miles, out & back, as was yesterday’s, but w/ a 3300’ elevation gain (yesterday had a whopping 375’ gain!). Key word: “elevation.” You start at 6480’ where the air is still thin, even if you’ve been here a couple of days.

So, we decided to try out half of the Mt. Tallac trail, to Floating Island & Cathedral Lakes. Two & one-half miles one way, five miles, round trip. Half of yesterday’s hike. Piece of cake! Two to three hours estimated hiking time. Lovely! Oh yeah, 1200’ elevation gain. But it’s in the Easy Day Hikes book. How hard could that be?

Well, as you gathered from the title of this blog, it was pretty hard. Our 2.5-3 hr hike took us 3:55 (I’m calling it 4 hrs). We hiked one (1!) mile per hour going in. It was up, and it was relentless. It wasn’t as steep as the trail to the mountain after the 2nd lake, but it was pretty darn steep. And we didn’t take into account the sun. The trail was pretty much exposed, & even tho the air temperature may have been mid-70s (f), it was very hot in that thin air. And dry. We were constantly thirsty, yet, oddly enough, our noses kept running.

Hahaha. This is what Rich just said: “That was only five miles & it killed us? Can you put ‘straight up’ in there? In the noon day sun? In the boiling hot noonday sun? Both ways?”

But it was beautiful. Check this out:

Lake Tahoe in the background w/ Fallen Leaf Lake in the foreground

 
Looking the other way to see Mt. Tallac thru the burnt trees trunks. (Don’t know when the fire was.)

Lake Tahoe from the trail


Rich enjoying the view (Lake Tahoe w/ Fallen Leaf Lake in foreground)

I was so happy to see the boundary of the Desolation Wilderness about 1.5 miles into the hike. That meant that Floating Island Lake was very near!

Ahhh…. Floating Island Lake. Our lunch stop (at 2:30!)

Our shirts drying in the sun. They were soaked under our packs! (Yes, we had spares, but why, if you don’t have to?)

On to Cathedral Lake. As per Mike White in Afoot & Afield Reno-Lake Tahoe, “Although reasonably attractive, the lake fails to exude the reverential awe its appellation would suggest, having received the name from the neaby cliff on Tallac’s southeast ridge.” In other words, it was pretty disappointing, considering the effort it took to visit its shores!

 
This little guy was very busy! But he was getting none of our food or Gatorade!

On our return, we discovered a wonderful vista which made the extra effort to climb the very steep trail beyond Cathedral Lake to a similar viewpoint unnecessary.

Looking back on the ridge trail. Fallen Leaf Lake to the left.  

Tomorrow we plan to do some short jaunts, into waterfalls & such. Just a couple miles, each.

How hard can that be??

Rubicon Trail (6/23/09)

Lake Tahoe is a big, blue lake. Even tho we’ve been here since Saturday afternoon, I really didn’t get to see it ‘til today. We met up w/ my life-long chum, Hallie, & her husband, Joel, who now live in nearby Carson City, Saturday evening & went to the buffet at Harrah’s at Stateline for what I thought was a pretty reasonable dinner … for a buffet. I was violently ill that night, & was in bed pretty much the next day, Sunday, w/ a migraine & more tummy troubles Sunday evening. We were beginning to wonder if I was suffering from altitude sickness (but we’re “only” at 6200’) & I was starting to worry about how Rich was gonna pack up the cabin to get me off the mountain. Some vacation!

Hallie, Joel, Rich & Me in our Cabin on the Lake. I think I look so huge here b/c I was popping up & down, setting up the automatic timer on our camera & didn’t have time to “settle” into the couch. LOL (And, yes, to those who follow me on SparkPeople &/or who have read my previous blog, I do have more than one shirt!)

The fog finally cleared in my head; my “classic” 3-day migraine (one of the worse ones in my life – I don’t typically get that ill!) finally subsided yesterday (Tuesday) morning, w/ the help of Relpax, my wonder-drug. Rich & I poured thru our hiking books to figure out what to do. I wanted a little warm-up hike, nothing too strenuous or remote, just to judge my head & tummy.

We settled on the Rubicon Trail, which pretty much follows the Lake’s shoreline from D.L. Bliss State Park (Cal.) to Vikingsholm in Emerald Bay. That’s about five miles. One way. A couple of rollie-pollie ups & downs, but pretty much flat. And exposed in the afternoon Sierra sun. As Rich said about half-way on our return, “This is some ‘little warm-up hike!’” Hahaha. Sorry, Rich.

But it was so worth it! Absolutely beautiful. If you haven’t seen Lake Tahoe yourself, it’s hard to truly give you an idea of how big & how blue it is. I haven’t had a chance to Photoscape any pictures yet, what w/ things like shooting sunsets & eating dinner (after sunset! I do have my prioirites, LOL) & sleeping & mouse hunting to do (more on the latter later), but here are some highlights from yesterday’s hike:

   
Lower Eagle Falls. Another .3 mile walk (OK, uphill, so it was a “hike,” too.) :-)

Requisite picture of Vikingsholm. I almost didn’t even take this shot. Obviously a lot of people are into this type of thing, but it just makes me roll my eyes. It’s just stuff. Opulent stuff. We’re much more interested in natural history than stuff history.

This is the Tea House that Mrs. Knight had built on Fanette Island in 1929. She’s the gal who had Vikingsholm built & brought her guests here for tea. I dunno. My kitchen table works well enough for me…

Emerald Bay from the beach in front of Vikingsholm. You can kinda see Fanette Island over on the right…






This might be my SparkPeople “Before” picture…





  








I just couldn’t resist…

Well, it’s almost 8:30 & Rich is puttering around in the kitchen, starting to get b’fast ready. We should be starting our day.

Things yet to blog about…

• Trip from Medford to Tahoe (at least PhotoScape the pix)
• The “joys” of living in a “Rustic” cabin

Here’s my Parting Shot. We went down to shoot sunset last night while the sounds of a High School group’s Praise & Worship filled the air from one of the nearby conference halls. I was overwhelmed in the P&W, myself & asked Rich to take this picture: