Labor Day 2014

Labor Day was unbelievably busy for the Nilssen household.  There is an area just under an hour away south of Tahoe called Blue Lakes.  We had never been there.  As stated, this is our 3rd summer and we are just scratching the surface of exploring the area.  We decided to take the canoe and go for a day trip to Lower Blue Lake.  Blue Lakes are reservoirs, and as can be expected from the low amount of snowfall this year the north end of the lower lake turns into a bunch of small islands.  I thought it would be fun for the kids to explore the islands and swim around. The area is maintained by Pacific Gas and Energy.  I think as part of the trade off of them using the area to generate electricity they are required to maintain the area for public use.  No day fees and the area was really up to date.  A very nice facility, and not very many people.


Before we left, I took Liv and Soren with me to get an oil change while Ashley took Svea to Wal-Mart to get equipment.  While at Jiffy Lube the kids and I ran over to Big 5 Sporting goods to get worms for fishing.  As we were going down the aisle, Liv was saying “These are the flies, these are the worms, these are the spoons, and these are the “Happy Guys.””

I don’t know why she thought the Lip Ripperz were “Happy Guys” but she insisted.
While Ashley and I were loading up Soren started on his kayak.

It was a reservoir, but the water was still very clear and clean.  There was a definite change in the water temperature.  Its colder.  Fall is on the way and not sure how many beach days we have left.  Soren did pretty well kayaking, but did need a tow after Ashley and I caught up to him.

We made it out to the islands and found a good one.  The kids immediately ran off claiming “their property.”  It was kind of like dumping 3 roaches out of a can onto the floor and just watching them scatter.

I used my 2mm wetsuit.  A few weeks ago Ashley was packing up the car to come home from Tahoe and she left her 2mm wetsuit and Soren’s 3mm wetsuit in the parking lot, so they did not have one to use.  No use in buying one for Soren at this point as we will have to see how much he grows over the winter before getting one next year.  Even with a 2mm it was still a little chilly.  I did take Soren and Svea over to the other island, but I had claimed it as my property, so I did not allow them to stay for very long.  I also snorkeled and had about 10’ of visibility.  There was nothing in the lake.  Just sandy bottom.

We did find a good rock to jump off.  I snorkeled below it to make sure we had good clearance.  When we went to Shealor Lakes, when I would jump off a rock I would throw another rock in the air and yell “grenade.”  The kids picked up on that right away and remembered – asking right away “Dad, can you do a green aid.” Took me a minute to remember what they were talking about, but they never get tired of it.  They were piling up rocks and saying “again! again!” every time I would get out.

It took some coaxing since the water was cold, but eventually I got Ashley to jump in.

We had dinner back at the car and it was getting late.  We walked across the spillway and below the dam where the water comes out.  Nice creek, probably full of trout.  We did not get the worms out as there did not seem to be a bunch of action happening.  On the way out we stopped at Charity Valley Creek to let Ashley get some fly fishing practice in.  She caught about 10 in an hour.  All really tiny, but its about the practice.

Good thing she was not supplying  dinner, but it does count – putting the fly where it needs to go, giving it a jerk when the fish bites, and then taking the fly out.  Picture below perfect form with a fish on! Dad also fished this culvert back in his April visit.  She pulled about 6 out of this culvert and could have got a bunch more but we had to get the kids home.

The next day was church.  Liv was too sick to go to nursery.  We all went to sacrament and then I came home and spent 2 hours packing up the car so that we could go to Mammoth Lakes.  We stayed at Coldwater Creek Campground.  We waited kind of last minute before we decided to reserve the campground so there was not a wide selection.  Our campground kind of sucked.  We were on top of another family and there was not much of a level area.  The good news is the other family was quiet and it was only for one night.

