Camping on Memorial Day weekend
Some years ago we tried a camping trip on Memorial Day weekend, and while it was better than staying at home, our location was not optimal and it was very crowded. Due to my last minute plans, we stayed at a KOA campground in Petaluma. Nothing against KOA, but it was kind of like staying in the parking lot of Universal Studios in Los Angeles, only with RVs instead of cars.
This year we made exactly the right choice of destination: Fallen Leaf Lake at the south end of Lake Tahoe. Larissa did suffer a broken wrist (more on that later), but we all had a great time, enjoyed fantastic weather and some even better hikes in the Desolation Wilderness above Lake Tahoe. For the first three nights some friends with kids similar ages (the Toldis) stayed in the adjacent campground and the kids had a lot of fun together.
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We brought sleeping pads and bags, camp chairs, stoves and cooking gear, the tent, food and drinks, games and books for kids, and enough shoes and sandals for everyone. In addition I brought enough wood for campfires twice a day for four days (the daily allocation of marshmallows was 3 per person). I also brought bikes and the trailer for Katerina. It was quite a load.
Bikes and the trailer hog-tied for travel
A view of the campfire wood, which is stacked to the far side of the van
Kids looking forward to camping
Note that Erick is holding Katerina's shoes. For some reason that girl will not abide shoes. She is very industrious at removing shoes and diapers, which as you might imagine can cause some problems.
Fallen Leaf Lake Campground
The Fallen Leaf Lake campground is excellent. The sites are very large, there are at least some fire rings which are not the new standard of 2 feet high, and there are plenty of great trails nearby. There is absolutely no poison ivy or oak, unlike camping in coastal California.
Also the sites have grass instead of dirt early in the season, although maybe later in the year the use pattern results in more dirt and less grass. I recall one trip to Big Sur on the coast where everything was bare dirt with not a speck of grass anywhere.
We arrived around twilight on Thursday and set up camp.
Friday: A short hike to Fallen Leaf Lake
The following morning we did a short hike to the north end of Fallen Leaf Lake.
On the Moraine Trail to Fallen Leaf Lake
Katerina will sit in the back pack for hours without complaint
A bench on the way to the snack spot. Erick and Anna are both 4.
Katerina is hurrying to catch up with the big kids after I got her out of the backpack
Snack spot at the low end of the Lake. What fantastic environs! Even the air has a different quality.
The kids could not resist "wading" in the water. Note: "wading" for this group of kids means "up to your shoulders".
A bike ride on beautiful single track
The next morning, Robert and I woke up early and after some coffee and a morning campfire we still had enough time for a bike ride before everyone else was awake. I enjoyed that bike ride more than any in the past 15 years.
We followed the Moraine trail to Fallen Leaf Lake, and then found some wonderful single track trails. "Double-track" means wide enough for a car, and "single-track" is only wide enough for a bike. If you haven't ridden a bike on single-track you should go do it right now. The trails around Fallen Leaf Lake were amazing: banked turns and small slopes, a wide variety of types of terrain: from gravel and rock challenges to hard pack, huge trees, clear mountain air, some alpine meadows, some dense forest. Amazing!
Below are some videos of Robert and my ride. They were taken with the camera in mpeg mode so they are a little shaky but you can get a feel for how nice the terrain was.
Tahoe Biking 218 Tahoe Biking 220 Tahoe Biking 223 Tahoe Biking 225
A picture from the bike ride
Snow Plants in bloom. John Toldi informs us these come up right after the snow melts. They were everywhere.
Saturday: Grass Lake in the Desolation Wilderness
At the south end of Fallen Leaf Lake is access to the Desolation Wilderness. It is absolutely breath-taking in beauty. See this Wikipedia article for more information: Desolation Wilderness.
We decided to hike up to Grass Lake, maybe 2 miles from the trail head at Lily Lake. Once you get a few miles in you pass a sign marking the border of the wilderness; and from there you are allowed to camp anywhere (with a permit). We are considering a back-packing trip with the oldest kids, but may need some gear upgrades, including a bear canister.
There was still lots of snow evident, and it is hard to describe how wonderful it was to hike in that weather in that place. We didn't actually make it all the way to Grass Lake because you need to cross a stream that had some pretty swift water and we did not want to risk it with the broken wrist and the smaller kids.
The broken wrist
At the start of the walk we had to detour around some water on the trail. It was a pretty complicated process because we went part of the way along rickety fallen logs and had to duck beneath branches in the way. I had my hands full with Erick and Katerina, and was not able to spare help for Larissa when she lost her balance on one of the logs. She caught herself on her hand and managed to prevent herself from getting soaked in the stream, but she heard a “snap” from the bone in her wrist.
Larissa is super tough, as evidenced by the following pictures which show her continuing the hike with a broken wrist. After the walk Larissa, Katerina, and I went to the Hospital in South Lake where she was informed that she had a hairline fracture. She got a splint wrapped with ace bandages and a sling, and then it was back to business (she declined to fill the prescription for vicodin).
