Going back in time.......

Well, we haven't posted anything to the blog in six weeks. Why ? 'cause we've been working our a#*'s off and enjoying being here at the same time, that just didn't leave us any time !

Sooo.... what I'm gonna do is try and go back in time from here with some pictures we have taken. There's a bunch and that's not even enough. I'm going to write a short caption and that's all so here goes...

Today, Friday was our Sunday so we went to a real ghost town named "Bodie". It's an abandoned mining town with only about 5% of the buildings left, it was as if the people just closed the doors and walked away. Clothes, furniture, food and equipment is still  there.....

Some of the town as we started our walk through

The Methodist Church, the last service was in 1932, the Ten Commandments were displayed behind the pulpit...but they were stolen.

Here's the front of the church...hey! that's me going in!

Some houses, can't remember the details about them

Inside the church, you can see the huge area where the Ten Commandments were, I wouldn't want to be the poor soul that stole those!

I thought the steeple was neat, the roof of the steeple was metal but the hip lines were carved wood

Another house and building out back.

This is another side of the building out back, kinda leaning a bit, huh?

This was an old car or truck, I'm trying to figure it out

Some of the detail on the homes were well done, all made by hand tools

This was the bank vault, the building was burned up in the town fire

A doorway of the bank that was left standing

A shot down 'Green Street'. The building on the right,brick, was the Hydroelectric plant...more later

The school house, the books, desks, a globe, pictures and students projects were still inside.

This is the front doorknob on the undertakers building. It is highly polished wood, inside there were still coffins for children and adults on display.

Well there's a lot more but that's enough to maybe get you to Google Bodie, CA and read a bit of the history. Quite interesting.....
Well that was most of today, yesterday we did a few things around the place then drove into town to get some groceries and things, last week was work as usual, although it is easing up some now that we have the cabins open and repaired....mostly. Last week end (our weekend) we went on a great hike, there's tons of trails here, miles and miles of all types, but we took a hiking trail right out our door. Here's a few pics...

This is coldwater Creek, it's actually where we get our drinking water from. Mo is thinking 'how are we going to cross this?'

The creek is really flowing with all the snow melt, fast and clean.

This is a pool area that is crystal clear, the water is about 2' deep.

Looking out over a flooded area, there is so much water from the record snowfall that the creeks were flooding.

Ahhhhhh...... we're jacked back looking out over Emerald Lake and the mountain beyond, it was a good climb up the mountain to here

Another shot, the rock at the left is Crystal Crag.

A better shot of Crystal Crag and Emerald Lake... and a twisted old tree trunk.

Emerald Lake

and the mountains beyond. We would soon be there.

This is a small stream that fed into Emerald Lake from Skelton Lake. The trail up was still snowed under.

Mo's eating lunch

This is an almost gone snow cave ..kinda. What happens is the creek runs under the snow and creates a tunnel, as the snow melts it becomes thinner. As you hike you have to listen for running water, you can fall through the snow and end up in a cold, fast creek. It can be very dangerous.

A view of Crystal Crag as we got closer

and closer

A view from a mountain top we crossed over. I don't think we ever got over 10,500' elevation

We turned around and took this shot of Crystal Crag.

This is looking out over TJ Lake at CC.

This twisted tree is in a meadow off Lake Mary Road. 

We made it home from our first real hike, we figure from the GPS it was about 6+ miles, not that far but a lot of fun. There were times when the trail was still under snow so we would have to search out the trail up ahead...ON ON. We had a great time and can't wait for more adventures in the woods.

Still going back in time, it's about 3 weeks ago here, Mo and I both were going full bore at work trying to get the cabins ready for guests, repairs done inside and out; it's amazing how much damage the snow can do, and learning how the lodge operates. The days have been long and hard so we had almost stopped our "exercise", walking and running. We finally got started back with walking around Lake Mary, a distance of about 2.5 miles. Here's a few pictures we took during one of our walks.......

Here's a guy fishing along the bank, this is a huugggge fishing area.

Duhhh......

A typical tree, some are giants

Looking down across Twin Lakes

Again looking down the falls at Twin Lakes, but you see that spot at the lake edge? That's a fisherman float fishing, the water temp is about 40'. Can you say "shrinkage"?

This is the falls going down into Twin Lakes

Crystal Crag viewed from across Lake Mary

Another shot of CC and Lake Mary

Lake Mary

Crystal Crag

Looking across Lake Mary, if you look close, you can see some of the cabins where we work

A 'Steller Jay' on a rock, it's a beautiful bird, a type of bird we know as a Blue Jay

Our July 4th party by the fire

From the left, Mo, Tom, Harry and MaryJo (Harry's wife)

Sunset on the 4th

Well we finally got the motor home up the mountain after much work digging the snow out of the site, the only site we could fit and maneuver into. It wasn't the ideal one but it will do. we'll make it homey as we have time, but first we had to extend the site to accommodate us soooo.........

I had to build a platform on the mtn side to back the MH up enough

I'm no engineer and I only had a 4' level but I dug down to solid ground and started building a tiered platform from 4X8's. Actually, I built 2 platforms, one for each tire. I drove 3-4' steel stakes on the downhill side of the first level to help keep it from sliding down the hill.

This is about a week ago, the snow has melted a lot, when I built it I had to dig out the snow, it scrapped the bottom of the motor home.

Looking at the back from across the creek

The snow has melted now and I can walk under the back end, sure hope there's no earthquakes!

We hear this creek every morning when we wake up. I'm looking down at it from under the motor home

Enough of that. Here's a few more pics of before the road was plowed and we were still snowmobiling up to work, these were taken about June 3rd. A lot had melted but there was still a lot of snow............

This cabin had a huge tree fall on it last October, one week after the crews had left. The owner got it cut up and plywood and black plastic on the roof while it was snowing. We had just gotten into survey the interior damage to see if it would be rentable.

Looking across Lake Mary, it was frozen about 3 feet thick in the center, once it started to melt and break up it went pretty fast. I think it was boatable about June 20th.

This is a cute little cabin that was completely under snow.

This is looking at the lodge, it's 2 stories. When Michael and Carin come out they will stay upstairs, that will be their balcony.

These are our boats against the tree. When we got here you could just see the point of the bow. (14' boats)

This picture and....

This one are trying to show the men out on the lake ice fishing.

Harry, MaryJo and Pam getting ready to get on the snowmobiles to go home after a days work.

Mount up! , Lets get out of here!!

I'll end this post here, it's beautiful country here and everyday it gets evem more so. We wake up and wonder how we got here and get ready for a new day and a new adventure. God has Blessed us so much.........