Best of Tahoe Pictures

I looked back on this compilation of pictures I made six weeks ago, and I decided that the terrible quality Pearl Jam song just didn't do the pictures justice. I've replaced the song with "Disarm" from the Smashing Pumpkins.

I strung the pictures together without having a song in mind, but after watching the video again, "Disarm" has some almost comically literal connections with the pictures. Again, completely unintentional, but I can count about half a dozen times where the lyrics of the song somehow tie to the picture on the screen. "smile" "burn" and "shoes" come to mind.

After watching the video again tonight, I'm sure glad I got so many smiling faces. Raffle, Hope, Ichi, Kristina, Andrew, Jen, Waffles, Hoy, Bayne, Brandon, Lindsay, myself, Kristina's Mom, Pam, Flo, Alison, Drew, Trish, Meesh, Sunshine, Hector, and my Dad. I can't think of a better way to remember the fun I had in Tahoe (and surrounding areas) than the smiles on their faces.

Pictures from Nevada City and Tahoe

EDIT 10/07/2007 --Re-mastered this video with a better quality song, reposted--



Here is a compilation of some of my favorite pictures from Nevada City and Tahoe that I've taken over the last 8 months.

The song is "Disarm" by the Smashing Pumpkins.

I'll miss you, Tahoe!

Hiking With Dad (LONG)

(written two days ago where internet hasn't been invented yet)

Well, I’m either old… or I’m living the life. I’m currently freshly showered, sipping a Corona and sitting in a rocking chair on the second floor of the public Frenchglen Hotel in Frenchglen, OR. There is a window open behind me, and another window on the other side of the room blowing a nice breeze over my shoulders. I’ve got my laptop with no internet in front of me, and I’m trying to figure out where to begin.

I just finished a very good ‘family style’ dinner out on the deck. Along with Dad, there was a retired couple sitting across from us, and an 80 year old doctor who rode a motorcycle down from Portland. Frenchglen is in Southeast Oregon, so it is quite the drive from Portland. His motorcycle is parked out front, and it has a futuristic-looking side-car. Instead of a wife, he keeps a 10-gallon fuel tank in there for the long rides.

During our meal of rice, spinach and artichoke dip, chicken, rolls and salad, we all shared stories. The older couple (in their 60’s) had some really neat stories, including taking a train from Eugene, OR to Miami, FL. They went down the coast on the Starlight Express (I believe?) then took a train from Los Angeles to Miami. They stayed a few days in San Antonio, New Orleans, Miami—-then flew back to Eugene. Not bad! We had a good dinner, filled with laughs, and I wasn’t meant to feel too out of place, even though the rest of the table had a good 40 years on me.

I scooted out early from dinner and played with Ichi a bit. He’s had quite the day. I went and got Dad from the hotel this morning a few minutes earlier than scheduled, re-introduced him to Ichi, then the next thing Ichi knew, he was trapped in the Explorer with his grandpa! It was a pretty hot drive from Tahoe to Frenchglen, and Dad finally admitted at dinner that the thermometer in the Exploder hit 101 degrees somewhere in rural Nevada. Luckily for Ichi, he had air conditioning this trip! After the normal Ichi freak-out, he settled down, and at almost every stop along the way, he was curled up in a ball on Dad’s lap. Ichi is going to spend the night out in the Exploder tonight, but tomorrow night we have a hotel in Pendleton, OR that allows cats—-so he’ll get to come inside then.

I don’t feel too bad for Ichi though, because I was out in the 100 degree weather all day on my ninja. The drive today was about 400 miles, and it consisted of pretty much staring at the back of the Explorer for 8 hours. It wasn’t that bad though. Dad planned the route through Nevada and Eastern Oregon, and I agreed because I’ve really only drove I-5 from California to Seattle. Dad said he had some amazing country to show me, so I obliged to let him plan the trip.

His favorite part of today’s trip was about 30 miles north of Winnemucca, NV. We turned off of I-95 and took Hwy 140 through Denio to Frenchglen. At the turn off onto Hwy 140, there is a straight-stretch of road that must of lasted 30 miles, not a single turn. It felt like you could see forever, and there was not a single car in sight. You can go the entire drive from Sacramento to Seattle and never lose sight of another vehicle. Dad and I drove for a good 20-mile stretch without seeing another soul. The scenery was amazing, and even though there were ‘open ranges’ along the highway, it felt pretty safe to take my gaze off of the Exploder’s license plate and glance around. A couple things struck me on that long, straight-stretch. First, whoever had to build all those telephone poles along the highway must have had one helluva-long summer. There were telephone poles every hundred feet along the highway, and we sometimes crossed a different stretch of telephone poles heading perpendicular to the road. They stretched on as far as I could see… hundreds, maybe even thousands of telephone poles, out in the middle of nowhere. Power has to get from the Hoover Dam somehow, I guess—but damn if those telephone poles aren’t going to be obsolete in twenty years.

Since there weren’t any other cars or police cars within our miles of sight, I decided to pass Dad and punch the ninja up to 100 for a little giggle. I couldn’t think of a better, safer place to do it (although I was a bit worried about the ‘Open Range’). I crouched down and gave the bike lots of throttle, and it responded with a zoom. I hit 100 and decided that was enough for me. I checked my rear-view mirror and was surprised to see the Explorer so far behind. I popped in the clutch and let the bike coast for a good mile until Dad caught up. I moved back over to the left lane and let him pass me on the right side, as if we were rewinding the tape. Good times.

Other than the fun stretch between Winnemucca and Denio, the ride was a good endurance test. It was almost as long as the ride to Vegas in June, but it was a much easier ride, because I was following Dad. Going it alone is pretty tough, I wanted to stop more often on my ride down to Vegas than I did with Dad today. Some of that might have to do with the hike we just got through, and my patience and stamina are near an all-time high.

Speaking of hiking, the hike was amazing. Truly a once-in-a-lifetime hike. We had near-perfect weather. 70-75 degrees, blue skies, no lightning storms and no fire/smoke until the last day hiking out. We got incredibly lucky with the weather. You can pretty much rely on sunny weather for August in California, but camping at 10,000ft in rock bed, lightning storms are not your friend—and they are mighty frequent on sunny, August days. Also, if luck is not on your side, the months of planning a hike can quickly be for naught if a wildfire strikes.

On our last day, we saw a bit of smoke on the 5.6 mile hike out, but it didn’t seem too bad. It wasn’t until we got to the car and started driving back to Mammoth to pick up the Exploder, that we noticed how bad the smoke was. You could hardly see the mountains when we got back to Mammoth, and we knew the mountains were there, because we had seen them four days earlier on our entry into the Ansel Adams Wilderness.

The wilderness is aptly named, and it definitely rivals the Cascades. Some of the view we got were just incredible. We camped at Thousand Island Lake our second night, which sits at 9800ft. Mount Banner shades the lake in the afternoon, and it is 13,000ft high, standing just to the Southwest of the lake. Our hike up to Thousand Island Lake was a bit of a grind at 8.5 miles and probably around 2k elevation from Agnew Meadows—and I promptly stripped down to my shorts and hopped into Thousand Island Lake when we arrived. I could see the glacier which fed the lake, but that didn’t stop me! It actually wasn’t that bad, until Dad saw me getting out after diving in and said, “Mind doing that again for the camera?” I didn’t, but that second dive seemed much more brisk than the first!

From Thousand Island Lake, we climbed Island Pass, descended into a really nice valley with a picture-perfect stream. I got a few shots of Dick pumping water at the stream where we ate lunch. There were foot-long fish swimming around in the stream, lush grass, and the constant trickle of the stream to make you feel at home in the wilderness. That great feeling caught us a bit off-guard, because from the top of Island Pass, all we saw was a valley with trees, and we were all staring across the valley at Donoghue Pass, which we were going to climb the next day. If we had a bridge across the valley, we could have saved ourselves a few thousand feet of elevation, so every step down into the valley, we knew would be a step up the other side. The perfection in the valley got our minds off the hike back up though, and we made it to within 1000ft of Donoghue Pass and camped at over 10,000ft our third night on the trail. That third day was pretty rough, because it was spent at or above about 9800ft, and we did quite a bit of climbing.

