Our trip in numbers...

Great Red Paintbrush

 We have been on the road in the USA for 7 weeks:

•   travelled 5519 miles, (8882 km)

•   been in 3 US states – California, Arizona, Nevada

•   explored 5 National Parks - Joshua Tree, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Yosemite, Golden Gate Alcatraz

•   visited 6 State Parks - Big Sur, Salton Sea, San Jacinto Mountain, Hearst Castle, Red Rock, Red Rock Canyon

•   National Forests; 3 Sequoia, Sierra, Tahoe

•   slept in 13 beds; 3 hotels, 4 motels and 5 timeshare units, 1 private home (make it 19 with Bahamas)

•   ate Ben & Jerry ice-cream, 6, Cherry Garcia, Chunky Monkey, Triple Caramel Chunk, New York Super Fudge Chunk, Americone Dream, Cheesecake Brownie

•   added 35 birds to my US bird list which is now 199 and my world list is 1482, top bird Roadrunner

•   popped into 4 museums, Palm Springs Art, Cable Car (SF), De Young (SF), Maritime Museum (Lake Tahoe)

•   farmers markets, 2; Oakhurst, Ferry Building (SF)

•   decaprio 3 movie catch-up, Aviator, Gatsby and Departed

•   Oscar 5 movie catch-up, Dallas Buyers Club, Nebraska, August: Osage County, Zero Dark Thirty, Charlie Wilson’s War

•   relished organic extra virgin olive oil, 3 farms 

•   walked 147 miles; beach, mountain trails, coastal meadow, high altitude lake, golf courses, climbing red rocks, canyon rim, valley trail, desert paths, Las Vegas Strip, mountain hikes, many city blocks

•   walking well ahead of schedule, 37 miles credit, (for each 50 miles driven we want to walk 1 mile)

•   longest hike 10 miles on Four Mile Trail with 3200’ climb on steep switchbacks

•   took a bike, cycled along the Truckee River for 16 miles, (26 km)

•   watched 7 episodes of Game of Thrones, season 4

•   lowest driving elevation, 214’ below sea-level at Furnace Creek Golf Course, Death Valley

•   highest driving elevation, 9945’ Tioga Pass, Tioga Road, Yosemite

•   got cold at the lowest temperature below 40 degrees F in Tehachapi (3 degrees C)

•   was hot at the highest temperature of 115 degrees F while walking in Death Valley (46 degrees C). Car registered 125 degrees F at one point – over 50 degrees C

•   wine tasting, 2 at Tablas Winery, Paso Robles and Souza Family Vineyard

•   modes of transport, 8, helicopter over the Grand Canyon, ferry to Alcatraz, cable car, bus, metro, streetcar, bicycle, paddle boat on Tahoe

•   shows/events, 4, in Las Vegas, O Cirque du Soleil; in San Francisco, Beach Blanket Babylon, SF Giants baseball in San Francisco; in Reno Extreme Bull Riding

California Snow Flower

Lake Tahoe: Five Lakes Trail

Feel as though I got my hiking mojo back today!

I read this quote about the trail we chose for our last hike here in Lake Tahoe, nice rhythm up the granite canyon before getting to the forest, spring flower meadows and the series of lakes:

'It's called the Five Lakes Trail, and it's one of the best short day hikes in California.'

It is a great walk and we got to do a couple of miles along the Pacific Crest Trail too (PCT for those in the know), the legendary trail that is 2650 miles of exceptional hiking. They say you have lived life if you have hiked along the PCT. Do my 2 miles count? So now I have lived life?

A special experience was hearing the low booming vibration of a Sooty Grouse calling from the forest. Could not find the bird though even though we really tried.

Steep initial section before the granite canyon

Would love to understand the geology!

Hiking up the granite canyon

Taking in the canyon

Flowers on the PCT

Today, the first day of summer, still seeing the delicate beauty of spring with the fragile Mariposa Lily

The destination, one of the lovely lakes along the trail

Lake Tahoe: Living in the Postcard

The Captain of Tahoe Girl has been working on the 'lake in the sky' for 30 years and talks about living in the postcard.

Our time cruising in the paddle boat is a gentle way to see and to experience the vistas and the majesty of this huge lake floating high in the Sierra Nevada's.

And its all about the water and the color of the water, mesmerizing.

Endless inky blue water, looking across to the east and Nevada

Clarity of the water.

The change in depth creates amazing color changes in the water.

Big sky, rocky lake edges rimmed with pines.

Beauty of the shallows of Lake Tahoe

From 15' to 200' creates this hard line in the color change!

And wherever you look, mountains. Must be an incredible winter scene with snow everywhere.

1. 
   