She did need a little help changing a diaper for a couple days but did not complain at all and is really pretty impressive. I knew she was tough (she puts up with me), but in the picture below she is putting on a brave face only minutes after the break.
On the trail to Grass Lake
The crew of kids. Pretty accomplished hikers: they managed maybe five miles at 9,000 feet with very few complaints. Note that we cruelly made Robert carry some stuff.
Half-way to Grass Lake
After lunch we found some good spots for photographs before the return trip
Desolation Wilderness group photo 1
Desolation Wilderness group photo 2
Desolation Wilderness group photo 3
On the way back down, taken by a photographer with a broken wrist
Sunday: Angora Lake
Sunday afternoon the Toldis left and Larissa (broken wrist) and Katerina (tired) rested for the afternoon at the campsite. The boys and I trekked to Angora Lake, which was rumored to have cliff jumping. It did in fact have cliff jumping, and I have always been a big fan of cliff jumping. But cliff jumping at 9,000 feet into glacial melt is on a completely different scale from cliff jumping from Indian Rock into Valcour Lake.
We didn't go cliff jumping, but we did go swimming, even though we did not spend a whole lot of time in the water.
Erick on the way up to Angora Lake
Group picture on the hike up to Angora Lake
On a rock not far from the shore
Erick at an intermediate stop on the return to shore
Robert swimming back from the rock
A picture taken immediately post-swim on the way back down
Headed back down to the car
A picture from the road on the return from the Angora Lake trail head. That is Fallen Leaf Lake below and Tahoe in the distance.
Baldwin Beach on Lake Tahoe
We enjoyed a couple trips to a beach not more than 5 minutes from the Fallen Leaf Lake campground on the south side of Lake Tahoe.
Baldwin Beach 1
Baldwin Beach 2. Katerina is emulating Robert, somewhat unsuccessfully.
Breakfast on Monday
We filled the entire campground with the smell of cooking bacon on Monday. I definitely would not have wanted to be anyone else that morning. Everyone was packing up to leave and we had a leisurely day because we didn't plan to leave until after dinner.
Bacon, spuds, eggs: the breakfast of champions
The Rubicon Peak trail in the Desolation Wilderness
On Monday we decided to go for broke and attempted to bag Rubicon Peak on the south shore. My newly purchased map from the visitor center rated the hike with 5 stars and described it as “strenuous”. The description showed 2300 feet of vertical gain in 2 miles, which is pretty rugged, but I thought we could do it. I was aiming for something memorable, and we definitely got that.
I would normally call a hike like this a “hidden gem”, but I had to upgrade Rubicon Peak to an “extravagantly hidden gem”. The directions to the trail said to turn on “Rubicon Estates” and park at the end of “Forest Hill”. It turns our there is no “Rubicon Estates”, although we did eventually find “Rubicon Properties”. There is also no “Forest Hill”, although we did eventually find “Forest View”.
The complications continued, because there was a recent controlled burn of the forest at the start of the hike, which destroyed most evidence of the trail. This is a hike off the beaten path, so there are no signs or even blazes on trees to mark the path. Once you get going it is fine, but the start is a little problematic.
It was truly an epic and memorable hike. The scenery was awesome, the trail was awesome, the weather was awesome, the company was awesome.
I do have to admit to miscalculating one factor: the snow.
On the way up 1
On the way up 2. The rock in the distance is Rubicon Peak.
One the way up 3. Note the intrepid hiker with the broken wrist.
Larissa taking a break and waiting for the rest of us to catch up
The unforeseen snow line
Even though you can see the snow in the hills from anywhere in the vicinity of Lake Tahoe, I neglected to factor it into my plans for the hike. After about a mile we hit the snow in ragged patches, and the patches soon started to get more frequent and more dense.
It got kind of ugly because no one wanted to give up, but it became obvious that we were not going to make it. Several times we kept going “another 10 minutes”, but at the end the snow was everywhere and the slope was too steep. We had lunch, then kept going “another 10 minutes”, then gave up and started back down.
For a while on the way back down we were technically “lost”, but since Lake Tahoe is a pretty good land mark we just needed to traverse until we found footprints in the snow to guide us back down.
Robert loved the snow
Erick loved the snow a little bit less but was a trooper
Most of the way up: lunch on a hard to find patch of ground without snow
The turn around point. I estimate we are maybe 500 feet from the summit. It is pretty steep and pretty slippery.
Back down slope on the return
This picture helps you understand how very nice the hike was
Final group picture on the Rubicon Peak trail. What. A. View.
Rubicon Peak from the road. We were pretty darn close, and hope to get back when there is less snow to bag it.
A final picture of Lake Tahoe from where we parked for the Rubicon Trail
One of my helpers unloading after we got back home
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