Catching Up And Formulating a Plan

As you might suspect, I haven’t much wanted to leave my home over the past couple days.  We’ve been hanging around with Peanut and trying to catch up on routine stuff.  I’ve only been out once and that was to the grocery.  Gene has been out a couple times--he went with me to the grocery and yesterday afternoon he went for a short hike at Beaman Park.  We haven’t even opened our door today.

So far, everything is going well with my folks.  My dad continues to improve slowly and apparently my mom has everything under control at the house.  While I was there, I did a lot of cooking and my aunt brought in six casseroles and a huge pot of soup.  All that food went into the freezer so all my mom has to do is heat and eat.  She can still do her own cooking, but she gets tired very easily.  With the extra work of caring for my Dad, she’ll enjoy not having to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

With things going as well as they are, we are looking for a departure day of Saturday.  A memorial service for my uncle who passed away a couple weeks ago is scheduled for Saturday afternoon.  After that is over, we’re thinking we may drive a hundred miles just so our distance won’t be so far the following day to Perry, Georgia.  If that works out, we can actually see ourselves in Bushnell, Florida on Monday afternoon.  We’ll see how it goes.

I’ve spent considerable time catching up with the blogs I follow.  Seems like everybody is getting a very good start to the new year.  As I read one of Judy’s posts at Travels with Emma, I was reminded of a few King Cake parties I’ve been to.  Once upon a time, in a life which seems far, far away, my teaching friends and I had a little book club.  Like most book clubs, we’d select a book to read and then get together to discuss what we’d read, drink wine, and eat junk food.  Eventually, we gave up the reading and just got together to drink and eat.  Someone in our group had heard about King Cakes, but we were really too far away from southern Louisiana to hardly notice Mardi Gras.

One year our little group decided to order a King Cake and that got us started on an annual King Cake Party event.  We ordered our first King Cake and it came complete with the Baby Jesus (henceforth known as the BJ).  We didn’t like the taste of the cake so much and decided from then on to make our own.  The person getting the BJ in their piece of cake got to host the party the following year and make the cake.  We also decided there were several “kings” to be honored--Elvis, for example, King Tut, BB King, King Kong, the Lion King.  The host announced the “king” and everybody dressed accordingly.  It was a hoot.  Thanks, Judy, for setting in motion all those fantastic memories.

Rick and Paulette have been out hiking and his post the other day about a short section on the PCT brought back a host of memories of some good hikes we’ve done on that trail in the Lake Tahoe area as well as near Mt Rainier.  It reminded me also that I haven’t selected the Appalachian Trail thru-hikers to follow this year.  Many thru-hikers post their journals on Trail Journals and each year I like to select six or eight to follow.  I usually pick out some older hikers.  Their journals are more interesting to me than the younger set.  We’re also getting very anxious to get back on the trail ourselves.  We’re looking forward to doing some hiking on the Florida Trail this winter.

Peanut seems to have enjoyed us being close at hand for the past couple days.  Gene taught him a new trick while I was away.  Peanut has discovered the heating pad.  Gene put it on the bed one morning and turned it on.  It’s hard to get that cat up from there now.  Would you say he’s is SPOILED?

That’s enough rambling for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Naches Peak Loop Trail

At Chinook Pass, the 3-mile Naches Peak Loop Trail is an easy walk with fantastic views of Mount Rainier.  We took this trail, like everyone else we saw today, in the clockwise direction.  The first half of the loop was along the Pacific Crest Trail (yes, this is the same trail we have hiked off and on since Lake Tahoe), then as the PCT split off to the left (southbound) the Naches Peak Trail turned back toward the parking lot to complete the loop.  It was along the second half of the loop, the Naches Peak section, that the mountain came into view and remained with us until we were back at the car.  We finished the loop by skirting along the bank of Tipsoo Lake at Chinook Pass.

The entire 3 miles of this trail was just breathtaking.  The photos don’t compare with the real thing, but they are certainly better than any words I can use to describe the awesome beauty of this place.

We drove back down the mountain to the Grove of the Patriarchs where we found a picnic table in the shade for our lunch.  We wanted to see the big trees, of course, so we did the short 1-mile nature walk through this old growth forest.

Grove of the Patriarchs

Plenty hot and ready for an ice-cold glass of tea, we jumped in the truck, turned the AC up as high as it would go, and headed for home.  Hopefully, this will be the last day for these record high temperatures and we will get back to something more closely resembling normal.

Small unnamed lake

We do not yet have a plan for tomorrow.

Pacific Crest Trail

There are several popular long-distance hiking trails in our country.  Perhaps the most popular is the Appalachian Trail, but there are two other trails which draw the attention of the long-distance hiker.  The “triple crown” in hiking trails is the AT (Appalachian Trail), the CDT (Continental Divide Trail), and the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail).

Our starting point

The larger lower lake

The PCT follows the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains through California, Oregon, and Washington from the Mexican border to Canada, a distance of over 2600 miles.  Since we are going to be in California, Oregon, and Washington for the rest of the summer, we will have the opportunity to hike on other sections of this trail during our travels.

Views from the trail

We have done several hikes along the Tahoe Rim Trail which winds its way around Lake Tahoe.  In order to make that loop, the Tahoe Rim Trail uses the PCT on the western side of the lake.  Technically, we were on both trails for our hike today.

The smaller upper lake

We drove US 50 through South Lake Tahoe, up to Echo Summit, then dropped slightly to the Echo Lakes. Echo Chalet is a lakeside mountain resort operated by the Forest Service.  The cabins are not open yet for the season, but both lakes are free of ice.  We parked in the upper parking lot and started our hike by crossing the dam at the end of the lake.

The northern end of the upper lake

The trail quickly rises about 50 feet above the lake and then levels out for a very nice walk, with fabulous views of the lake.  For our hike, we started at the southern end of the lower lake and hiked to the northern end of the upper lake, a distance of about 3 miles one way.  During the summer season, Echo Chalet runs a water taxi servicing the entire length of both lakes.  No taxi today so we had to walk back.

roots, ruts, rocks, and run-off on the trail

At the northern end of the lower lake and all along the upper lake, are very nice summer  homes.  I don’t know what the story is there--if they are rented from the forest service, if they are privately owned on private property, or if the owners have leases from the government.  The only access to these homes is by boat or by trail; there are no roads in the area.

Gene on the end of the boat taxi dock

There is still quite a lot of snow on the other side of the lake, but on the south facing slope where we were, most of the snow has melted.  There were a few spots in the trees that were still snowy and there was a lot of water on the trail from run-off at the upper lake.

It was a beautiful day and a glorious place to hike.  I always enjoy the scenery, and I was not disappointed today.  My favorite part, I think, was sitting on the end of the water taxi dock enjoying the sunshine, the spectacular view, and lunch.