Back to my all-time high in patience, climbing isn’t exactly my Dad’s forte. He makes his money with his long strides in the flat meadow. When the path gets steep, he shuts down into 1st gear and his long stride collapses into a literal toe-to-heel grunt up the hill. The steepest part of the entire 27-mile trail was about five hours into our first day. We had a 0.6 mile stretch that rose 600ft. That’s 1000ft/mile. We averaged 2h/mile. Two hours per mile. Not two miles per hour. It took us over an hour to hike 0.6 miles. I love my Dad, but that pace was a grind on my patience! It seemed to me, that if he just took bigger strides, he’d go at least two times faster—but I didn’t say anything. He knows his body well enough to know what pace he is comfortable with, and the fact that he is even doing a 27-mile hike at age 65 is a pretty impressive feat in and of itself. I feel very lucky to even have the opportunity to hike with my Dad when he is 65. I really doubt I’ll be doing any 27-mile hikes when I’m his age.

I tried my hardest to stay positive about his pace, and for the most part I think Sarr, Dick and I did a good job. It was difficult at times, because we all (including Dad) were very cognizant of the fact that Dad was the slowest out of the group, and we kept a pretty good attitude about it. It had me thinking a lot during the hike though… what is the best way to handle a situation like this, where there is one weak link. I plan on both teaching and coaching within the next few years, and I’m sure I’ll face this issue again in the future. You don’t want to hold everyone else back, but you also want to try your hardest to boost them up. A few times during our hike, Dick and Sarr would go ahead of us and find a spot for lunch, or a spot to camp once we got close to the campsite. That seemed to please them, but over dinner tonight in Frenchglen, Dad commented that sometimes on our hike Dick and Sarr would race ahead to a stream for a stop, but by the time Dad and I got there to rest, they’d be ready to go again, and Dad would get no rest! I guess another unique thing about our situation is that Dad is 65, and isn’t afraid to speak his mind, or request a rest stop. It probably meant more rests, but it also staved off any serious problems from occurring, because Dad knows his body and isn’t afraid to make us wait if he needs a rest. I can see the opposite of that having a very bad outcome in a classroom sense. If the kid isn’t willing to raise his or her hand and admit to not understanding, or get their parents to do their homework, or any other number of things, the problem is just going to get worse and worse.

OK, I’m getting a little off-track, but I would like to hear any advice about what to do when there is a weak link in a group. I think we did a good job, but I felt some of our tactics were either a little too childish, or just not right for the situation—but I was at a loss for how to handle the situation any better. We didn’t really have any way of making him go faster, so the hike was pretty much testing his speed and our patience. Dad also admitted after the hike that he felt rushed for most of the hike, but I don’t really think we could have accomplished the hike in the number of days we had allotted going any slower—so it was more a planning thing than anything else. He also likes hikes where you backpack in, then spend a few days without your pack going on day hikes and coming back to base camp every night—and this hike was definitely not that! All told, I think we all still had an unforgettable time, and it was the perfect way to cap off my six months in Tahoe. To make the matter a little less stressful, Dad and I had an amazing pace on the last morning, when we hiked out to the car. The trail was 5.6 miles of meadow, and Dick and Sarr gave us a little head start like they had become accustomed to—but they didn’t catch up! Dad was zooming in the flat, shaded meadow, and we had a great talk along the way. We got to a little junction of trails about 0.6 miles from the parking lot, and I left a false note for Dick and Sarr, saying we arrived there at 8:30am (when I left the note it was closer to 9am), and for them to move their butts! Dad and I waited around the corner for them, so we could all hike out to the car at once, and we had a good laugh… Dick said he’s going to frame the note.

After the four-nights of hiking food, which was actually amazingly good, we hit Burgers Restaurant, in Mammoth, CA. We all had ½ lb burgers, and three of us had chocolate shakes to go with our burgers. The food and shake were the objects of my desire for the last few days—but in hindsight, I have to say eating all that food wasn’t the smartest idea, because I think all of us were a bit sick after gorging ourselves. The freeze-dried meals we had on our hike were the best I’ve ever had. Our normal dinner consisted of chicken noodle or cream of chicken soup to start, an entrée of Beef Stew, Chicken Teriyaki, Beef Stroganoff and Lasagna, a vegetable dish of peas, green beans, corn and vegetable surprise (not our favorite), then we’d finish up with hot chocolate or apple cider. The portions were great too, not too big, not too small, just enough to fill you up. This was the ninth hike Sarr and Dick have done with Dad, and they have got dinner down pat (except for vegetable surprise!).

I drove Dad and I back to Tahoe after the burgers. I was driving because I lost a prop-bet during the hike. From our camp at 10,000ft, I guessed there would only be 201 of these awful stone-steps on our hike up to Donoghue Pass. Dad guessed 313 and there turned out to be 423… argh! I counted them all, and after we passed Dad’s 313 guess and still had quite a ways to go, we bet again—he picked 560 and I picked 500. I don’t think I actually won anything on that bet, nor did I win anything on our time bet from the same spot. I guessed 10:30am to the top and he guessed 10:45am—we got there at 10:15am. I need to work on my betting strategy.

Other than the meals and the prop-betting, another thing that made this hike so memorable was all the wildlife we saw along the way. In order from largest to smallest, we saw: horses, mules, a buck with a 9-point rack, a doe, a coyote, a golden hawk, a fawn, a red fox, a marmot, a different hawk, bunnies, dozens of different birds, plenty of squirrels and chipmonks, a caterpillar, big biting ants, horse flies and of course—mosquitoes. One of my best pictures yet is of a lady passing us on her horse, leading what looks like a few pack mules up the trail. The light through the trees hits the dust coming up, and it just looks pretty neat to me. I have a minute-long video of the buck, who was eating some grass across the river from us while we were on a siesta. The golden hawk was really neat, and was perched atop a dead tree at our 10,000ft camp, the doe and her fawn were seen at the very end of the hike near the ranger station. Dad got a picture of the fox. We saw a few different marmots, but the one I remember the most was the one we came across on our descent down the Yosemite-side of Donoghue Pass—it had just been bathing in the stream and its fur was all spiked up as it waddled to safety. The second hawk we saw was one of the coolest moments I’ve seen out in nature. We had just crossed a bridge and were entering a forest when we heard commotion up ahead. The hawk had dive-bombed a squirrel, and the squirrel dodged away at the last second and started climbing a tree. The hawk flew up after it, but the squirrel kept running around the diameter of the tree—and it could run fast enough to always be on the opposite side of the tree. The hawk was having a devil of a time trying to fly around the tree and get to the squirrel, and eventually gave up and perched itself on a branch of another tree, trying to spot the squirrel’s escape. The hawk was pissed that he missed that squirrel! I saw some bunnies in the grass just before Thousand Island Lake, but wasn’t able to get any pictures. Dad and I spent time bird-watching, but I wasn’t able to get any good shots. Shooting birds isn’t easy, especially when the terrain reminds you of Oregon Trail and you drift off, imagining a buffalo sliding into your field of vision, then quickly running back off-screen. It wouldn’t have mattered though, because I only could have dragged 200lbs back to the wagon.

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Tahoe: Your Days Are Numbered

Well, my last day of work is today. It should be a lot of fun, it is Wednesday, so I'm only working from 1pm to 5pm. I think a few of us are going out for drinks afterwards at the brewery, and I'm hankering for a beer sampler!

I did some packing yesterday, and packed up all my clothes that I won't be wearing in the next few days or on the hike. I'm getting happier and happier with my decision to leave in just over a week. The rest of my housemates have found a new place, and I would pretty much be SOL if I hadn't already arranged to move back to Seattle. They are party animals who will be living a 'balla' lifestyle--I am not.

My room is almost clean, after five months of stock-piling clothes and stuffing bils and paper in hidden crevices. I still have to vacuum, but I can save that for tomorrow.

Leaving Tahoe is going to be pretty sad, because it really does rival Seattle and Venice for the prettiest places I've ever lived or visited. It is serene up here. If not for the zillions of drunken tourists every weekend, and my friends and family in Seattle--I'd be hard-pressed to move away. Every day I go to work, I find myself staring at the mountains or the lake, trying to burn those images into my mind for those lazy, rainy weekends in Seattle.

The John Muir hike with my Dad begins on Friday, and it is such a fitting way to end my time here in Tahoe. I think I've finally gotten the time to do some self-realization in Tahoe, and it'll be great to be able to talk with my Dad about it along the hike.

When I get back to Seattle, or maybe on the drive back with my Dad, I'm going to start working on a 'Tahoe Highlight Reel' post, with some of my favorite times and pictures from my five months here. I've had a great time down here, and I think it was nearly perfect for me. If I had stayed longer, I'd feel like a bum for being so lazy in my mid-twenties, but since I'm leaving now, I get a chance to go back to school and work on the beginnings of a career in teaching--which is really what I've always wanted to do.

So... look forward to a big Tahoe recap post, as well as tons of pictures from my hike with Dad in about two weeks! Hope everyone has a great couple of weeks!

