Tag Archives: wildflowers

More signs it was a big winter

May...or July?

It may be the last day of July, but given the amount of snow I encountered in two totally different places this weekend, it’s clear that the winter of 2010/11 is still having repercussions.  Typically at this time of year the wildflowers are peaking and trails are mostly melted out.  This year, not so much.

On Saturday, my friend C and I decided to see if one of the higher elevation sections of the Tahoe Rim Trail between Star Lake and Freel Pass was clear enough to ride.  It’s a section of trail that allows you to connect some terrific longer mountain bike rides, either to Armstrong Pass, Saxon Creek (Mr. Toads), or the Big Meadow trail head.  Usually this time of year, there’s few if any patches of snow.

We learned firsthand that this is not a typical year, what with snow patches that started less than a quarter mile from Star Lake.  Patches large enough to require some maneuvering to get a leg up, say nothing for a mountain bike.  Oddly enough we saw few footprints on the snow, and no tire tracks.  Highly unusual for this time of year, but perhaps indicative that it’s not as well traveled a mountain bike trail as, say, Mr. Toad’s.  No matter, for there were still ample trail options, and we decided to descend to High Meadow and then down the Cold Creek trail.  The Forest Service is building single track from High Meadow to Star Lake, but it’s not accessible just yet, so if you do ride down from there as we did, be prepared for some steep and rocky fire road action, interspersed with some fun (read: deeper than normal) stream crossings.   But the newly redone Cold Creek trail more than makes up for the wet feet.

This morning N and I headed to the Mokelumne Wilderness at Carson Pass to get the dog out and check out the snow to wildflowers ratio.

Round Top Carson Pass Snow

Wishing he'd brought the skis

From our starting point at Carson Pass, the hike to Winnemucca Lake isn’t long – 4 miles round trip – but offers great bang for the buck with the proliferation of wildflowers, and is usually very popular at this time of year for that very reason.  The flowers were blooming (though probably won’t peak for few weeks), but despite that, there was still quite a bit of snow.  Definitely enough to ski on, were you so inclined.  We didn’t continue on to Round Top lake, but based on the hikers we saw further on, the trail looked to be more snow than not.  Which means a) that backcountry skiing is still very much on out there right now and b) that the wildflowers up there should peak around Labor Day.

Wildflowers & Snow capped mountains

Skiable lines & summer wildflowers

Oh, and that ratio of snow to flowers? Probably 50-50 right now.

Winter may be over, but La Nina is still having her last laugh.  Which should make for great trail conditions well into October. As well as an extended wildflower season.

What Epic Looks Like

Approaching the last climb in big meadow

Last weekend I convinced N that I was mentally ready to tackle a longer mountain bike ride, one that he’d done a few times in the past, and one that I really wanted to try. For someone of my fitness level, this sort of ride requires the comfort of a geared, full-suspension bike, so I traded up from my single-speed for the day.

Our route started at the Tahoe Rim Trail Kingsbury – Big Meadow segment at the Stagecoach Lodge parking lot, and ended up at our house.  In between we rode 41 miles, with 5,100 feet of climbing and 6,200 feet of descent.  For the statisticians out there, the ride can be broken down into the following summary:

  • Number of wildflowers seen = a bazillion
  • Number of llamas seen = 2
  • Number of calories burned = over 3,000
  • Number of rounds of applause I received = 1 (by a group towards the last descent who learned how far we’d ridden)

Overall it was a spectacular day, and was made much more pleasant by the moderate temps and blooming wildflowers. While it’s likely not going to be a weekly ride for me, I’m definitely planning on doing more 30+ mile rides in the future.  With or without the llama sightings.