The town of Mammoth Lakes sits at elevation 8,000’.  It is really cool – 2 hours away from Minden and really nothing between Minden and Mammoth Lakes.  It is such a remote outpost.  Everyone there works in something they like to do.  I did put in for the public works director position a few months ago.  My heart wanted the job, but my head knew that it was not where I wanted to raise kids, but after the kids are gone I might need to take a closer look.  The campground was at elevation 9100’.  Temperatures were about 10 degrees above average, so overnight lows were only upper 40s.  We brought extra blankets for the kids, but they were ok without them.  If you look at the Google image above Mammoth Lakes there are about 1,000 lakes, all full of trout.  Mammoth Mountain Ski Area is in the background at elevation 11,060 and Mount Whitney which is over 14,000’ and the tallest peak in the continental US is about 2 hours south.  Very impressive Mountain range.
Coldwater Creek came down the west side of the campground, just a trickle with some small fish.  Mammoth Creek was along the east end of the campground and had some good sized brook trout.

The kids explored around (really just got their shoes wet in the creek) while I set up camp and Ashley started to cook dinner.  One thing they emphasize in scouts is that you have to cook well so the kids can realize that anything you can cook at home you can cook camping.  We had “camp nachos” for dinner and “dutch oven cinnamon rolls” for breakfast.  Great job Ashley for finding such a great website for camp food.  We did not even bring the campstove, did it all over the open fire with the dutch oven.
 
The first night after dinner we hiked to Emerald Lake.  It was only 1.5 miles roundtrip, which is not bad, but Svea was not into it.  She was screaming and crying and carrying on.  We had to take away her smores as punishment.  We got up to Emerald Lake and the fish were going crazy jumping.  It was like pop corn popping.  We got up there too late, it was too dark.  We only had 15 minutes to fish and too bad because if we would have had longer it would have been nice.

The next morning after breakfast we hiked to Arrowhead Lake.  It was 1.8 miles round trip – 600’ elevation gain.  It felt like a really hard hike.  Not sure why, but for a portion of it I did not think we were going to make it.  The cinnamon rolls took really long to bake.  The pit was wet from extinguishing the fire the night before and the coals underneath the oven did not stay hot.  We got out on the hike really late.

Are you tired of pictures of our kids hiking through the Sierra’s yet?  All the pictures look the same.  Mammoth Mountain in the background (area above Liv’s head) there is one of the ski runs just to the right of my hat.  You could see the lifts.  There was still some snow up in the area.  As recently as 1994 the resort opened for skiing in October and closed in August.  That’s a long ski season and in 2006 volcanic gasses killed  3 ski patrol.  It last erupted in 1400.  Soren’s picture shows Mammoth Mountain and Lake Mary behind him.


Like I said – not an easy hike, but eventually we made it to Arrowhead Lake which gets its name from its triangular shape. Notice who is in the pack and who is walking.  It was not Svea’s trip.

Like every lake up here – clean, cold, clear.  We threw out three lines with worms and Ashley and I both fly fished.  I went under the surface and Ashley above and no one got any bites.  We were there at the worst fishing time 2-4 or so.  There were a few jumping, but we could not get anything to bite.

Kids had a good moment when Liv and Svea were standing on a rock, Svea fell backwards and took Liv down with her.  Right into the freezing water.  They both were screaming and crying.  Ashley dressed in layers and used one of her shirts to put over Liv.  Somehow it turned into Svea claiming that she had “saved Liv’s life”, but I don’t remember that part of it.

Hiked out and it was really fast on the way down.  Not sure why the way up was so hard, but it was.  We got into Gardnerville around 7:00 and went to our favorite local Mexican place El Aguila Real.  Just like we did last Labor Day.  We were all dirty and gross, but they have outdoor seating so I did not feel so bad.

Of course dessert nachos:

So – lots of work.  Almost too much for one night.  Mammoth would be great to do with some more time and some more money.  I am glad we ran down to take a look, but you can see a 3 day weekend does not leave us rested.  That’s probably it for the summer.  No more camping as night time temperatures are going to be in the 30s soon.  It was fun and the kids enjoyed it.  Now that summertime beach days, camping and fly fishing are winding down we are looking forward to the snow and ski season!