Live Poker, Sacramento Visitors and WoW with Waffles

After busting out of Kat's Donkament on Friday night, I decided to spend the rest of the night down at Harvey's playing poker. I'm a bit hazy on the details, but I was jonesing to play some O/8 again. I put my name on both the 3/6 and O/8 lists, and got called to O/8 first. I played in the same game last week, and went on a nice little run. The game is 4/8 limit with a half-kill for any pot where $60 gets pushed to at a person (one scoop over $60, or a split pot of $120 or more).

There are a bunch of older players who like O/8 because you can make money by just nut-peddling--and because there are usually two nut hands, there is more action than a 3/6 holdem game. Add in the fact that tourists who have no idea what they are doing steadily flow in throughout the night, and you've got yourself a pretty good chance at making money.

I don't remember (notice a trend?) any huge hands, but I finished the night up $75, 3 margaritas and 2 sierra nevadas. I am very far from a good player, and I kicked myself for two terribly played hands--where I won both, but didn't bet the river--which would have won me probably another $30 on the night. After my missed check-raises on the river, which all the rocks at the table took notice of, instead of kicking myself, I tried to use my dastardly check-raising image to my advantage. I thought by failing a few check-raises, I might be able to get a few free cards, because they'd be worried about me check-raising... but for the most part they just bet their hands when they had the low or high covered. I would have fared better just betting my hands as well.

I woke up Saturday with an unexpected hangover. I drank three bottles of water at the casino after playing poker. I watched a craps shooter throw dice the entire time I was drinking water, and I would have made a pretty penny if I entered the game--but I was happy and content with my $75 gain on the night--and didn't want to blow it on table games.

Barb, Roxie, Kristen and Conor eventually arrived at around 4pm. They were supposed to leave at 11am, but took their time, and ate in Placerville on the way up. We walked down to the beach and had a good time in the relatively chilly weather. We all hopped in the lake and tossed the disc for a bit before heading back up to the house. Conor and I played a 3-hole round of disc-golf on the way back to the house. We tied the first two holes, then on the last hole--hitting the stove on the porch, I sailed my drive way past where I wanted to go, and ended up going all the way around the house. Conor went the smart way, but I got lucky and hit the stove in 3, and on his 3rd shot he clanked the disc off the porch fence for the loss. He tried again and hit the stove, but no mulligans in folf! By losing, he had to buy my drink at dinner.

The five of us headed to Sam's Place for dinner, and they enjoyed it as much as everyone else I've taken there. Conor and I played two games of pool, and he won both. I sunk the 8 ball in the first game, and he won legitimately in the second game. He ended up paying for pool instead of my drink, because we got two pitchers of beer. I had been craving a french dip for weeks, and finally satisfied that thirst for bloody meat.

We headed to Harvey's after dinner, and Kristen, Conor and I played poker for a few hours while Barb and Roxie checked out the men in the casino. This weekend, both Friday and Saturday, Rascal Flats held a concert in the Harvey's parking lot, so there were a lot of cowboys and cowgirls in attendance. The ladies didn't mind the cowboys, and I sure as hell didn't mind the cowgirls! Cowboys aren't very good at poker.

Kristen isn't the best poker player in the world, but she had some shit luck on Saturday night. She'd flop the Q-hi flush and lose to a rivered Ace-high check-raised flush. She'd flop trips and lose to a turned straight, lost with pocket kings and queens--it was just a rough night for her. And it was also tough to watch, because with a few years of poker under my belt it was pretty easy to tell what hand Kristen had, and that her hand wasn't going to be good--but a fold wouldn't be easy.

I had a pretty rough night at the tables too, and although I didn't play perfectly, I played pretty well and lost $25. Even if I had played perfectly, I don't think I would have made more than $20 dollars on the night. Bad cards, and lots of situations where folding was pretty much my only option.

The bad cards didn't stop me from having fun! There was an elderly lady directly to my left with a pretty large stack of chips. Either she was on a rush, or she hit a jackpot hand. My hunch was right, and she eventually disclosed that she had hit quad Jacks earlier in the evening. The first five hands I was at the table, we both insta-folded our hands. After the fifth fold in a row, I said, "Ah, I see we play a very similar style!"

She chuckled, then I proposed a little side-bet with the 75-year old maiden. "Since we fold so much, why don't we make a game out of it? If you fold your and your two cards land and stay on the star above the 'Harrah's' logo, the other person gives the thrower a dollar." Surprisingly, she agreed, and we spend most of the night trying to line up our folds. We both got real close, but neither of us could land both cards on the star. Sometimes we'd land one, then the other would slide off, and sometimes we just missed completely. She got the closest, when both of her cards stuck to the felt on a lofty throw, but she was an inch away from the star.

The hand I was most proud of on Saturday night was a hand against the quad-jack lady on my left. She limped UTG, which brought many other limpers into the pot on my BB. I looked down to Qs8s and checked my option.

Flop came down Q,T,8, and I bet my two-pair. I got a few callers, and the turn was a brick. I bet again and the lady called as well as the SB. The river paired the ten, counterfeiting my two pair. The SB checked, I checked, and the lady bet out. She was a typical elderly lady, and bet her strong hands. I put her on A-Q, and after the SB folded, a lot of people would make a crying call, just to see her hand--but I was able to fold my top two pair with a crappy kicker. She flashed K-Q and I smiled. In a low-limit 3/6 game, those aren't the folds you usually want to make, but I was happy to save six dollars. Those were the type of hands I found myself in all night, and I was very happy to only leave down $25.

Conor was the big winner on the night, that lucky bastard. After poker, we found Roxie in the Keno lounge, just filling out cards but not betting--while getting free drinks. Nice. You go, Roxie! We joined her for free drinks, and Conor and I made a side-bet on a game of Keno. I felt so good about my picks, that I decided to go place a bet. Conor would not be one-upped, and joined in the fun. We had no idea what we were doing, and both lost $5. I got 3 of my 20 picks correct, and if I had only gotten 2, I would have won $10. Balls!

The five of us headed back to the house, and the party-poopers went to sleep early. We had a thirty-pack of Tecate, but only managed to drink 3 of them. For losing the keno bet, I had to chug a beer then do 25 situps, but somehow that bet changed to me chugging a beer while Conor did 25 situps--and we raced and made another bet, lol! I beat him handly, although I really suck at chugging beer. I forget what we bet, and I don't even think I made Conor pay up--weak! Barb and I played some Indian Poker, 3 card poker, and 5-card draw for drinks--and each of us basically chugged another beer. Then everyone zonked.

Sunday, we all woke up in the late morning and headed down to Zephyr Cove restaurant. The service is terrible, but the food is great. Service anywhere on a Sunday morning in Tahoe is pretty crappy, and I had good company, so I wasn't too miffed. I added a chocolate shake to my 'High Sierra' breakfast that included biscuits and gravy, two scrambled eggs, two pieces of bacon, two sausages, and hashbrowns. The chocolate shake was a perfect compliment at 11am, lol. I usually don't go that big for breakfast, but Kristen was paying, because I loaned her some money the night before at the casino. In hindsight, I should have just gotten the money back instead of having her pay for my breakfast, because I felt like I was on a freeroll and went nuts on breakfast.

After breakfast, we walked back to my house, chilled out on the porch for a bit, then decided to head over to Emerald Bay for some sight-seeing. Emerald Bay was packed, but we got a few pictures--it is the most gorgeous place on the lake.

We also stopped by the Angora Fire, which I haven't been to since racing out of there the day of. We drove up the road to Angora Lake, and once we got to the ridge, the site was pretty amazing. One side of the road was charred, the other side was lush, green forest. We got some photos, then headed down to Camp Richardson for a snack before they headed back to Sacramento.

I got home and fired up some WoW. Tyler and I had talked about what class would suit me best for a pve server--playing with Tyler, Mike and Guang if I actually intended to level up to 70. We sort of settled on a Druid, because of its versatility. I went to fire up a new character on their server, but found that the only alliance class to be a druid are night elfs, and I ain't playing no damn night elf! Taurens are the only horde class that can be a druid, and Taurens are much cooler, so I decided to remake my character on Waffle's server, and made a druid.

I played until about 10pm and was chatting it up with Waffles the whole time. That guy rocks the house, and if you even have an inkling of wanting to play WoW, or want to hang out with Waffles more... now is your chance! For the Horde!

Mt. Tallac Hike

There is nothing quite like an unexpected gift.

