Last Monday morning, before leaving Glenny & Kyle’s house, Tommy & I walked along the trail leading to the Folsom Dam. Despite it being feet from the roadway the dam, river and spillway were an impressive site.

We arrived at the Tahoe house mid-afternoon on Monday and unpacked the car of its multiple bags and cases. A quick inspection of the house let us know that all the appliances were in working order, the place was relatively clean, and most of the furniture was the same as last year. One slight problem was that both brackets that hold stuff in the door of the refrigerator were broken off. A little boating ingenuity solved the problem.

By now famished, we walked to Rojo’s, a great barbecue restaurant with bar. Tom had baby back ribs and Paula had barbecued chicken. Each meal was accompanied by a side of pasta in marinara, North Carolina style coleslaw, and hot bread.

Tuesday, we made a ginormous grocery trip to get staples and food that we’ll need for this weekend when the Glenny & the Cenats (Daica, Miller, Makai, and baby Tayva) will arrive. Kyle is away on a soggy fishing trip to Canada and will return next week. We hope he and Glenny will be here much of the time this summer.

Tahoe had a record amount of snow this winter, and as the lake is fed entirely by snow melt and mountain run-off. This resulted in much higher water levels and full mixing¹ of the lake water. The full lake mixing leads to incredible water clarity. The highwater level has covered over the narrow strip of beach that lined the area below our house and the ones adjacent. You can now walk down the stone steps right into the (cold) water. The lack of exposed ground has solved the problem of rotting lake floor vegetation continuing to grow on the beach, die, and rot with a bad smell.

Another change, possibly due to more water and moisture, is that the normal dawn and dusk appearance of tiny gnats has increased many-fold. This can make for a crooked path while running, as we jag and jog around these frequent clouds of tiny fliers.

Big clouds of gnats were everywhere

This hasn’t discouraged the many runners, bikers, or those in watercraft. We’ve seen paddleboarders, kayakers, the parasail boats and the tiny aircraft carrier that launches the hot air balloon. One morning the balloon took off right in front of the house, and we got views of it ascending and then descending to just touch the water, perhaps so those on board could see the water’s depth and clarity.

Some folks bring their watercraft with them via automobile. We are used to seeing paddleboards and kayaks on roof racks, but this petal-boat is a new one on us.

We were curious how the closest main public beach, El Dorado Beach, had fared, so we walked there after a dinner of grilled chicken thighs and roasted vegetables. The beach was smaller, but still of an enjoyable size, but were amazed and surprised to see a crowd gathering on the stone terracing above the beach. There was a collection of giant wooden horn instruments arranged in a line in their stands. At first, we thought they were didgeridoos, but then noticed a group of men and women in Tyrolean hats and garb. Turns out, we had stumbled into a planned alphorn (or alpenhorn) concert! (featured picture for this post)

Apparently, the Sierra Alphorn club is a big thing around here, and its members often hike with their disassembled instruments to remote locations to hear their group’s sound magnified and enhanced by the echoes off the mountains. The sound? Paula imagines that if a mournful cow could sing, it would sound like an alphorn.

Alphorn players

Besides the arrival of Glenny on Thursday night, the other highlight of our week was our first hike of the season on a trail new to us, the Cold Creek Trail. Cold Creek descends from the mountains and provides clear, cold drinking water to the local area. There are numerous large pines, birch, and low ground cover², much of it flowering. We did not see any squirrels, lizards, or bears.

We could hear the water rushing as we exited the fire road and entered the trail. At times we were well above the creek level and at others very close. Its rushing and birdsong were the predominant sounds, occasionally punctuated by the sound of other hikers, bicyclers and happy doggies. The trail was a slow uphill grade going up, and Paula was soon panting like a puppy, not yet acclimated. Tommy was more at ease. We took it easy, stopping to take pictures and drink lemonade, and turned around when we were tired. The way back was easy as a dream as we were now on an easy downhill. Tommy’s trail map program says we achieved almost 600 feet of elevation gain and had traveled four and one-half miles. We hope early easier hikes like this one will prepare us for some more longer, more challenging ones later.

Now we are preparing for the arrival of the Cenats, who will spend the weekend with us.

¹The normal bottom temperature of Lake Tahoe is around 40F. The surface can be as high as 60F, so there normally is a temperature gradient throughout the lake. About every 25 years, there is so much snow and ice on the top of the lake, that as it melts, it causes a mixing of the waters, such that the lake is one temperature throughout. This leads to a year of remarkable clarity of the water.

² Paula has an interest in pictures of and information about the flora and fauna that we see. It would make the blog posts too cumbersome to include all that in the posts themselves, so we are creating kind of an appendix in the Land Trips category, a separate blog that will contain this info and be added to during our stay. Check it out if you like!