Hiking and Tentless Camping

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“Oh my God I can’t believe. I’ve never been this far away from home.” Kaiser Chiefs

Last Saturday Marissa, Travis, Hope and I went on an overnight camping trip. It was absolutely stunning. We picked Hope up from work and drove about twenty minutes out of town. Travis was driving. He turned off road and didn’t seem to let the lack of pavement or the presence of boudlers stop him from finding a desolate campsite. The SUV was bouncing up and down till it landed at an open field to set up our sleeping area. We arrived and Hope, T, and me cracked Sashquash beers (Marissa a cream soda) to help enjoy the perfectly midnight blue sky, with a backdrop of mountains. The sky was splattered with stars and a clear view of the Milky Way. We slept tent-less, on the ground. I awoke every few hours, cuddled up in my sleeping bag. I was shocked that coyotes hadn’t attacked and that I had chosen to sleep in 20 degree cold when I had a warm bed at home. But braving the freezing weather was well worth the planetarium like view.

Hope and I have been ditching Marissa and exploring on our own lately. We’ve taken two different hikes. Each hike resulted in a unique, brilliant view. Sunday we ventured out to Fallen Leaf Lake Road, which is a one lane, barely paved road that wraps around the lake and through the mountains. The Mustang did well, but it was stressful playing chicken with F-250’s. The road was maybe 15 miles long but took almost an hour to negotiate, as there was a fair amount of backing up and letting other cars pass. The car trip ended at Glen Alpine Trail, where our foot trip began. We hiked about an hour and a half out and an hour or so back. The initial portion of trail was mostly large grade gravel road, which wasn’t exactly scenic or ideal. Within a ½ mile or so it turned to a more foot friendly dirt terrain. There were a few small lakes, as well as interesting, old cabins tucked into the mountain side.

Monday night Hope and I headed to a backyard trail know as “Powerline.” A week ago Marissa and I biked the trail. If you didn’t already know, bikes move more quickly than people. I must have forgotten that simple fact as I didn’t calculate how we’d be hiking home in the dark. Of course the view of Lake Tahoe was worth our legs burning for two days.

Once are legs cool off, we both have day jobs too. While Hope’s at the hospital bringing babies into this world, I’ve been helping Marissa and Travis around the house - particularly moving some 50 tons of rock and building a deck: a deck for a hot tub! So get ready for some drunken hot tub stories. Also I have been dabbling in writing. I have a column debuting in the Tahoe Daily Tribune. Furthermore our pictures from Moab are listed as “Highly Rated” in the North American Section of this very blog.

Next week we’re heading out to Sequoia and Yosemite National Park for an entire week of backpacking and sleeping out under the stars.

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Comments

[anonymous]

Frank, not only are you a talented "blogger" but your pictures are awesome. I'm prejudiced. Love MOM

[FrankHope]

Thanks Mom.