I woke up a little late today, but in no real rush. Wednesdays I usually go to work from 1pm to 5pm, so waking up at 10am instead of an hour earlier really didn't change much for me today. I was contemplating hiking up Mt. Tallac, but didn't have enough time before work. I thought about hopping on WoW for a minute, but I knew that minute would quickly turn into two hours, and I'd be on my way to work--grumbling about a wasted morning.

I decided to head to the Mt. Tallac trail head, with the intent of hiking a few miles in to either Crystal or Cathedral lakes. I hiked about a mile in and decided to take a quick breather, and check my phone to see how much time I had before work. I was hoping I could make it to the lakes and back, but it was going to be close.

I grabbed my phone out of my backpack and turned it on. I wasn't really thinking about getting service, I was just interested in checking the time--but the phone came alive with 4 out of 5 bars, and quickly chimed that I had a voicemail message. I checked my voicemail, and it turned out to have two messages. I was expecting a call from Kristen about her and Conor's plans to come up this weekend, but I wasn't sure who the other call was.

It was Flo, from work. No doctors were coming in today, so if I didn't want to work, I didn't have to... Hallelujah! I got this big grin on my face, because I knew I could now take it slow, and also make it to the peak! The other call was from Kristen, and it turns out her, Conor, Barb and Roxie will all be carpooling up on Saturday--so that was more good news!

The first few miles to the lake were nice and shaded, and not too steep. There were a couple areas that had burned along the trail, apparently from ash falling in the Angora Fire at the beginning of July. A couple was swimming in Cathedral Lake when I arrived, so I decided to save my swim for the way back. The trail got a lot rougher past the lakes. There was hardly any shade (I didn't bring sun screen, just a big, floppy hat), and it was a steep, gravel-filled trail.

I zoomed past a few people hiking their way up (from the Bay area--not acclimatized to the 6-9k elevation of the hike), then I found a group of about six 12-15 year old girls, along with their two chaperones. Apparently they were waiting for one of the couples I passed, who were also chapperones. I passed the group, and then about two minutes later I hear voices behind me. Two of the girls were busting it up the trail behind me, and eventually passed me about ten minutes later.

I could hardly believe it. I mean, I'm not in shape or anything, but I am an athletic, 25-year-old male, with a very long stride. These two girls passed me like I was an 80-year-old man with a cane! Nothing like getting passed by girls half your age to make you feel old!

Back to the trail itself... if I hadn't already read up on it, and known that the first little peak you come to isn't the actual peak--I would have been very miffed. You climb this really tough section and make it to the top of what you can see from the bottom--only to find that you are on a wind-ripped plateau, with another two miles of trail ahead of you. The plateau had some amazing wild flowers though, so I wasn't too bummed--along with an amazing view. A hike up to there would be plenty good enough for me usually, but I needed to get a good pre-John Muir hike in, and I wanted to see what all the hype about "best view in Tahoe" was about.

I passed a "Mt. Tallac this way" marker, and started to get giddy. The two girls were probably already up at the peak, but the rest of the gaggle were well behind me, so at least I wasn't completely shamed on this trip.

Made it to the peak at right around 1:30pm, which made for a 2.5 hour hike up the mountain. Granted, I didn't stop too often, or lolly-gag, but that is a pretty good time for a 3200ft elevation gain, 5-mile hike. The view from the top was simply amazing. Towards Lake Tahoe, you could see nearly the entire lake, easily the best view I've seen of the lake. I did a 360 video from the tippy-top of the peak, and I could literally see a dozen different tiny lakes in the mountain range, which I had no idea existed. It was a very cool spot to be on a Wednesday afternoon :)

Two other ladies were up at the peak, and they had quite a chipmunk audience. There was one fat chipmunk, who was the most aggressive, and he would chase away the skinny chipmunks. The two ladies kept trying to get the skinny ones food, but the bully would get the morsel every time. Damn bullies.

It probably only took an hour and a half of hiking to get back down, but I stopped for 30 minutes at Cathedral Lake for a swim and to give my water-filter a test run before the John Muir hike.

I got back into town and went directly to the cheap Mexican place and ordered a burrito. I had water on the trip, but no food--so I was huuungry!

The hike was great--water filter worked like a charm, and my boots were near-perfect. The only gripe I have is that the laces kept getting caught in the opposite boot, which had me face-planting every hour or so. I'll have to find out a better way to get those damn things out of the way! My feet are a bit sore, but that is to be expected after my first 10-mile hike in years. Hopefully this hike will build up a bit of toughness in my feet, so the soreness doesn't come around for the big hike next week!

Pictures: (pretty much in order from what I described above)

Fallen Leaf Lake and Lake Tahoe


Burn-victim shrubs


Cathedral Lake


A higher shot of Fallen Leaf Lake and Lake Tahoe


Roughest Section


Purple? pretty wild flowers


Getting Close!


Made it!


On Top of the World!

Tuesday Update

Haven't had too much to post about recently, but that won't stop me from posting! (You can learn from this, Brandon)

My time in Tahoe is coming to an end, so I've been trying to think of all the things I want to do in my last week here. Parasailing, hiking up Mt. Tallac (9,000ft mountain--3k elevation gain), swimming lots, basketball at Kahle, hitting the casinos, playing with Sacramento friends. Lots to do in my next week, but how have I spent the last few days? Playing WoW. Damnit!

The game is just way too addicting. Especially after I found my old pvp rogue. I'm an orc, and I love the Horde--mostly because I get to sneak around and stab the goodie-goodie alliance in their backs. I love to stalk. I've been watching Ichi from the porch, as he stalks all the little rodents in the forest. He would make a very good Orc rogue.

I've also been playing around with Fraps a bit, and hopefully I'll get a little WoW video up sooner or later, with some of my stupid amazing feats of dumbness skill.

Now, to give myself some credit, I did accomplish all most, of the things I put on my to do list this weekend. I changed the oil in my motorcycle (which reminds me, I need to change the oil in the Explorer before the hiking trip/seattle trek), I wrote up some of the Pirates v. Ninjas finale, and I registered and paid for my two classes this fall up in Seattle.

But, the majority of my time was spent playing WoW, and I had a nice, relaxing weekend. I took a few breathers to walk around in my hiking boots, attempting to break them in. I've used them before, but not in a while, and I want to make sure they don't rub me wrong before our 30 mile hike next week.

This weekend should be a lot of fun--some Sacramento peeps are coming up for their last chance to visit me in Tahoe. Beach and casino fun will be had, and I'm sure we'll toss the disc a bit too. My last day of work is a week from tomorrow, and then I believe we start on our hike Friday down in Mammoth, CA. I'm really excited for the hike--it is a four-night escapade through the Sierras. Truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me, because I'll be moving back to the Northwest for the foreseeable future. Expect lots of pictures.

I should have the Pirates v. Ninjas finale ready for public viewing by the end of this week. I'm working full-time this week, so I didn't have as much writing time as I hoped to have, hence the delay.

~Poker Karmic Bliss~

When I got off work today, I played with the idea of heading into town and playing poker at the casinos one last time before I move up to Seattle. I was out on the porch, nursing a drink, and planning out my last weekend alone in Tahoe. Next weekend, I'll be having some company to have a little "last-chance to see Chris in Tahoe" party--so I'll most likely be in entertain-mode instead of do-stuff mode.

The list weekend list includes changing the oil in both vehicles, cleaning up my room, doing a trial run of packing up the Explorer (to make sure everything still fits!), and getting in a practice hike on Sunday if I get all the other things are finished. After I finished the list, it was just before 6pm PST, and I decided that going inside and playing in Kat's donkament at Full Tilt would be more fun than going to the casinos so early. I headed inside, but for some reason couldn't log on to the Full Tilt server. I started dinner, and by the time I was finished, I was able to log on--but Kat's tourney had already begun. Bummer. I railed for a few minutes, ate dinner, then hopped on WoW for about 30 minutes before riding my bike to the casinos.

I, of course, forgot that tonight is none-other than Fergy-Fergalicious's night in Tahoe. A HUGE concert in the parking lot of Harvey's, which hampered my sneaky back-entry into the poker casino of choice in South Lake Tahoe. It took me 20 minutes to get around the traffic and get into the parking garage. Luckily I was able to park with the other motorcycles, because I don't think there were any car spots left in the entire garage.

Made my way to the poker room, and decided to just get cash at the casino. The $4.50 surcharge is pretty rough, but I'll need money for next weekend to gamble, and I didn't really want to buy two different sticks of gum at Safeway separately and get $50 cash-back both times. And besides, the last time I got cash at the casino, I hit a Royal Flush ;)

I asked to be seated at a 3/6 table, then I saw what looked to be an interest list for 4/8 half-kill Omaha Eight or Better--so I put my name on for that too. It turned out the Omaha game was in full swing already, and I was about 7th on the wait-list, so I got a chance to play some 3/6 limit.

