A day at the lake

It would be difficult to have a better day than today. The weather was perfect--hot but not too hot and bright blue skies. Dad, Jon and I rode to Angora Lake while Mom, Jessica, and Maeve drove there. It was only about 7 miles away but the road to it was difficult to find due to conflicting maps and conflicting directions given by people we asked on the way. We ended up riding up one relatively steep road twice before we were on the road to the lake. The road to the lake was the only one described as "steep" on the one map we had so we were only slightly concerned. Two of the people we asked for directions also said that the road was steep but we all decided that "steep" is all relative. Thankfully the climb was short--a mile or so, and not as steep as yesterday's ride, but still rather difficult. Fortunately for us, there was a payoff at the top of this hill--a great view of various lakes surrounded by mountains.

To get to the lake, you had to hike a half mile uphill from the parking lot--Jessica enjoyed doing that with Maeve on her back. The lake itself was small but stunning. There was snow on some of the rocks around the lake and waterfalls flowed down past others. The water was a bit chilly but that didn't stop us from getting in. I enjoyed jumping off of rocks (little ones--there was a cliff that we watched some guys jump from that I was not about to attempt. It looked to be about 40 feet up.) and swimming under the waterfall, and sitting in the snow in my bathing suit. You can ask Dad what his reaction to the to water was when he jumped in (it's not blog appropriate). Jon got in and promptly got out and sat on a rock with a small child who yelled back to his mom, "I'm just sitting on his rock with a guy who's afraid to jump in the water." Maeve also enjoyed a boat ride around the lake.

The rest of the afternoon was spent napping and relaxing. I ventured out on the trails around the house to go for a short run. It turns out running at 6300 ft is slightly more difficult than running at whatever Manheim is at. I was also thinking every charred tree stump and shadow was a bear. I really have no desire to see any wildlife larger than a squirrel.

Tomorrow will be filled with more riding for the riders and a boat tour of Lake Tahoe for the non-riders. A fun time should be had by all.