Five Lakes Hike and the Sacramento Quickie

Thursday:

Got off work right around 10:15am and rode my Ninja up around the west side of the lake. Easily the most beautiful part of the lake to bike. Riding up around Emerald Bay will never get old for me, and hopefully I'll make a few trips back to Tahoe after I move back up to Seattle.

Kristina and I met up at a deli in Tahoe City, took our time chatting and eating the huge half-sandwiches at Rubicon Deli. We weren't really sure about our schedule for the day, we wanted to go for a little hike, and possibly raft down the Truckee--but Kristina didn't bring her floatie, and the river was incredibly busy. It seemed like a weekend crowd, not a Thursday crowd.

We ended up heading to the Five Lakes trail head. It was a 2.5 mile hike up the side of a mountain that used to connect the Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley ski resorts. There are a few old chairlift poles on the mountainside, but no cables or chairs attached. I think they cut the cable to make people buy lift tickets to both resorts instead of getting all of the terrain for one relatively low price.

The bad part of hiking up an old ski-area is that there is very little shade. Lots of open area for skiing equals not many trees for shade! We forgot to fill up our nalgenes with water at the deli, so we did the whole hike with no water. It was pretty brutal, and once we found the first of the five lakes, we hopped in. It felt great after sweating on the hike up, and the lake was probably a little warmer than Lake Tahoe (because it isn't as deep?).





We hiked back down, then headed to the River Ranch, which is a little restaurant at the end of the commercial float trip. We got one of the last remaining tables with shade, and ordered some nachos and fries to go with our 6 cups of water :) We munched those down by about 4:30pm, and were still planning on hitting up the Truckee pickup frisbee at 6:30pm. Floating didn't really sound great, but we were pretty warm again from the hike down--so we tried to find a beach on Lake Tahoe to toss the frisbee and swim.

After a few misses, we found a little boat launch place. It didn't have sand, but it had a little small-gravel area for people to splash around in. We waded and tossed the disc a bit, but the wind was pretty brutal, so we packed it up and decided to hit the really good happy hour deal at the River Grill. I went there once before, on one of my first motorcycle rides around the lake. $3.50 huge margaritas. Yum. We gulped those down, then headed out to frisbee. We were among the first few there, and tossed the disc around until the game started around 7pm.

I forgot about the whole elevation thing, and that--combined with the tequila in the margarita--didn't bode too well for Kristina. She played a lot of points and played well, but in between points she hunched over a few times and held her sides. That elevation change can be brutal--and she already lives at 3k feet! After frisbee, we zoomed back to Nevada City, and I decided to have a little fun on Hwy 20 and zoom past a few of the trucks trying to slow our progress down.

I was well ahead of her, so I decided to head to Safeway and pick up some pita bread and hummus for a late-night snack, and of course, some Nacho Cheese Doritos! Yum x2. We nibbled on those, then promptly fell asleep.

Friday:

Friday started off around 9am. For me, at least. Kristina still wakes up super-early, even when she isn't teaching in the summer. Although, I guess waking up at 7am isn't super-early compared to her usual 4 or 5am wakeup time during school. We chilled for a few hours, then decided to go check out the new Harry Potter movie and see if any tickets were available for the matinée showing. We stopped by Pasties, a really good breakfast shop in Grass Valley, and ate our vegie pasties while standing in line, waiting for the ticket office to open for Harry Potter 5.

We were about 20th in line, and the theater wasn't full--on the first full day of shows, which surprised me a bit, until I realized Grass Valley is only 20k big, and most fans probably saw it Thursday night. The movie itself was really well done. I enjoyed it a lot, and the cinematics and casting were very well done, like usual. The only gripe I have with Harry Potter 5 is that nothing really happened? It felt like a Simpsons episode. It made me laugh, and it had a few good messages, but everything ended in pretty much the same place it started.

We got back to K's place, and relaxed a bit, trying to figure out what to do before the Ani Difranco concert. We ended up just taking naps, lol. We were hoping to go for a walk with the dogs, but we were pooped from the hike and frisbee the day before, then a bit sleepy from the movie. We woke up and were on our way to Northridge Pizza, when Kirstina asked me how set I was on pizza. I said, "Not at all, really." She suggested sushi, and I quickly agreed that sushi sounded better than pizza.