I started at a fresh table, with brand-new poker chips. I don't think I've ever played with brand-new poker chips at a casino before. They actually felt quite weird. They felt more like plasticy home-game chips because the edges were all hard and sharp, and hadn't been broken in like the smooth $5 chips still in play. I won the button, and decided to keep track of how many orbits I played. When the button came back to me I started making a little stack of chips representing the number of orbits. It was also a good way to check cocktail waitress speed--which was more than fast enough for me tonight. It was actually quite close to once an orbit.

I ended up playing 5 complete orbits, and I didn't get to tip the dealer a single time. I didn't win a hand, and I think I only got to see a river once, which didn't complete my flush, and I folded. It was brutal. I folded 50 straight hands. I folded the winner once (a pair of 10's on an ace-high board to a preflop raiser's c-bet, who ended up showing 8's). I think the hand that occurred the most for me was Jack-two off-suit, again, a brutal string of cards, yet very easy decisions to make.

After whittling my $100 stack to about $20, I finally won a hand when the table got short-handed and I flopped top pair-second kicker with KQo. That hand more than doubled me up, with two ladies chasing their draws to the river and folding. A few hands after my big one win in over 50 hands, I got called for the O-8 game, and decided I had better change games for my sanity. At one point in the 3/6 game I told the guy to my left that I was going to play every hand until I got to tip the dealer. I played four to the flop or turn, and folded my diddly-squat to calling stations that weren't going to fold their hands if God himself promised he had the nuts.

The excruciating two hours left me with I think $37 when I sat down at the 4/8 game, so I stuck a Benji underneath my chips, and played tight. I brought the median age down from about 75 to about 70. The table was filled with old, retired men and women. I was more scared of the super-tight women than I was of the men. And of course, there was a token 'pretend-to-be-loose' old Asian guy directly to my right, pretty much stacking chips from the entire table who would fold anything but the nut low or high by the turn to this guy's aggression.

My luck was much better at the O-8 table. I scooped one big pot, then got halves of a couple large semi-kill pots, to get me back to even--and then some. I was dodging outs like crazy, flopping the nut straight and having it hold up with two flush-draws on the turn and low draws to boot. I started slowing down my steam-rolling of the table, and decided it was time to head home about an hour into my O-8 session--around 1am. I knew I had a lot to do tomorrow, so I called it quits, and was shocked to cash out up $60--from being down to only $20 at one point. That is a $140 swing, almost all from an hour of Omaha 8 or Better!

It sure does feel better to lose money, then win it back (and then some!). As opposed to winning money, then losing it back!

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.

v







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!

777 - Jackpot!

7/7/07--what a day!

Woke up around 10:30am after playing Starcraft a bit too much the night before. I got in a round of FIFA, which was my previous post. DTran was originally planning on arriving in Tahoe around noon and playing basketball with me at Kahle for a few hours, then heading down to the casinos to play poker. He ended up getting a late start out of the Bay, so he didn't show up until almost 4pm.

I decided to go hit Kahle anyway, and I luckily found a spot with two wily veterans: half-court shooting Dave, and his partner in crime, Mike. Our fourth teammate was a scrappy young guy who owned the boards. We were potent. Dave, Mike and I were on fire from 3-point range--and when you have 3 players making over 50% of their 3-pointers, and an awesome rebounder, we pretty much hit a 3-pointer every time down the court. We won six games in a row before finally falling to another pretty stacked team of youngsters. For not playing basketball the last month, I was glad to find my shot still intact.

Basketball ended around 3pm, so I went home to shower, then headed down to Harvey's to meet up with DTran. They hit some bad traffic, apparently a burning car on the roadway (which is super-dangerous in the forest-fire prone Tahoe National Forest). I got to the casino before them, and still wasn't sure which game I wanted to play. I'd been debating between $2/$3 No Limit, and $3/$6 Limit. I have only played in the $2/$3 NL game once since moving to Tahoe, and I lost $200 in about 15 minutes, before eventually winning it all back over the next hour or two. For the most part, NL is a lot more fun and challenging to play--but I finally decided that if I played the $2/$3 NL game, I'd be playing with "scared money," which is no way to play no limit.

I got seated right away at $3/$6 Limit, and after watching a few hands, I was very glad with my decision to play Limit instead of No Limit. The table was a very friendly table, and the entire first orbit at the table, I don't think I saw a single pre-flop raise. Good table to be at! The table banter was also extremely light-hearted and funny. Players took their bad beats in stride, and poker karma was in full force. If someone took a few beats in a row, he'd get a big pot within the next orbit.

The table dynamic was almost perfect, and I'm glad I am finally able to recognize when I'm at a good table or when I should get up and find another. The table had four or five old, retired guys who played very tight. One old Asian guy who was willing to mix it up, but for the most part played tight. Two late-20's Filipino guys sat down at the table, and for the three hours I was at the table, it was pretty much the two Filipino guys making fun of the old guys (or each other), then the old guys firing right back at the young guys. I was in the middle of it all, jawing back and forth at everyone--but all in good humor, and there were lots of laughs.

About 30 minutes into the session, DTran arrived and he brought two friends, Jeremy and Hy-son (like Tyson with an H). The three of them all work at Google on the Gmail team. Jeremy is on a six-month work visa slash internship with Google, and he is originally from Paris, France. Hy-son is from Vietnam, and I didn't quite catch if he is on an internship, or if he is working permanent at Google. Needless to say, they had money to gamble with! I don't think I've ever really met any French people before, but Jeremy was pretty cool. Nice guy, funny, and had a a funny french accent to go with his humor. I resisted doing the annoying French laugh in front of him (hau hau hau), but it was difficult... very difficult.

The three of them took a while to get seated, and while they were waiting, I get really my only memorable hand from the evening:

Get dealt KcQd in the BB. Five limpers to me, and I check my option.

Flop comes AdJdTd. Flop the straight, and have a draw to the 2nd highest flush.

SB checks, I lead out for $3, and one of the two Filipino's directly behind me raises to $6. Rut Roh, he either probably has the Kd, or a made flush, or possibly a set is what I'm thinking. I don't really see him raising here with anything less. I'm not really sure what the two guys were thinking who cold-called the $6 bet to my right, but I decided to call as well, with all the money in the pot--and hoping for another diamond.

Turn comes 6h. SB and I check to the re-raiser, who bets out $6. One caller, SB folds, and I call, hoping for that last diamond. As the dealer burns the final card before the river, I think to myself:

"Diamond, Diamond, Diamond... man, I sure hope that guy doesn't have the Kd if another diamond hits... how cool would it be if the river is the Kd??? Royal Flush!"

Then...

BAM!!! King of Diamonds!!!

I lead out for $6, guy behind me re-raises. 3rd guy reluctantly folds, and I let off the other guy easy by just calling (I didn't want to be THAT much of a dick). I show the Qd and rake in a pretty big pot. Everyone starts hooting and hollering, and I got a jackpot worth $529 for hitting the Royal flush! Tipped the dealer nicely, and thought about swimming in the sea of red chips in front of me :)

7/7/07 the luckiest day ever? Royal flush jackpot says yes! That is the first Royal I've ever had, and after it happened, all I could think is how glad it didn't happen at the penny/two-penny tables on Pokerstars, where all I'd win is the $2 pot, and have no jackpot :)

I made a conscious effort to not loosen up with the $600 in front of me at a $3/$6 table, and I folded like a madman! I had a blast at the table chatting it up with all the old guys, who had plenty of stories to tell, and couldn't wait for someone to listen. I downed 4 Sierra Nevadas, and just had an all-around blast.

I checked in on DTran and friends periodically, and tried to make a "whoever makes the most money wins" bet with DTran, but he saw my Royal flush already. Damn! David was doing pretty well, and had a healthy $150 or so in front of him after buying in for $100.

Jeremy, on the other hand, wasn't doing so hot. His big hands weren't holding up, and he'd only win the blinds with Aces. His table eventually broke, and he ended up sitting directly to my left for about 20 minutes before he busted out and opted not to rebuy with his shitty luck. His bustout hand happened when he only had $5 left, and found As3s. He ended up flopping the nut flush, but an opponent found quads on the turn. Unlucky, but also very lucky that he didn't have anymore money to lose on the hand!

Hy-son apparently flopped a straight-flush on his table, for a $250 jackpot. He got up and left quickly thereafter, happy to win money his first time at a casino.

