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: