MORE CATCH-UP; MOM & CAMP 2012

July, 2012.    Still trying to blog the rest of 2012.  I’ve always been a world-class procrastinator, but this is pretty ridiculous.  Mom comes out from Indianapolis every July to go with us for a week up to camp at Fallen Leaf Lake.  She’s always glad to escape the Indiana heat and humidity, and is not above gloating about our coastal weather to her friends back home.  Note the 68 degrees shown in the lower right of the clock.  Mom was 89 in this photo.  She’s been dying that hair for at least 50 years, and the beauticians marvel at how fine and soft it still is.  You got the genes, Mom!

July, of course, means the 4th and our local parade for which most of the town turns out.  It’s virtually the same from year-to-year, but no one cares.  They do draw some excellent bands, including one of the Marine Corps units, always a favorite.

Camp is always a highlight of our year.  We’ve been doing it now for 31 years.  While it’s all familiar, it’s never the same.  For us, it’s a great opportunity to share our cabin (2 bedroom) for a week with a rotating cast of family and friends.  This year, John and Meghan joined us.  It was the first time in many years that John was able to come up, and it was Meghan’s first.

Unfortunately, poor Meghan, despite her brave front, was really suffering from a flu-like bug that laid her low for the first few days, fever, congestion, the whole works.  The rest of us were lucky to escape unscathed.  She was able to enjoy some hiking and boating the second half of the week, so it wasn’t a total loss.  The kayaking is on Fallen Leaf.  The hike is on the way to Grass Lake.  The smiley faces are in front of Lake Winnemucca.   

John and I did the more strenuous hike without the gals.  This year that was a trek to Lake Jabu.  It’s an all-day affair, and the route of choice is to caravan up to Echo Lakes, about a half hour away.  We then pay our money to ride the launch from the eastern base of the lower lake to the western far side of the upper, including threading the “Jungle Cruise” portion between the two lakes (called Dartmouth Cove, for no explicable reason) where we watch for animatronic hippos.  Once at the far end, we hike up to Lake Aloha, which lies in the Desolation Wilderness.  It’s always interesting to see whether it’s been a good winter or a mild one.  Aloha is very shallow, and in the summer following poor snow years it’s more of a collection of rock islands surrounded by scant water.  This year, however, it was  fairly full, but not as good as in the best years. 

We follow Aloha’s northeast shore for a while until we hit the magic turnoff point, where we’re supposed to turn right and clamber up a steep shale face to reach Jabu, which is perched on the very top.  This turn is completely unmarked, and depending on who’s leading the hike, varies from year to year.  This year, we blew it big time, and turned off way too late.  This resulted in a lot of lateral rock hopping along the slope as we tried to find the right “saddle” above which lay Jabu.  There were as many opinions as hikers, but we did finally find it.d  The views are great in both directions:  looking across the lake at the peaks behind Aloha (Pyramid left?  Agassiz right?), and then over the cliff back towards Fallen Leaf in the distance.

We skipped Games Day, which is great for families with kids, in order to spend the day driving to Carson Pass and taking our favorite hike to Lake Winnemucca.  Since you start at the top of the pass, the trail is mostly flat or gently rolling all the way to the lake.  Mom even did this one into her early 80’s.  Puffing and protesting, of course, but she did it.  This year was pretty decent for wildflowers, although not the huge displays of the best years.  We ate lunch on the big rocks around the lake.

You can’t beat sharing Camp with family.  This was a very good year.  Except for the beard.