We finished up playing at about 6:30pm, and were ready for some dinner. David was last to get up from his table, so we bet on how much he won. I didn't get a very good look at his stack, but Jeremy said $40, and I went with $30. Hy-son picked $35. We all put a dollar on it, and Jeremy finally won something, when DTran came back and announced $47.

We headed to Sam's Place, and I chowed down a monster Calzone, and washed it down with a very large Hefeweizen. J had a burger, and DTran and Hy-son couldn't finish their monster calzones. Jeremy taunted David and said it was just three more bites. David had probably 1/3rd of his calzone left, and he bet Jeremy $5 that J couldn't eat it in 3 bites. He took three HUGE bites, and just barely made it. It took him a good 5 minutes to finally chew and swallow all of that last bite, and I don't think anyone else at the table could have done it.

Hy-son and I paid for Jeremy's meal, because we won the big jackpots, and he had shit-luck on the night (besides prop-bets!). After Sam's place, we headed to my place, then walked down to the beach. It was just after 8:30pm when we went down to the beach, and it was starting to get dark. That didn't stop us from bringing a disc and a football though, and we ended up playing 2v2 football on the sandy beach.

Me and Jeremy vs. DTran and Hy-son. The teams were made at Sam's place, when Jeremy had finished his burger and we agreed that the next person to finish their meal was on J's team for games tonight. First play from scrimmage, J tosses up a duck, DTran intercepts it and returns it for a Touchdown. Balls!

0-1, playing to 3. Next possession, we miss four passes in a row, and turn the ball over. I make them start from their goal line instead of ours (wily!), and I end up intercepting Hy-son and returning it for the equalizer.

1-1. Next possession, DTran lobs a nice pass to Hy-son for the score.

1-2. Jeremy and I work the ball down the field, and get a nice little slant to me for the score.

2-2. They start with the ball, and I suggest losers buy drinks for the drinking games tonight. David quickly agrees, because they have the ball. By this point, it was almost completely dark, and it was getting hard to see the ball--so I honestly didn't think they'd complete a pass.

Then comes the greatest play of sand-football ever at Zephyr Cove.

David is the QB, and sticks the ball out at the line of scrimmage and shouts, "Blue! 42! Green! 16! Hut...Hut... HIKE!"

And as soon as he says HIKE I snatch the ball from his out-stretched hand and run it in for the score!!!!!! We Win!!!!!

After a bit of rubbing it in, we head to Safeway and get a 12-pack of Sam Adams, 4-pack of Guinness for DTran and I, and a 6-pack of Fat Tire. We didn't really plan on drinking heavily, but I wanted to show them beer pong, and perhaps a drinking game or two.

We ended up playing beer pong with bottled Sam Adams Light. It was much better than our usual Natty-Ice at the house. Jeremy and I rocked the house against DTran and Hy-son. I was on fire, and on our first shot, Jeremy sunk his, and I bounced mine into the middle cup for a quick 3 drinks for DTran and Hyson. We got the balls back to shoot again because we both made em'. J missed his, but I sank mine for a 4-0 lead.

DTran and Hy-son missed their first six or so shots, and I ended up sinking my first 5. At one point in the game, we had them down to two cups, and we had all of ours still. Can you say, "Rout?!" By the end of the game, they ended up only hitting one of our cups, but both Jeremy and I air-balled shots on the single cup, so we had to each drink a cup for the air-ball. So technically, the DTran/Hyson combo had to drink 17 of the 20 cups--but I helped them out by drinking 3 of their 17.

Jeremy and I then lost to Hy-son and Cody, when Hyson caught fire at the end. He first sunk it in the same cup Cody sunk his in, to send us down from four cups to one--then he made his first shot at the solo cup, to ice the game. Losing at beer-pong gets me wasted fairly quickly, so shortly thereafter I hit the hay.

We woke up this morning around 10:30am, and walked down to the Zephyr Cove Resort, where half of the house used to work. I actually don't think anyone still works in the restaurant anymore, but at one point Jen, George and Cody all worked there. Jen's in Shasta now, George moved to work the jetski rentals, and Cody works at Push Fitness. The food was damn good, and David "I'm rich, bitch!" Tran picked up the bill, cause he's like that.

We headed down to the beach, and were just planning on checking out the scenery and tossing the frisbee and football--but we ended up getting hot and all jumped in the lake. It felt great after the burning sand on the feet! We got lots of tossing in, and played fliers up for a while. Can't wait to get back to Seattle and have people to toss with more often.

All in all, great weekend, and 7/7/07 delivered in a big way :)

Not sure what I'm going to do this afternoon, it is a toss-up between frisbee in Truckee, and chilling at the house for the afternoon. Leaning towards frisbee, but I'll give Lis a call and see if her and friends will be playing.

Pirates v. Ninjas, Weekend and Forest Fire Updates

Well, lets start with the most recent and work backwards... haven't done that in a while, why not mix it up?

I just finished writing the intro to my new blog idea at: MHG-RPG

I decided to go with Tyler's idea of Pirates v. Ninjas, because it sounds fun. Both to write and for others to participate in. So if you've ever wanted to be a ninja or a pirate, you'd be doing yourself a dis-service by not checking out my new creative outlet and playing along! If you've never thought of being a ninja or a pirate, QUIT LYING!! If you didn't see my post a week or two ago about it, it is pretty much going to be a story that I write in the next two months, involving pirates and ninjas. You can have a character in the story, and influence what happens by commenting on the blog after every weekly installment.

Because this is my first shot at it, and I want a definite ending, this first game is going to have plenty of violence. The FINAL CHAPTER will be around the middle of August, and it will end with one character left alive, will that character be yours? Will it be a ninja? A pirate? Or will it be the not-so-innocent vixen bartender who spends most of her time "below deck?" Ho Ho! Come play!

You've got a week or two before the story starts up, so head on over there and post a comment. If you're like me, and get excited about things, then forget about them a few weeks later--no worries! I'll just kill your character sooner than later! :D

In journaling news, today was a very memorable day. The sky has been covered in smoke all day. It is almost like a dense fog has covered the entire Tahoe basin area. The fire is still under 10% controlled, and all the smoke has grounded any aerial assault on the blaze. The winds were picking up when I left work, which is never good when it comes to forest fires.





Allison wasn't at work today. Her house burned down. In a weird and twisted way, it is actually a very good thing for her. She's the one going through the messy divorce, and her husband has been trying to take her name off the title, and sell it out from under her. Now she gets half (or more?) of the insurance money. Her husband will probably be a handful to deal with, but at least she'll finally get the money she deserves. Her kids lost everything they owned, because they were still living with their dad for the most part, but all of her stuff is in the new place she is living.

My boss Chris, and one of the doctor's stayed the night at the Fracture clinic Sunday night, because they had been evacuated from their homes. Apparently they had a little bbq and sat by the fireplace. Not a bad place to be cooped up... but if their homes get caught in the blaze too, I feel very sorry for them. Getting through it as a single mom with two teenagers is tough enough for Allison, but taking a little kid away from his home and living out of a hotel or a friend's house for who knows how long, would be incredibly difficult on both Chris and the doctor's families.

Amidst all of the craziness today at work, we also had Chris's cat and the Dr.'s animals with us in the clinic, which was one of the few uplifting moments of the day. The work day was one I'll not forget anytime soon. More than half of the patients canceled, which is to be expected on a day where a fire is raging out of control just miles from the clinic. I never really put much thought into not going to work today though. And I think working at a medical clinic had a lot to do with that. If I had my insurance Admin. Assistant job in Portland and there was a fire downtown, I'd be sleeping in! But knowing that me being there helped patients get seen quicker, influenced me heavily in trying to get to work in time today.

I had to detour around a road block and take a few back roads, but I made it, and was surprised at how many people made it in to work. Allison was being a mom to her two kids, and stayed at a friend's house. Cory was busy spraying his home and neighboring homes with water all day, so he wasn't in. Trish wasn't aloud to travel into the city from where she lives in the boonies, so she wasn't in. Debbie was on fire watch, so she couldn't make it. We had a skeleton crew, but I'm still impressed with how many of us showed up for work. I feel a bit bad about leaving for Seattle tomorrow, knowing what Allison will be going through, but I hear she is coming to work tomorrow, and hopefully she'll be able to press through the day.