Oh La, La Jura

After a surprisingly relaxed flight, thanks to a dose of prescription drugs, I’m slowly recovering from jetlag with ample Swiss cheese, wine and chocolat.  We landed in Zurich yesterday morning, and after a coffee and a shower at N’s mom’s flat, went into town to hit the H&M sale and buy some maps for our hiking trip.  She and her husband live in a gorgeous old building that handily houses the school he teaches at.  From their place it’s a short hop on one of Zurich’s many regular trams into the town center, and it was comforting to see how familiar the places looked.  Bittersweet, too, for we learned that his mom’s looking to leave Switzerland to be closer to family, so our regular trips to visit her may not come as regularly.  Quelle tristesse.

Views from the Zurich flat are nice…

A few photos from the Chasseral, as promised earlier.

Swiss wildflowers in the Jura

Hiking to Aloha

After such a long ride on Saturday, a leisurely hike in Desolation Wilderness was the call, and the trail to Aloha Lake from the Lily Lake/Glen Alpine trailhead by Fallen Leaf Lake provided the perfect combination of lakes, moderate climbing and scenery.

Aloha wildflowers

We didn’t bring the camera, thinking that the wildflowers wouldn’t be out if full force after such a dry year, but we were wrong.  Terribly wrong.  My cellphone doesn’t do the colors justice at all.   The best flowers we saw were between Heather Lake and Aloha Lake, along the stream that’s usually still flowing at this time of year.   I guess that’s one benefit of a drought year?

It’s about 6 miles to Aloha Lake, passing Susie and Heather lakes en route.  It was unusually windless on the trail up, which meant that swimming in Aloha didn’t require braving headwinds and choppy waves.  We arrived early enough to have the lake to ourselves, and the dog and I splashed around on the north-eastern shore while N delicately got his feet wet.

Lake Aloha

This being our ‘taper’ day, we did not continue on to Clyde Lake, another favorite, as that would require another 2 miles up and over Mosquito Pass.  So we descended, still wet from the swim, as the sun rose higher and hotter.   While we saw a few poor souls who started late struggling on the climb in the heat of the day, it was not as busy as we’ve come to expect mid-summer.  All told, a great hike, topped off with finding our car parked in the shade.

Desolation Wilderness Shuttle Hike

It’s days like this that make me very glad that I call Lake Tahoe my home.  My friend J – hiking pal, ski touring abettor and probably the closest outdoor play friend I have – and I did a shuttle hike today in Desolation Wilderness, something totally new for us.  One car was dropped at the Bayview trailhead (near Emerald Bay) and we then drove to the Glen Alpine area of Lily Lake, behind Fallen Leaf Lake.  The plan was to hike up and over Dick’s Pass, lunch at Dick’s Lake and then head back to the car, a respectable 16 mile jaunt.

Dicks Lake

It was a sunny warm day, made milder by the strong winds (which apparently had the area on red flag alert – very high fire danger).  We saw only 2 other people in the first 9 miles, and made such great time to our lunch spot that we agreed to extend the hike by another few miles to hike past one of our favorite lakes, Fontanellis.   This is one of the less visited lakes, which is fine by us,  but it’s also a wonderful hidden azure gem, abutting  the Crystal  Range.  It was only after our  faux-fording of  a  creek by the Velmas (faux in the sense that we kept our shoes on, but I was the one who got one foot fully wet.  J’s foot was only moistened by my overly exuberant dog) that we began to see the people-trains of  weekend backpackers all heading towards  Middle Velma and Dick’s Lake for the night.  A couple of groups of what looked to be boy scouts, some college students and a family, all wearing headphones, passed us  as we headed out.  When asked where we were coming from,  most of the time we had to explain and the very few who knew where Glen Alpine were appeared impressed.

Three lakes in a row

My favorite part of the hike was the descent from Maggie’s.  Not only is it all downhill (and a mere 2 miles to the car), but it’s probably the most scenic views of the day, with 3 lakes visible as you trek down some fairly steep but smooth switchbacks.

Emerald bay views

Overall, 7 hours, 3,550 feet of climbing and 16 miles hiked in total.  And all of us are still walking (dog included)! Not bad for the second hike of the summer.