Crater Lake

Hello, This weekend was General Conference for the church, so we did not have to go to the building.  We did watch the first two hour session, but then decided to get the kids out.  We decided to hike to Crater Lake.  Crater Lake Oregon, is a beautiful Alpine Lake in a remnant volcano.  Crater Lake California is a man made irrigation reservoir.  The lake sits at elevation 8600’ in a glacial cirque in a magnificent amphitheater, but the water itself is pretty gross.  The good news is that it is full of brook trout.  Its one of the only locations the fly store tells you to keep and eat your catch to try and thin down the numbers a little.  It’s a pretty good hike to the lake.  You can actually drive pretty close to the lake, but not in a Mazda 5.  You need something a little more substantial. 

When Dad came last week he gave us his old GPS.  He also brought the California Topo Maps.  You open the topo maps then chart your “Waypoints” and that is your trail.  The GPS tells you direction, distance, elevation, estimated time to each of the waypoints.  You can also place a waypoint at a location of interest, tall peaks, mines, springs, anything you think might be useful to know the direction and location.  It will be very helpful.

Soren is an awesome hiker and Soren also loves computers.  This was like merging the best of both worlds for him.  He was the first one in the car and ready to go.  The second we opened the door on for the hike he was running up the road trying to make it to waypoints.  At each waypoint the kids got 5 M&Ms.  We made it 4.16 miles total and gained just over 1100-feet. Below shows you our exact path up and back and we did map some of the mines just in case.  You can drive up to “Fork” and previously in our Sentra I made it to “BEDN4.” Due to some rains this summer we started at “Bend1.” When that was as far as we made it in the car I thought we were toast, no way the kids would make it.

The Autumn leaves were in full change.  It was a great hike through some thick forests. In the second picture – notice how clean Liv’s face is and then wait until you get to the last picture of the day.

If you look above Soren’s head you can see the tailings of a mine labeled as “Mine2” on our waypoint map.

Wonderful views of Hope Valley below.  The changing leaves and bare peaks in the background.  It was great.

 

Finally 1100-feet later we made it to the lake. I was shocked we made it.  Seemed like an impossible goal when we started – over 2 miles one way and the elevation gain.  It was actually warm today was well – high 75 in Minden.  As stated, the lake itself isn’t much to look at.

The fishing was great as well.  We went for about 1.5 hours and each caught 7 fish with additional fish that got away.  They were not big – 8 inch maximum.  I feel bad – dad was here last weekend and it rained the whole time.  We went fishing once and caught nothing really.  I did not think today would be good, but it was.  They were really coming to the surface.  Even mid day (3-4:30 PM).

We did bring a spinning rod for Soren.  He was casting pretty good and probably could have caught something.  When he reeled in, his hook would have “pond weed” on it.  I cleaned it off for him the first 3 times and then he refused to touch the “pond weed” so he was done.  There was some snow from last weeks storms still there so the kids played in that, explored, and ate.  Liv became a mess of Doritos, Famous Amos Cookies, and Fruit Snacks.  She even exclaimed “My skin is not the right color!” Look at her face and hands

Walk back – beautiful

So – I hope your weekend was as wonderful as ours.  We are looking forward to ski season – hiking is on the way out and skiing on the way in.  We bought all our winter coats, goggles, and helmets for the upcoming season.  Always something to look forward to.  Love living in the Sierras!