Staying Home for Memorial Day Weekend - May 2018

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A Good Idea?

We live in an extremely popular outdoor area that is close to large urban centers. Weekends draw huge crowds. Holiday weekends are truly scary with the hordes. On a weekend it is difficult to make the turn onto the County Road we live off of because of the line of traffic. Do not even think of going to our local Safeway grocery store on a weekend , a place we call "The Beer and Chip Capital of the World". Armed with this information, you can see why those lonely campsites we seek out with vast expanses with no people around are so attractive to us.

We stayed home for Memorial Day Weekend - well, kinda sorta.

Saturday we left well before dawn and after stopping for a nice breakfast in Tahoe City, we drove to Graeagle to deliver a project to one of my customers.The rainy, drizzly weather kept the roads fairly quiet. We circled back home on the backroads.

Sunday was for hiking. Our friend Cathy wanted to come along. The nearby Caples Creek area is outstanding. It is attractive for us because we can get there without using a state highway. It is just up the road.

Water was high with the melting snow pack upcountry.

The above photo is of the confluence of the Silver Fork of the American River and Caples Creek. The alders were just beginning to leaf out and the Western Azalea was in full bloom.  

We seem to always leave the trail in the Jake Schneider Meadow area and climb to the top of a high granite outcrop for a snack and the view. With these two women together, I had to expect a little erratic behavior.

We usually do an early season loop hike in this area and then pass on information about downfall across the trail and other needs for maintenance to the mule group that does the volunteer work out here. We also knew they were taking a break from attending Mule Days in Bishop and would be doing a ride out here today.

It would also be a surprise for Cathy - she's had livestock and horses in the past - to finally meet our friend Barking Spider's new mule Amos.

The mules caught up with us at Government Meadow and Barking Spider got to show off Amos.

All it takes is carrots to get Amos eating out of your hand.

A famous Barking Spider quote when he is asked about his mule - "Why don't you just ask him?" The three of them - Amos, Barking, and Cathy - retired for a private conversation.

There is a loop trail route around the Caples area but the ford of Caples Creek was chest high and ice cold. The mules were not even crossing.

The three of us resumed our hike by crossing Caples on a downed log.

There was a bit of a pucker factor for two of us.

This section of Caples Creek is beautiful fly fishing water.

Caples is known for its stands of remaining old growth forest including magnificent Sugar Pines.

Although there were a few other folks out hiking, we only met one other person on the loop on the south side of Caples Creek. This was wonderful for this holiday weekend.

The girls continued to be great company - always - and put up with taking direction from me for staged photos.

We climbed the ridge separating  Caples Creek from the Silver Fork and dropped down to a wonderful section of the Silver Fork along the trail.

I know, some of you are asking , "Why are you not here every evening with your fly rod?"  I do not have an answer I can effectively defend.

We took a short break...........................

......................and then headed over to cross Caples Creek to return to the trailhead.

This was a nice 10 to 12 mile hike close to home.

Monday was Memorial Day. Let's always take time to reflect on the meaning of this day and remember those who died while serving in our armed forces.

I was thinking about all that beautiful trout water we had seen on Sunday but Barking Spider had talked the Lady into joining him on another one of his passions - sailing.

Jenkinson Reservoir is a couple miles down the road from us, one of the most popular recreation areas in our county and the reason for those long lines of traffic.Barking and Mom Spider keep their Catalina in a slip on Jenkinson in the early season before moving the boat up to Lake Tahoe in July. You can understand the sailing passion now, can't you?

We waited until one pm for the wind to come up before heading down to the reservoir. And, most weekend visitors were packing up and heading for home.

When you sail with Barking Spider, he makes you sail. You do not just go along for the ride. One of our biggest adventures happened on Jenkinson while sailing with Barking - a gust of wind while sailing up the channel - the stuff of legends. But, a tale for another time. Ask us about it sometime if you remember.

I'll just let the photos tell the story of a warm Memorial Day afternoon.

Yes, the Lady had her see mores and she reported spotting a mermaid and a walrus.

Was staying home for the holiday weekend a good idea? You bet it was, and, I suspect, many of you will never let me grouse about where we live. As in so many aspects of our lives, we are always thankful and feel lucky and blessed.

Addition - we gave our report to the mule group and yesterday the Lady went along on the work day and swamped for the sawers. They love to have that hard working woman along. And, they keep talking about needing to get her on a mule....................