Yesterday night, after coming home from taking pictures of the fire, Cody arrived home and said, "Chris, I've got a present for you." Knowing Cody, I thought he meant Ichi had left another corpse out front, and I best be cleaning it up soon. Then I remembered Gina saying Cody was going to go get a puppy. A German-Sheppard puppy. Just like in those Bounty commercials, this dog is freaking cute:





Her name is Bella, and right now she is barking like a squeak-toy at Cody, who is in the shower. We played a bit, and Ichi swatted at her for getting a little too close. Ichi isn't pleased with the addition to the house, but he was even less pleased when I got home today and found Matt's pit bull licking me in the crotch. If Ichi and puppies don't mix, Ichi and overly-aggressive dogs definitely don't mix!

Before the fire was a lot of fun. Only two of us jumped into the lake, because it was freezing up there with those 35mph winds. But we hiked out to a rock on the far side of the lake, and the eight of us had a good time soaking up some rays, drinking PBR, and laughing a lot. We stopped beforehand for breakfast at The Red Hut, and I'll definitely be going back there before I leave Tahoe. Cheap and yummy.



I rode up to Tahoe from Davis yesterday morning, and was having a hard time staying alert and focused on the road, so I stopped in Placerville for a quick break. I stopped at a little bagel place, to find a very attractive girl behind the counter who gave me a healthy portion of whipped cream on my hot chocolate. We talked a bit, and it turned out that I wasn't the only one in the bagel shop hungover!

The night before was a good time. We ended at Conor and Kristen's house, with Kristen whooping us at Mario Party. It was pretty close, but she won, the computer got second, I got third, and Conor finished dead last. The cpu stole one of my stars on a battle-game on the 2nd to last turn, *@#$!

Before that, we hit the pool party, and had a fun time playing bouncy-ball volleyball in the pool, followed by a 10-person flippy-cup race. Flippy-cup did me in, but it wasn't the primary doer-inner. The primary doer-inner would have to be beer-frisbee, which I played a few points of while the semi-finals were going on at the frisbee tournament. You touch the disc, you drink. Your team drops the disc, social! You D the disc, but spill your beer? No D, and you drink! Needless to say, we got hammered pretty quickly. We then played fantasy-ultimate from the sidelines during the Finals game, which made it 100x more fun.

I had no idea Conor's team won 13-4, because we were having so much fun picking players each point and rooting for them to make a D (1point), throw a score (1point), catch a score (1point), or for other people to make a turnover (-1point). We created a pretty nice ruckus, from what I can remember. Kristen ended up winning, and ran out onto the field a few times to give her players hi-fives or kisses (Conor) for getting her fantasy points. Silly Kristen.

Before the Finals game, but after beer-frisbee, I swapped massages with my teammate Jen. That hit the spot. We exchanged numbers, and she might be joining a few of us in Grass Valley for the Ani concert and rafting. She's also a rock-climber, and might be heading up to tahoe to teach me a thing or two about climbing. She also started her first day of her Teaching Credential program today--eerie similarities!

The actual frisbee play was a lot of fun, we lost our first two games by 1 point and 2 points, respectively; then won our third game by 2 points. I don't think either team was up by more than 3 points in any of the games we played. Fun times. We threw a crazy defense against Jack's team in the first game, one I sort of invented on the fly.

They only had two handlers: Jack and Kendra, but the two of them could tear up our zone. So we played a zone with one chase. 3 people in the cup, 2 wings, 1 deep, and 1 person to just play man-to-man defense on Jack. It worked tremendously well, and we ran off 4 points in a row to take the lead in the second half, before eventually losing 11-10 on "universe point" where Ed made an amazing juke cut, but unfortunately I was the one he juked, and I was the one throwing the disc to him--doh!

Conor and I had a bet going--he was playing with Kristina, and I was playing on Kristen's team--so we bet which couple would make more assists together. Assists as in Kristen throwing it to me for a score, or vice versa. Hammer or other upside-down throws counted as 2 points. Kristen and I ended up connecting twice on the day, but one was a hammer from yours truly, so we ended up winning the bet. What did we bet? Conor had to be my beer bitch for the rest of the night! Unfortunately, I forgot to take advantage of it at least five times, but finally got a good opportunity during our game of flippy-cup.

The night before the frisbee tourney, I rode down to Davis after getting off a bit early from work. I did a bit of lane-splitting once I got into Sacramento, and zoomed through the parking-lot of cars. I love my motorcycle! We chatted it up a bit--Conor and Kristen had just gotten back from Vegas in the morning--then we went out for pizza at Woodstock's. They didn't have pitchers of beer, but they did have litres! Holy Jesus those things are fun to drink! We had a half-pepperoni and sausage, half Kristen-pizza. Her pizza is sun-dried tomatoes, feta, and pineapple on pesto-sauce. It was amazing. So was the meat side, mmm, best of both worlds, mmm. We finished up at the pizza joint with $2 worth of Family Guy Pinball. Kristen whooped us, and it turns out Conor is a pretty big pinball fan, and knew of "Theater Magic" the game Stacey and I pumped a lot of money into at Ground Kontrol, up in Portland.

After Woodstock's, we played a little 5-man poker tourney over at Conor and Kristen's friends Jon and Liz's house. I started off hot, winning the first few hands and showing my big bluffs, but my supreme strategy of portraying loose-maniac then hitting them with my monsters didn't work. I got riverred twice, and next thing I knew I was playing Mario Golf against Conor for pushups. I lost, and did my 25 pushups like they were nothing *flex*.

We headed back to Conor and Kristen's place, and Kristen was ready for bed, so Conor and I played a 20-round game of Mario-Party for 10-situps every mini-game. I'm pretty sure I came out ahead. Of course, we were drinking too, and that drinking/situp combo is devastating... devastating I tell you.

We also had a big bet going on winning the game, but we both ended up getting beat by the computer. If one of us had one, the other would have had to streak at the pool party the next night. Thank god for the computer.

"Here Comes Nevada..."

Amazing weekend, but that will be covered in a different post.

"Here Comes Nevada" is what Matt said when we got home from our hike to Angora Lake today. He was referring to the line of fire trucks, sirens blaring, traveling south on Hwy 50 directly behind our house. They were coming from Carson City and heading to where we just came from.

Tahoe Daily Tribune

The Tahoe Tribune will most likely be updated throughout the night. As of 9:11pm, the first is raging out of control, has destroyed 59 homes, and is threatening one of two high schools in the area. We left the trail head at about 2:30pm, apparently 20 minutes after the initial call to the fire department. We drove out along a ridge between Fallen Leaf Lake and literally a valley of fire.

*Update*
As of 10:18pm, 165 homes and structures have been destroyed. The worst fire in 50 years. And it has spread to 750 acres. Still Uncontrolled, and moving closer to South Lake Tahoe. Not Good. I hope the cold mountain night slows the fire down. The ridge we drove out on has been engulfed by the fire.
*End Update*

Easily the largest fire I've ever seen up close, it is now over 500 acres, mostly due to the bone-dry conditions and 35mph winds blowing it up hillsides. Hillsides like the one leading up to the ridge we were racing away on. Kristara drove, while Jen and I took turns snapping photos and videos, depending on which side of the car the fire was on:

(if you aren't a fan of foul language, turn the sound off for the first video)























Some of the images we either couldn't, or failed to capture on my camera. People racing up the trail to alert their loved ones, and the look on a few of the kids' faces, being forced to end their vacations early (this is the place with the week-long cabin rentals, booked a year in advance). We could see flames through the forest, but besides the one amazing video, all of the pictures we took just looked like blurry forest. We saw spotter planes flying overhead, and I thanked my stars we got out of there when we did, because with those 35mph winds, water or fire retardant could have easily been blown down onto us on the ridge.

The roads were orange in places. I might have captured this in one of the pictures above, the one with the white car turning. Ash was falling from the sky from the trail head all the way back to our house--25 miles. The ash was brittle to the touch, and would break apart just like I'd expect fireplace ash to, but the ash falling from the sky today was metallic. Each piece clinked down on the ground, and when I was walking back from taking a few pictures after arriving safely at home, hearing the ash fall to the ground reminded me of a wind chime. I still don't understand how the ash can clink to the ground, and roll around clinking in the wind, yet be brittle to the touch.

Here is the image comparison that gets me:

Last week:



Today:

World Party / The Record Falls

After I churned out my last post, I was all ready for bed... then Jen popped her head into my room and said:

J: "Beer Pong tonight, you playin'?"
C: "Nah, I've got to work tomorrow at 8am."
J: "Well, I'm working at 7am, and I'm playing."
C: "Bitchnuts, well then I guess I have to play."

I decided that last night George and I would break our current record of 4 games in a row. We ended up winning 5 games in a row before we let other people play. We started off strong, but hit a wall after winning the 4th and 5th games by one cup. Our record streak would probably be around 8 games, because all of the newbies who hadn't played before were up next. George and I didn't want our record tainted for lack of good competition, so we stopped at five.