We went to this little sushi place in downtown Nevada City, and sat at the only two open seats--at the bar. It was a bit cramped, but the sushi was amazing. It had been about five months since I last ate sushi, and that stuff is bomb. I had one bite where a piece of wasabi made my eyes water, oooh that's the good stuff :)

I decided to splurge on parking at the fairgrounds, instead of parking in Grass Valley and walking 20 minutes to the concert. Since the show didn't start until 9pm, the parking attendants had already left, and we didn't have to pay! Woot! Kristina and I checked the fairgrounds out, and found the sale tent. I ended up eyeing an Ani DiFranco DVD, and picked it up. I considered it a "parking fee." Can't wait to watch it later this week.

Roxie ended up meeting us a few minutes before Ani took the stage, and we had a blast listening to Ani and her band's amazing songs. It was truly the perfect setting to watch Ani play, and she seemed so happy to be playing her music among the trees and friendly concert-goers. There were trees literally surrounding the amphitheater, which made for a really cool experience. I spent half the time watching Ani sing, and half the time staring up at the stars. I saw a shooting star, but didn't have time to make a wish.

For knowing less than half of the songs she played, we all had a great time. She played two of my favorite songs, "Skipping Stones" and "You Had Time." Skipping Stones is such a great song, and I was happy to hear her play it. She talked a lot between songs, some about the war, a lot about the beautiful area, and also a lot about her 6-month old baby. What an amazing life that kid will have. How cool would it be to have Ani DiFranco singing you lullabies every night?

Roxie headed back to Sacto for the Saturday Tournament, and I crashed at Kristina's place for the night.

Saturday:

I woke up at 7am and was out the door by 7:15am for Sacramento. The ride was pretty uneventful, and I made it to the fields in West Sac with plenty of time to spare. I took it easy the first game, and only played a few points. We won that first game about 15-3. The second game had us play the eventual champions, and we got pounded 4-15. That game was a wakeup call, and we beat the next team 15-4. We had a bye in the 4th round, and ended up 2nd in our pool.

We played the top team from the other division, who we beat pretty handily. They had just finished a really rough game, and the sun was getting really hot--so while we rested in the shade, then were out running for an hour in 100 degree weather. In even conditions, the game would have been close, but we won 15-7 because of the circumstances.

With the score at about 7-4, I sprained my ankle pretty bad on a weird play. I tried to help a teammate out in the end zone, as I saw his guy breaking for a score. I poached off my guy and tried to make the D, but misread the wind and the disc. I went up to block it, but realized I was too far underneath it, so I made a sort-of half-assed jump, then was planning on turning around and running back to defend my guy. I landed, then took a step and heard my ankle pop about four times in quick succession, and I went down. It hurt like a bitch, and I stayed down on the sideline for the next few points, but when we took half, I was able to walk over to our shade-tents. Walking wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, so I'm hopeful that I'll get to play in the Hats, Hops, and Hucks tournament next weekend. I iced it on the sidelines, and I'm pretty sure it is a low-ankle sprain. I'll probably ask the guys in Physical Therapy at work if I should do any particular exercises to get it ready for next weekend.

For the Finals, we ended up having a rematch with the team from round two. We ended up giving them a much better game, as we changed our strategy up a bit. The game was tied at 6-6, but they ended up pulling away in the 2nd half, and we ended up losing 8-13.

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The tourney was a blast, and while I didn't get to play the 2nd half of the semi's game, nor the finals, I had a really good time hanging out with all my Sacto frisbee buddies, and drinking beers on the sideline during the Finals game. Also, I'm glad I hurt my right ankle, and not my left ankle. I don't really need my right ankle to ride my bike, but my left ankle is in charge of shifting gears, which can be important at times!

