"Ta ta!" to Tata lane

This Kahler adventure has almost come to an end, and a fine adventure it has been. While most of you reading this have been suffering through a heat wave on the east coast, we've been experiencing some of the most pleasant weather ever--75 and sunny with no humidity everyday.

The past two days have been filled with some great hikes and relaxation. On Monday, we ventured out to the Emerald Bay trails. Dad, Jon, Jessica, Maeve, and I took the trail up towards Eagle Lake--Dad got to have Maeve on his back on the way there. There were great views of Emerald Bay on the way up and Eagle Lake was delightful. I tried to teach Maeve how to boulder but she was having none of it. Jon had Maeve on his back on the way down and we headed back home for lunch. Dad and I did one final ride--just a short one up South Upper Truckee Road--it was steep and scenic.

Today was clouded with knowing that we had to pack things and get ready to leave. I took a run on some trails to see if I could find Fallen Leaf Lake (no worries--I was successful). Jon, Jessica, and Maeve spent a lovely morning on the beach. Mom and Dad went into town to visit the art gallery owned by the couple that owns the house we're staying in. In the afternoon, I convinced Mom and Dad to join me on the Mt. Tallac trail (If one takes it the whole way, you end up on the summit of Mt. Tallac) and we hiked about 2.3 miles in to Cathedral Lake. Mom thought the trail was strenuous (and it technically was) but kept up just fine. We saw more views of both Fallen Leaf Lake and Lake Tahoe--I'm sure the view from the summit is stunning. I guess I'll have to save that one for next time.

Thanks for reading.

"Will they wear hats?"

While Maeve was very excited to see fireworks, we couldn't truly convince her that she would not be seeing firemen. We showed her pictures of fireworks and described them to her but as we were sitting on the beach waiting for them to start, she asked, "Are they going to wear hats?" Later on she asked about the ladders. Lake Tahoe had a variety of fireworks going on all around the lake and you could really get a perspective of just how big the lake is by how small the fireworks looked on the other side of the lake. We thought we were waiting to the "big" show that's set to music and includes fireworks that are shapes. This show was several miles away from where we were watching, and while we could see them, our attention was divided because a pretty great show was being set off right in front us from a boat. Maeve also didn't expect the fireworks to be so close or so loud. Her look of terror eventually subsided (and she was again able to to speak so she could ask about hats and ladders) until the grand finale when it appeared that she would rather bury her head in the sand than be subjected to such hoopla.

In an attempt to not get caught up in the crowds that have appeared at Lake Tahoe for this holiday weekend, we set off to find Skunk Harbor (a secluded beach on the Nevada side of the lake). We hoped that people would be turned off by the name and decide not to go there. After finding parking on the side of the road, we hiked the mile and a half down a trail that led to a beautiful beach with lots of large rocks to climb around and jump off of. The water, of course, was frigid but that didn't stop us from swimming around. Overall, it was a rather fun 4th of July.

Donner Pass...without the cannibalism

A holiday weekend in Lake Tahoe = tons of people and traffic. We did our best to find some roads without cars, but were unsuccessful. We drove our around the lake to outside Tahoe City to where we were going to start our ride. The first 10 miles were flat and fast but on terrible pavement with lots of potholes. We turned on historic route 40 which would be Donner Pass Road. After going by the crowded lake, we started the climb which was rather short and gradual. I've decided that my favorite scenery includes large granite rocks with a very blue sky and green shrubs/trees. Donner Pass had it all. This area is also a haven for rock climbers and we saw many people scaling the rocks as we rode by. There was a beautiful lookout almost at the top but when we got to the actual summit, there was just a ski school--no sign to take our picture by. This is also where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses this pass. We then headed back down and back to the car on the same crappy pavement that we started on. It was a relatively short ride (36 or so miles).

We spent the evening having dinner out on the back deck trying to figure out how we can extend this vacation so as to not have to go home to 99 degree temperatures. It's the 4th of July so we'll be fighting crowds and watching fireworks today.

Another day in the mountains...

Dad, Jonathan, and I got an early start (well, we attempted at starting earlier but I don't think we really did) and drove over one pass to outside of a small town where we would be starting today's ride. We knew what we were getting ourselves into because we had driven over Ebbetts Pass yesterday on the way to Calaveras State Park. Driving on that narrow two lane road (not wide enough for a yellow line down the middle though), we were a bit terrified. There were switchbacks where it looked the road disappeared and all you could see was mountain and valley. Needless to say, we were slightly apprehensive about the difficulty of the ride. It was about a 16 mile (mostly uphill) ride to where the road got steep. At that point, we had about 7 miles to the top. The 16 mile approach was very nice though--beautiful scenery with the road winding along the Carson River and a nice easy gradient--we were all in our small ring however.

When we started the climb, it was quite steep and reminded us of the start of Alpe d'huez but the rest wasn't that bad (not too terrible). There were sections that allowed us to recover after the steep parts and there were very few places where I had to stand. After the 8000 ft mark, we started riding past snow and eventually got to a lovely mountain lake. The summit was not far from there where we met a few local riders who were coming up from the other side of Ebbetts Pass. One asked Jonathan, "Those wheels look interesting--How do you like them?" Jonathan replied that he was a little biased but he liked them a lot (all three of us are riding on Revolution Wheelworks wheels).

After our obligatory picture with the sign at the top, we made our way back down. Descending is definitely not my skill so it was slow going. We paused for a variety of photo opportunities as well. Those 16 miles of uphill that we started with turned out to be a very pleasant downhill--not steep or windy--and we were able to make it back to the car in good time. The ride ended up being about 45 miles which we did in 3 and a half hours.

With the holiday weekend here, traffic is crazy. The locals at the top of the pass gave us some good non-traffic routes to try so hopefully we'll be successful in finding those tomorrow.

Big trees...check!

The Kahlers went on a driving adventure today. The original plan was to drive to Calaveras State Park, do a 5 mile hike, drive partway back in one car and ride up Ebbetts Pass, and then drive home. The drive to the park took slightly longer than expected and we didn't get there until almost 1pm. After eating some lunch, we sought out the South Grove Trail to see the largest tree in the park--Agassiz Tree. It turns out hiking with a 2 year old is slightly more challenging than just hiking with other adults. Nonetheless, everyone got to where they needed to be. As one who had never seen such large trees, I was in awe of their hugeness. We saw the "Discovery Tree" which was the first large tree to be cut down when discovered by Augustus Dowd in 1852--the stump is there--it took 5 men 22 days to cut it down. All the large trees seemed to have burned out sections but were still alive and thriving. I thoroughly enjoyed climbing through and into the trees. Only once did a bird fly out of one large hole, scaring Jonathan and Maeve. As we walked up to the Agassiz tree, a huge dead branch crashed down to the ground. Dad said, "60 years old and one day--murder attempt by largest tree failed." I had the privilege of carrying Maeve back to the car in the kid-carrying backpacking pack thing. She's much lighter than my normal backpack and much more entertaining.

Because of time, we decided to save the riding for tomorrow. However, because our drive took the same route as the bike ride, we got to preview what we were going to do. I am very much against previewing our rides--I don't like knowing what I'm getting myself into. In this case, I don't like what I see. The climb looks steep, long, and difficult. We're all looking forward to it of course.