The highlight of the night would have to be the third game of the night. On our first shots, George and I both sunk our shots in the middle cup of Kristara and Matt's 10 cups. The house-rule we have is that if you both sink your shots in the same cup, they have to drink every cup touching it. The cups are setup in a bowling-pin pattern, so us sinking it in their middle cup meant they had to drink seven cups. 7 cups! In one turn! The only cups left were the 1, 7 and 10 pins. We also got the balls back, because we both sunk our shots, and instead of re-racking, we decided to play it out with the cups scattered wide. I whiffed, and George sunk his shot to make it 10-2 after our first round of shots. We ended the game by both sinking our shots, which meant no rebuttal for them. George and I each only had one cup that round, Matt and Kristara had to drink 18 cups. I think that might be a house record too.

The party last night was also an international affair! We had people from Argentina, Brazil, Australia, and I think Hungary. The ladies were smoking hot, and all of the guys were mellow and cool--not an angry drunk in the building. The world rules.

Hopefully Brandon can get up here after the Series and give us a challenge. Yes, those are fighting words.

Angora Lake and Echo Peak

Today I got in my first real hike. Mostly in preparation for both the overnight I'm doing this week, and the 4-day hike with my Dad in August. But also, because it was a gorgeous day and I would much rather spend it outside and in nature than cooped up in a coffee shop writing my screenplay.

I woke up around 10am this morning. Rolled out of bed, ate a chocolate muffin and packed up a few things for my hiking trip. I'm all out of bread, so I decided to stop at the store and grab some fruit for my trip. The only fruit that looked good were the plums and cherries, so I picked up a couple plums and a bag of cherries.

After groceries and filling up on gas, I rode over to Fallen Leaf lake. Instead of hugging the lake, I took the rode up towards Angora Lake, which is where Stacey and I hiked a few years back. It is a short mile-long walk up to Lower Angora Lake, then another 1000ft or so to the larger Angora Lake. The place is pretty unique, because it is a hike-in lodging destination. So people rent out these cabins along the two lakes for a week at a time, and get to experience nature, but they also get showers and nice beds. I prefer to just tent-camp and go without a shower for a few days, but I know some people who just won't camp unless there is a shower around--so it is a nice way to get those people outside. They are booked through Summer 2008.

Here is a picture of the first lake, Lower Angora Lake. The cabins aren't too imposing, which is nice. They probably only line 1/10th of the lake at most:



Lower Angora Lake is a pretty small lake, and although there were a few kayaks around, nobody was swimming in the lake. I was burning up wearing the big, sun-blocking hat Ellen got me, a long-sleeve shirt, and jeans (from the motorcycle ride over). There was a nice, shady tree along the trail by the lower lake, so I took off my jeans, but decided to keep the long-sleeve shirt on for sun protection.

Made my way up to Angora Lake, and I couldn't help but feel a little snobbish in my ways. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I think of "camping" or "hiking" as a trek through the wilderness. No phones, no shelter, water filters, the only food is either food you brought, or food you caught--and lots of switchbacks. At Angora Lake, I'm pretty sure there are phones, there are lots of cabins, there is a gift shop that sells lemonade and food. The gift shop also rents out sea-kayaks for the lake. I just had to tell myself that this wasn't really hiking or camping--it is just chilling in the wilderness. I snapped a few photos at Angora Lake:







Although I bitch about the Californication of the wilderness, I already knew Angora Lake was like this, because of my previous hike with Stacey. When we went a few years ago, I don't remember anyone else actually being at the lake. I'm not sure if we got there too early in the morning, or if we made the trip sometime other than the summer. But today, the place was absolutely packed. On our trip a few years ago, I remember seeing a sign for a longer hike, but I remember it being a bit longer than we wanted to do at the time. Today, I had all day, and after snapping those pictures at Angora Lake, I went in search of the trail.

I walked around to the south side of the cabins, where I thought I remembered seeing a sign a few years back. There weren't any signs, but I found a trail that looked a bit unkempt compared to the rest of the area, but I decided to take it anyways. It was a crazy trail. It pretty much went straight up the side of the mountain, to Echo Peak, which is the peak looking over Angora Lake. There weren't switchbacks, it was pretty much a climb from trail-marker to trail-marker. They weren't forest-service trail markers, they were hiker-made trail markers--the universal sign for "trail this way!"



I stopped quite a few times on the hike up, and I wasn't really sure how high up I was going to go. When I was thinking about the hike, I was planning on hitting up Aloha Lakes, which is on the other side of Echo Peak--but I thought there might be a trail around the peak. From the looks of things, I either wasn't on the right trail, or the trail led up and over the peak. I was huffing and puffing climbing straight up the side of the hill, getting blasted by the sun for most of the hike.

The incentive were the amazing views back at Lake Tahoe, which I couldn't get enough of. The higher I climbed, the better the view. After my fourth stop in 30 minutes, I contemplated picking a shady spot to relax and eat my cherries. I gazed up at the peak, which looked a long, long ways away, then asked myself, "When are you going to get another chance to climb this peak?" And it was settled. The peak would be climbed today!

The closer I got to the peak, the more I had to break out my rock-climbing skills. The small, loose rocks and pine needles were replaced by larger rocks, which made for some fun climbing. About 300ft from the summit I remember thinking, "I'm pretty sure my Dad wouldn't like this hike." I had to pull myself up in a few spots, then turn around a lower myself after hitting an impassible rock face.

Here are a few shots from the climb up and the "trail"







Eventually, I made my way up the tough part, and found an amazingly barren plateau (butte?) at the top of the mountain. Of course, I also found a nice, sandy path I could have taken--but I had lost the path a dozen times, and actually enjoyed the rock-climbing. there were little wild flowers all over the place, and I was a bit confused as to whether or not I was above the tree-line, because there was just one little path of wind-blown trees near the summit. The view from up there was just as amazing as I thought it would be. In one of the pictures below you can actually see four lakes. The closest is Angora Lake, then Lower Angora Lake, then Fallen Leaf Lake, and finally Lake Tahoe. There are even a few snow fields still around up there :)











Million-dollar views from up there. I wasn't really looking forward to hiking back down the way I came up, so I was hoping to follow a path down the north side of the lake. I lost that trail in about two minutes, and ended up taking just as long hiking down from Echo Peak as it did hiking up. Most of the hike down was spent off-trail scampering from boulder to boulder or sliding down small, loose rocks. I found myself stuck in a weird spot, with a cliff below me, and thick foliage the only way down. That is where I decided to put back on my jeans and tromp through the bushes. There were lots of spiderwebs and ants, which made for a blitzkrieg pace. I felt bad about stomping through nature--I usually try to stay on the trails, but I couldn't FIND the trail 90% of the time! My reward for making it down alive was finding a nalgene out in the middle a big patch of foliage. My guess is that it was left by a skier in the winter, because I couldn't really figure out how it could have gotten there otherwise.

Made it back down to the lake, and was ready to take a dip! I shed my clothes (save my shorts) and walked out into the ice-cold water. Quite a few people were up on the cliffs overlooking the lake, and a few were jumping--so I decided to get my camera (and hat) to snap some photos of the crazies while getting used to the water. For the most part, the people up on the cliff were just looking over the edge, then backing away. A few did jump, and it had to be at least a 60ft drop. They'd hit the water with a THUD. After snapping a few photos and getting tired of waiting, I headed back to the picnic bench and ate the cherries I had forgotten about while up at the peak.

The chipmunks and bluejays were amazingly friendly, and they pretty much took over the picnic table next to me. In the picture below, can you find the second chipmunk??? One chipmunk got interested in the cherries I was eating, and while I was sitting down on the bench, it actually started climbing up my outstretched leg, which got a squeal of laughter from the kids next to me.











On the way out, I stopped by the little gift shop. I was interested to see how much the sea-kayaks were to rent, for a future outing. I didn't figure that out, because I got side-tracked by some other pretty neat info. I saw a Topo map of the area, and Echo Peak was listed as 8895ft. Angora Lake is at 7400ft, and Lake Tahoe is 6200ft. 1,500ft elevation gain with no real trail is tough! Also, hundreds of people break bones cliff-jumping every summer--just hitting the water. Not touching bottom, not hitting rocks--just the momentum and hitting the water. Ouch!

Jen is leaving us in a few weeks to head back to Mount Shasta for the rest of the summer, so I think we might head over to Angora Lake next Sunday for a little going-away party. I'm bringing a floaty!