After the tourney, we showered at Conor and Kristen's, then headed to John and Liz's for games. Kristen and Conor crash and burned out of the poker game, and promptly fell asleep on the couches. I ended up beating John heads up for 1st place. We didn't have any bets going except one: if you lost a pot with pocket aces, you got to make someone chug a beer. Not only did I win the tourney, I also lost a pot with pocket aces, which I slow-rolled to lose a small pot to two-pair on the river--perfect! I then tried to make Liz (the victor in the hand) chug a beer, but she pretty much sipped it--weak. I only had one noticeable suckout, which was KQo preflop all-in against A5o. Not a huge suckout, but it helped me stack up and eventually take out Dave. I think I took out John by picking up ATs and calling his bluff-all-in preflop with T6o.

Headed back to Conor and Kristen's to crash.

Sunday:

Woke up at 11:30am, wow. Thought we'd wake up earlier than that, and get a bite to eat. Kristen and Conor had a wedding to go to in Stockton at 2pm, so they rushed around then we headed our respective ways. The ride back to Tahoe was nice. I love that ride through the El Dorado National Forest. Lots of curves, like riding around Tahoe--but along a river for a 20 mile stretch or so.

I got home and saw the kitchen counters completely covered with beer cans. It put my Coast Trip beer can shot to shame. I guess they've been partying nonstop since Thursday night. Holy crap I'm glad I was out of town this weekend!

I should have the Pirates v. Ninjas updated by Tuesday afternoon. More softball tomorrow night, and the big frisbee tourney next weekend. Fun in the sun!

Camping with Kristina

Plum tuckered! I am pooped! I had an amazing time with Kristina and the dogs yesterday and this morning. The hike was short and sweet, and after running into three different groups within 10 minutes at the trail head, we only saw one other group the entire hike, who were off in the distance on the other side of Island Lake.

We met up at the Carr Lake trail head, which is just northwest of the Hwy 20/Hwy 80 Junction near Donner Pass. The road from Hwy 20 to Carr Lake was amazingly fun to ride my bike on. Paved, lots of sharp turns--fun fun!

Fun until the pavement ended, and the gravel began. My bike is a street bike, not an off-road vehicle. I got nice and jarred for about 4 miles, not going faster than 15mph. A few of the potholes bounced me up off the seat--I'm not planning on riding any gravel roads again anytime soon.

I actually ended up catching up to Kristina on the gravel road about a mile from the trail head. Coming from opposite directions, we had pretty good timing!

Kristina brought a really nice, big backpack. She had a nice 2-man tent, a stove, dinner, breakfast, dog food, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, change of clothes. I had my college backpack with one shirt, two pairs of socks, a nalgene of Chardonnay, a 1.5l bottle of Syrah, water, cheese, crackers, sleeping bag, water filter. Her pack was probably twice as heavy as mine. I felt bad and offered to switch, but she thinks she's tougher than me and wouldn't allow it. Thinks.

We had a rough idea of where we wanted to hike. There are literally hundreds of lakes up near Carr Lake, and we saw camping spots 100ft from the trail head. We were thinking about heading up to Penner Lake, which is about 4 miles from the trail head. We passed by Feely Lake, which is a big man-made reservoir. The dogs decided to jump in, then we started playing a fun game of fetch with a stick:





I don't think I've ever played fetch with a dog in water before, good times! We headed further along the trail, and the next lake we hit looked picturesque. It couldn't have been more than two miles from the trail head, but there was a great, shady camping spot where we dropped our packs off and scouted around for better possible sites. Luckily for us, we climbed the small ridge and found an even more amazing lake, which turned out to be Island Lake:



Kristina thought she saw a good campsite across the water on a little peninsula, so we grabbed our packs and headed over that way. She was right, the site was amazing! It had large, flat spots for at least three other tents, and a big fire pit with downed logs as makeshift benches. One of the nicest camping sites I've ever been to.

We set up camp, then decided to go take a dip before doing some hiking around with the dogs. We swam out to a nice-looking rock about 30ft from shore. I'll call it an island, why not? The lake has multiple islands in it, varying in size and proximity to shore. Why it is called Island Lake, I may never know.

