July 4th 2015

Erik had a day off on Friday in honor of Independence day, so of course it was time for another Nilssen Family adventure!

We loaded up all the gear, lunch and the canoe and drove up to Blue Lakes.  It takes about 45 minutes to get there from our house.  The drive was beautiful as the wildflowers are out in full force.  The pollen is also in abundance, as you can see from the yellow residue on the beach in the pictures of the lake.  It was a beautiful day with big white fluffy clouds and just between warm and hot - the perfect temperature for rowing and swimming.  It was surprisingly empty.  We wanted to avoid the big 4th of July Tahoe crowds, but Blue Lakes was just about empty.  The campgrounds in the vicinity were full, but not many people on the Lake.

The sign in the picture below says "Maximum High Water Level" I don't think we are going to make it this year.

We rowed across the lake to the islands we visited last September.  The lake was a lot lower.  That was surprising; the other mountain lakes we have visited this year have been significantly higher than last fall.  Blue lakes is a managed reservoir system however, so that must explain the difference in water levels.  Water this year is lower at the first of July than it was the first of September last year.  Significantly (5-feet +) lower.

After we found a nice parking spot on a sandy beach for the canoe, we set off in search of a geocache.   The name of the cache was "Scobert's Island" all the area in view behind me should be under water.  The clue for the cache was "under a fir just above the high water line."  Was not even "Scobert's Peninsula" this year, just Scobert's mainland.  I was the lucky winner this time.

While exploring the island we ran across an interesting patch of quartz.  The kids were able to add several types of minerals to their growing collection.

Evidence of the lower lake level: the green area was all under water last time we visited. We swam from one island to the other.

Unfortunately we didn't get many pictures of the swimming.  Liv was the only kid who stayed dry this trip.  Her wetsuit developed a big leak and wasn't keeping her warm.  She took the opportunity to learn how to drive the kayak and was quite skilled by the end of the day, zipping all around the rocks and obstacles while we swam.  She was funny, going back and forth across the channel, beaching they kayak then pushing off again "I need to go check on Svea" she would say as she pushed off.  Everybody else donned their wetsuits and spent the afternoon swimming and jumping off of rocks.  The water was COLD!

Once we got so cold we couldn't stand it anymore we got out of our wet clothes and canoed back to the boat ramp.  We took on a couple of geocaches and some fly fishing.  This scene was so picturesque, and we had our eye on trying a fly below the damn.  When the fly was dropped it immediately was pulled underwater with a splash of a trout tail, but I was unable to land any fish.  With my polarized glasses you could see tiny ~1-2 inch trout aggressively attacking the fly and pulling it under, but they were so small they could only push my fly around and not swallow it.

On the way home we stopped at the trusty Charity Valley creek culvert for a little extra fishing.  I was able to catch a few fish, and then we let each of the kids take a turn catching one as well.  The setting was achingly beautiful.  Wildflowers, sunset, mossy boulders and the bubbling brook - bliss! 

I would like to point out the Liv is actually the most interested in fishing.  She pretends fish and will cast a line out and sit on the bank and watch it (even though nothing is in the water).  She will watch Erik and I fish and wants to touch and see the fish.  It was our pleasure to give her the shot to reel one in.

  

This picture best captures the face of someone who has been through a day of a Nilssen Family Adventure, canoeing, geocaching, hiking, swimming, and fishing!

This picture is pretty amazing.  Look a the creek - what is it? 2-feet wide by 6-inches deep?  Look at the gape jaw on this fish - it measured in around 12-14 inches.  Probably the biggest fish in the whole creek.  Notice Fuzz's little hands clapping in the foreground.

We woke up on Saturday morning ready for more adventure.  It was cloudy and rainy, but the rain let up long enough to allow us to hike up to Castle Rock on the mountain above Lake Tahoe.  Geocache number 1 was the Scary Tree Geocache.  The poor Scary Tree had blown over sometime this winter, but the cache was still there for the taking.

The Castle Rock Trail was beautiful with wildflowers.  Once again we had perfect temperatures, chilly and overcast with just a little bit of rain.

Svea was in heaven with all the different kinds of flowers to examine.

The view from the top was breathtaking.  You could see remains of the Gondola fire (2002) and Heavenly, and of course stunning views of Lake Tahoe.

Svea was the lucky winner this time, finding a cleverly concealed geocache in the rocks with Tahoe in the background.

 Another Nilssen Family Adventure must:  treats from Maverick at the top: (Erik has learned form the kids that when you take a picture, you need to hold up your treats to be viewed)

The kids flew down the trail.  We made it back to the car just as it started to rain again.  Once at home we rested up for the highly anticipated Carson City fireworks show.  We haven't been to an official fireworks show since our first year here in 2012 (2013 we went to Silver Lake all day and were worn out by the time fireworks started.  2014 I was in Idaho with the kids and Erik was in Desolation Wilderness).  The kids were very excited.  

Free ice cream at the church

Playing Frisbee and killing time on the Carson High School lawn (no one there - not a high population area).  

Some kind stranger gave us glow stick necklaces that kept the kids entertained most of the night.

All ready for the show

 The fireworks started so late.  We were all getting cold and tired by the time the show began.  It was so fun to hear how excited the kids were about the whole thing.  They are the perfect age for this kind of thing right now.

 And now time to recover before the next adventure...Going to Island Park Idaho for a week with my family.