How do you ring in December in the Sierra Nevada Mountains? You hit the beach of course. A huge storm is passing through this weekend with 30 MPH winds on Tahoe. The surf report today was 2-6 foot waves – tomorrow up to 7 feet. It was erratic, some great waves followed by periods of smaller waves. Sure the water is 47 degrees and will kill you between 1-3 hours if you unprotected, but with a hooded 5mm wetsuit (Thanks for the early Christmas Ashley) its not that bad (except when you take a direct splash to the face). If you notice I don’t have boots or gloves yet (they are in the mail and will get here on Tuesday – Thanks Mom!), so my feet hurt so bad. Every rock stepped on or bump by the body board was painful. Can’t wait for the boots to arrive. For gloves I put on thin liners then dishwashing gloves over them and then I duct taped them really tight around the wrists. It kind of worked. Unfortunately Ashley’s wetsuit and boots arrive on Tuesday, so she had to sit this one out. There were three surfers in the water with me. I am sorry if this is starting to look like a surfing blog, its not the intent, its just its been 18 years since my last summer on Cape Cod regularly body boarding and now to be in a place where you can do it once a month or so has been AWESOME! (Add in fly fishing, hiking, and quiet and I can hardly believe my good fortune – whoever knew the Genoa greater metropolitan area even existed?)
Ashley always just gets videos of me on the small waves I swear. I catch some real monsters.
We did that for an hour or so. Then we drove to South Lake Tahoe for lunch at one of our favorite burger places Izzy’s
Then we drove over the Luther Pass into national forest. We purchased a Christmas Tree permit for $10. The only rules are the tree cannot have a diameter of greater than 6-inches (that’s huge!), it must be within 10-feet of another tree (reduces competition for nutrients), and it has to be within a mapped area. Helps thin the forest and allows you to get a great tree. It was a little difficult as we only had limited hiking stamina and terrain due to three kids. Everything close to the road was pretty much picked over so I would up going up the side of a steep mountain. I found an unbelievable tree. I cut it down then realized how heavy it was, how far away from everyone I was, and how steep the mountain side was. I put the thing on my back and made it down. Most trees you find in the wild are wind blown on one side or crooked, but this one is awesome. I feel guilty for cutting it down, but I have to remind myself I did the forest a favor. That was a lot of driving for one day.
It was a tough week at work with some really politically difficult situations rearing their heads. I love where I live. I feel peace being at home. When its been 9 years since you can say that, and I did not hate Phoenix I was very neutral there except I didn’t feel safe in my own home, it makes anything that happens at work worth it (except getting canned, because then you can’t live here anymore).
No comments:
Post a Comment