We got back to camp and were refreshed and ready to do some backpackless hiking around, so we headed up towards Penner Lake. We stuck to the path for a while, then saw some nice rock formations and headed over to them. I got a little bit of rock-climbing in, and the dogs had a good time hopping from rock to rock.

We hiked on and found Round Lake, which unlike Island Lake has absolutely no similarity to its name. It definitely wasn't round, so I'm not sure who named that lake, but they did a poor job. Peanut would have been much more fitting. We played more lake-stick-fetch at Round Lake:



After a dozen or so tosses, I think all four of us were ready to head back to camp and get a little food in. We got a little lost, and ended up on some rather dangerous rocks that cliffed down into Island Lake. Kristina and I had to boost the dogs a few times to climb around the rocks and get back to camp, but the view from the rocks was amazing, and we stopped to take a few more pictures:







We made it back to camp and I busted out the cheese and crackers, which were enjoyed by all four of us. I would have brought a chunk of salami, but Kristina is a vegematarian, so I spared her my carnivorous ways. It was still yummy, and with Kristina's trail mix, we ended up having a very good snack.

We decided to go swimming again, and we brought the nalgene of Chardonnay out to the rock with us this time. Ended up getting a bit more sun than we thought, but it felt perfect catching rays out on the rock in the middle of a mountain lake. While we were out on the rock, Kristina spied a group of four over by the cliffs we were at earlier. I couldn't see six feet from my face, but I was able to make out a little bit of movement in the distance.

I always find it neat to be able to hear so much further up in nature, with so much less ambient noise. As I'm typing this, I'm listening to some Eric Clapton in our living room. Cody and a friend of George are also in the living room playing on their laptops. The front door is open and I can hear a steady stream of cars on Hwy 50. On the island with Kristina and the dogs, we could hear bits of their conversation at least 200 feet away. Sound also carries much better over water, but I find it so cool how you can be 30 feet away from a friend and talk like they are within arm's reach.

After baking in the sun long enough, free from mosquitos out on the island, we headed back to camp and Kristina started up our Indian Fare dinner while I pumped water. It was my first use of my water filter I got for xmas, and it worked amazingly well. It took me a while to figure out how to connect all the tubes and get the lever to work right, but once I got it setup, it only took less than a minute to fill a nalgene of water! I'm used to spending 5-10 minutes slaving away over a water filter, getting drops of water every pump. I guess those days are over!

The Indian Fare was amazing, even without the usual rice. We added cheese and crackers to the mix to give it a little more character, and two packets filled both of us up. We retreated to the tent to play some cards, I got crushed at Crazy 8's, and lost the massage bet. Then we played a game of knock, and I got wasted and lost the waking up and making breakfast bet. But. But! I did finally play some Chinese Poker, and bet the all-important FOOT massage, and finally won a bet. My last hand I had not one, but TWO full houses, which has got to be near-unbeatable. I did lose my 3rd hand, which had AQ7--losing to her pocket 2's, bah!

We made good on our bets, then decided to catch the sunset from up the hill a ways. It was pretty, and made prettier by our little jug of wine :)





We failed to drink all of the wine, but it was admittedly a very tall task. We tried valiantly, and both had hangovers in the morning. Hers was worse than mine, because I can hold my alcohol. We decided to pass on breakfast, and I offered to buy breakfast at South Pine in Nevada City in lieu of my losing the breakfast bet the night before. She quickly agreed, and even with our hangovers, we left the campsite at 6:30am, as clean as we found it the day before.

I'm not sure what it is about waking up camping, but unless I really bust my ass the previous day, as soon as that sun hits the tent, I want to get up and moving. Except for me rushing a little this morning, our entire trip was the opposite of rushed. We had so much time, it was great. We didn't have to race against the sunset to setup camp, we got to swim twice, and we had plenty of time to relax and play cards.

South Pine was amazing this morning, but the two-hour ride on a full stomach was not! I made it back to Tahoe by 11am, which left me over an hour to nap before work, which I desperately needed. Work only lasted 3.5 hours, and I got a free Jamba Juice at the end of the day.

More camping this summer!