   From Wiki:

   
   

   Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. At a surface elevation of 6,225 ft, it is located along the border between California and Nevada, west of Carson City.
4. Area: 496.2 km²
5. Volume: 150.7 km³
6. Surface elevation: 1,897 m

   Length: 35 km

Reno Rodeo: Extreme Bull Riding

Reno, Nevada. Gambling and a quickie divorce was definitely not on our travel plans, so Reno did not feature. 

A rodeo event was definitely on my to-do list though. 

I was planning for our week here at Lake Tahoe and read about the 10 day Professional Rodeo events in Reno. And now here we are, in Reno, part of the rodeo scene, Wranglers, checked shirts, cowboy hats and boots, belts, buckles, bling, mountains of fast food, red-white-blue everywhere, beer flowing…. 

In our grandstand seats, bulls are in their enclosures (behind the Wrangler signs) and cowboys getting ready

I booked for the opening event, the Extreme Bull Riding, cowboys, bare backed on the bull, holding on with one hand only, trying to remain on the fiercely wound up bull for at least 8 seconds.

Was extreme indeed.

Cowboys in action!
Colourful, noisy, dusty, fast, I woohoo-ed all night. Even better than the bull riding was the corralling of the bull after the ride, cowboys on horses with lassoes, dogs, so cool, so American.

Entertainment. Bareback horse rider with six gorgeous black steeds. Speechless.
Great evening out and the bonus of a quite lovely sunset.
Going back to Reno on sunday for more action.

Lake Tahoe: hike to High Camp

My friend Natalie talks about 'falling into your legs', when walking feels like flow in the body and it becomes effortless.

It is a joy to me when I feel this sense of falling into my legs when I am on a path.

It was not to be today though.

I felt like I was fighting my way up the Thunder Mountain Trail to High Camp here in Squaw Valley, my new hikers making my feet talk to me, my body achy, short of breathe at this altitude, the loose scree path making it hard to settle into a rhythm, the scenery scrappy, the 'no see ums' are biting, my heart not into a steep climb…

But, the wildflowers are in bloom, always a pleasure to see.
And the waterfalls are still flowing from the snow melt. 

Even better, a return trip on the tram from High Camp!

Back at the timeshare, I swam, used the spa and sauna and put the walk behind me. 

Above the treeline, tough walking.

Mark Twain again:

'and at last the Lake burst upon us -- a noble sheet of blue water lifted six thousand three hundred feet above the level of the sea, and walled in by a rim of snow-clad mountain peaks that towered aloft full three thousand feet higher still! It was a vast oval, and one would have to use up eighty or a hundred good miles in traveling around it. As it lay there with the shadows of the mountains brilliantly photographed upon its still surface I thought it must surely be the fairest picture the whole earth affords.'

View of Lake Tahoe and the Sierra's from High Camp

Top of the world at High Camp, 

Lake Tahoe: Lake Tahoe Dam

The vastness of Lake Tahoe and its beautiful deep, clear blue water make it a very lovely place to be.

We popped into Tahoe City to provision and walked some of the Lakeside Trail and saw some of the different aspects to the lake.

To quote Mark Twain:
 “The water is clearer than the air, and the air is the air that angels breathe.” 

Lake Tahoe beach.

The only outlet from the lake is the Truckee River and the 1909 dam on the Truckee is a gem. It still has a gatekeeper managing the flow of the top 6 feet of Lake Tahoe for downstream use. With the drought here in California the flow is at rim, so just the natural overflow.

Birding Interlude: Clark's Nutcracker

A bird of the High Sierra's and the pines. I hung around the whitebark pines in Yosemite National Park but dipped on this bird. Today, without our bins and Fred without his zoom lens, walking along the lakeside trail in Tahoe City, suddenly a flock of Clark's - got to love birding. 

I watched them use their spike-like bills to pick the seeds out of pine cones. They are famous for collecting thousands of seeds, eating some and then they bury the rest as a winter stash. Not all seeds get retreived and that is how the pines propagate.  What a bird.

Clark's Nutcracker, Tahoe City.

Lake Tahoe: Cycling along the Truckee River

All about cycling here at Lake Tahoe

That is me on a bike!

Last time on a bike was more than 4 decades ago cycling to school in Vanderbijlpark, until Dad felt sorry for us doing the uphill to Vaal High, so he bought a bakkie and lifted us in the mornings.

Squaw Valley, home to the 1960 Winter Olympics, and the Truckee River cycle paths made for a bliss morning cycling today.

Fred is very comfortable on a bike and just loved the morning, we did 26 kilometers and he would have loved to just keep going!

A very happy Fred!

Cool mountain air, shady path, river views, just lovely.

Trip was not without incident - I stopped to show Fred a photo opportunity and he did not…!

Truckee River, crystal clear and beautiful colors.

Family of Canada Geese.

Typical scene along the Truckee River and in town, wood cabins nestled among the pines.

View of Squaw Valley on our return.

Nearly back home at our timeshare, Olympic Village Inn.