What to do with the kids today? After cleaning the church in the morning and going to Maverick for cinnamon rolls we laid out the rest of our day. We decided to do a hike to Shealor Lake. The kids are great hikers. Five miles round trip is about their limit, and I feel like I have subjected them to child abuse if we go that far. One mile is not enough to tire them out, so you need something between 1 and 5 that still has a goal that gets them excited. On Wednesday I read about Shealor Lake. It’s a 3 mile round trip hike that only gains about 400 feet and ends at one of the 1000 alpine lakes in the area.
You can see from above from the trail head west goes to lower Shealor Lake and there is a smaller Upper Shealor Lake. Ashley packed lunch, swim suits, towels, and fly fishing gear. I packed all the water, sunscreen, and Liv. The hike was not bad. I read that the trail was a little hard to follow and suggested that you take a picture of the trail at the trail head for reference. The trail was not that bad to follow in the end, but it seemed like a good idea to have the photograph for reference.
The Sierras really are great. There is always something to see, something different, something the kids notice today that they had not seen before. We see tons of butterflies of all different colors, huge trees, or trees with unique features. Today was 3 huge mushrooms, some lizards, we walked through one area of forest where there were a lot of trees that had fallen over. The trees wrap their huge roots around these large boulders and when the fall they uplift the boulders with them. Kind of cool.
We reached the first summit pretty quickly and could see our destination below.
Or you could look behind and see Silver Lake in the background
Or you could look to the right and look on forever
Beautiful Vistas all around. We used to take the kids to Rio Salado fake water fall or South Mountain Park to get them out of the house. Those days are in the rear view – Thank Goodness.
After getting to the summit I took Liv out of the backpack. She wanted to walk and she took off. I kept up with her. Here I am looking left to Liv and then right to the slow pokes in the back.
We made it down to the lake and had lunch.
After lunch Soren went to his favorite hobby of producing drinking water. The 2nd photo is all the kids around the water purifier. After the bottle is full there is a small hole to let air out. It squirts water out under pressure and all the kids were trying to catch the water in the air. Basically what happens is they are filtering water that then goes back into the lake. Seems like a waste of time, but they enjoy it. I asked Soren “Isn’t it great to hike to a place that you can explore and swim?” He said “Yes, and filter water.” Everyone needs a hobby, at least he will have a cheap retirement.
Of course it did not take long and we were all in our swim suits cooling off. One guy on the way down said the water temperature was 70 degrees. Not sure what it was, but pretty comfortable with no wetsuits. I did bring a snorkel and mask. The water was not super clear – not Tahoe, but about 10 feet of visibility. The lake got real deep, real fast. It was not a sandy bottom. The bottom was nice close to the bank, but became a collection of mucky pine needles, pine cones, and other stuff pretty quick. I swam across the whole lake and in the far side (by the big granite cliffs shown in the picture above with Liv and Svea) you could probably sink down 3 feet into the pond muck. I did not see any evidence of fish. Ashley gave fly fishing about 20 minutes with no luck, so we did not give fishing any additional time. I did push the kids around on a “pirate ship for a while.” We did go farther out than the above pictures.
Then Soren wigged out. I pushed him into shore into about 1 foot of water with a rocky bottom. He would not go in the rest of the way because he thought the bottom was “sludge” even though at that point the bottom was 100% rock. From the video even Liv offered to go get him and help him in. He wanted me to go get him and carry him in – no way.
Ashley finally got in. We spent time jumping off the rocks and into the water – not a huge drop. Maybe 2 feet.
The forecast said 30% chance of rain at 4:00 pm. Around 1:00 the storm clouds started to roll in.
It held with just some thunder, but no lighting or rain. We finally decided to start our hike back. It started to rain about 20 minutes into our hike. Not pouring, but the wind started to pick up and some lightning. Svea was not feeling the hike on the way out. You have to ascent to the top of the hill before going down to the parking lot. I carried Svea & Liv about 1/2 the way out (Liv fell asleep as soon as she was in the carrier and slept all the way to the car even though it was raining on her). Ashley carried Svea about 1/4 of the way and she walked her self out a very slow 1/4 of the way. From the summit to the car she walked the whole way. We made it to the car damp, but not soaked through. It was a drizzle, but mostly just kept you cool. Grateful the weather was not worse and the rain was not stronger.
Soren was the master hiker again today. In the front or toward the front the whole time. No complaining, just walking. He rarely complains when hiking and really seems to enjoy it. Liv also gets after it, and in a few years will be a hiking force. Svea likes to hike, but is slow. She wants to smell every flower, see every bush, go the long way. She also needs to be in the mood. When she is feeling it, she is great, but she usually takes 1/4-1/2 mile to warm up.
All in all you have to love it. It was a good hike. I feel like I had a great weekend. I did not know about this hike until Wednesday and just happened to find it. There are 100 more like it within 45 minutes and 1000 more within an hour. We went to Silver Lake a bunch last summer and have not been once this summer because there is just to many other locations we need to get about and see.
Also for the last year every time we go to Maverick Soren eyes the "chill pipes." Chill pipes are metal straws that supposedly make the drink colder when it reaches your mouth. Today I finally told Soren to pick one (they are $1 - I should have let him get one a year ago). Soren is so happy. I wish I would have waited until Christmas to get it for him.
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You have to be 12 before you are old enough to handle a straw? I had a BB gun at age 8 and a .22 at age 12 which I used unsupervised all the time. So at age 12 you can use a straw and then 4 years later you can drive? Seems like a big jump.
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