Day Trip to Yosemite November 17, 2013

Here are some pics from our day trip to Yosemite, which is about three and a half hours from home. Kate had never been so we decided to go check it out! We took our time driving through Jackson, Angels Camp and Sonora before we arrived.

Kate’s sidenote:  Stories in Stone in Angels Camp is an old firehouse that has been transformed into a big shop where a man and his wife show off many of the things they have collected throughout their life. They have tons of pictures of themselves in different locations, lots of fossils and bones (even a complete standing bear skeleton), geodes and various stones. There is a separate room dedicated to elements where the man gives lectures or tells stories. Last time we were there he told us about silicon and its uses in Silicon Valley among other things.  He has a few great periodic tables and elements in different forms (yeah, so what if I’m a science nerd?) Oh, and the room is lined with shark jaws! I could spend hours in there. Some people may say I am overenthusiastic about it (ahem, Nate), but I highly recommend it if you’re going through Angels Camp. End sidenote, back to Yosemite.

We got to the park from highway 120, off of highway 49. We parked on the side of Southside Dr., near the Bridal Veil Falls trail. The hike is very short and simple, but the trail has some great views. The trail ends at the base of the fall at some large rocks that we hopped around for a while. We went during winter, so the falls wasn't flowing very heavy but it was still great to see.

After we left the falls, we turned off the road once more to the left of Southside Dr and walked over a bridge to a big open meadow where we watched the sun start to set. 

When we left, it was pretty dark and we drove through Tioga Pass to 395. Tioga Pass at night is one of my favorite night drives ever. Its hard to tell exactly what you're looking at with the tall mountains and the deep ravines. We popped out on 395 near Mono Lake and headed back home.

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Fabricating the Custom Front Bumper

The Strawberry trail excursion had left enough battle scars to get Nate motivated about designing a steel plate front bumper.  I’d like to say that a lot of careful planning, measuring and designing went into the creation, but in reality, a couple of solid weekends and several six packs later the bumper was born.  A huge thanks to Chance for all of his help: tools, know-how, welding abilities and encouragement. Couldn’t have done it without him.

Zombie Crawl October 26, 2013

Here are some pics from a Zombie Crawl we went to in Reno, NV. Basically a big group of people dress up and paint themselves as zombies and then do a pub crawl. Such a blast! We went with a group of old friends and had some fun. Then ventured out on our own, met some new friends, and had some more fun with them!

Hidden Beach and Cave Rock

Got another chance to get away for a day trip on the weekend.  Being busy with Family get togethers and reunions on both sides.  We decided to head back up to Lake Tahoe in search of another great beach.  We headed back out on highway 28 towards incline village but this time stopping earlier in search of a beach called secret harbor.  Nate had seen pictures of this place and wanted to investigate for himself.  Turns out what we got a was a nude beach -  No problem, we just side skirted that beach and found our own little private cove that provided cover from the wind.  Didn’t do a whole lot of swimming but climbing around on the boulders was great!

On our way back toward Placerville we stopped to climb to the top of cave rock near Kingsbury Grade in Tahoe. The trail to the top is a little steep but isn't too long and is worth it when you get there. We met a family with a bottle of wine at the top and watched the sun set over the lake before we walked back down.

 

Lovers Leap Sunrise August 11 2013

Sunrise Wakeup.  Or that was the plan anyway.  We jumped in the truck with late night excursion on the mind.  It was decided. We were heading to go Hike up Lovers Leap at night with an air mattress and blankets to sleep on the edge of the 600 foot cliff and wake up with the Sun.  It’s just a short 40 minute drive from Placerville to the leap with a little bit of dirt road driving to get back to the hiking trail.  Any car could make it back here on the Strawberry Canyon Road which does not have much in the way of signs besides the trailhead which is marked. Once we arrived, we blew up the air mattress and Nate donned it as a large hat as we started the 45minute to 1 hour hike up the trail.  It’s only about 1.5 miles, but it has a bit of an elevation rise. Hiking in the dark did not help matters and the trail seemed to continue on forever.  We hiked it late summer and the trail was nice and dry.  Sometimes it can be muddy in certain places.  Once we reached the top, the trees broke and the moonlight shone through.  Setting up our bedding was easy going without any neighbors around. It was fantastic. 

The next morning, the sun warmed us up at 6:15am and coaxed us up out of bed.  We enjoyed watching it come up over the mountain ridges by twin bridges as it illuminated the rest of the valley and horsetail falls.  It was spectacular as you can see in the pictures.

As the sun started getting higher in the sky tummies started rumbling and it was time to start heading back down and onto South Lake Tahoe.

The Hike back seemed a lot shorter than the heading up in the dark.  Maybe it was the lack of the large inflateable taco hat or perhaps that we could now see farther than a few feet in front of us.  Either way it was great being able to enjoy all the scenery on the way down the hill. 

We jumped back in the truck and continued up highway 50 up the hill in search of breakfast.

After having some excellent food at Sprouts in tahoe (highly recommended) we set off in search of a beach.  We found a great spot off of Highway 28 right before Sierra Nevada College.  You can find it  when you drive towards south Lake Tahoe; the parking is towards incline village right along the highway.  Just park and follow the roadside trail to the beach.

We brought some snacks and spent the day in the water. The beach has some really neat rocks that you can jump off of or swim under- there is a sort of cave/tunnel underneath the water. There were quite a few people on the beach so we met some new friends and had an awesome time!

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