The End...... ?

Well we got to the end of our first season of working in the Sierra Nevada Mtns at Crystal Crag Lodge. It was a great summer, a lot of hard work, great adventures in the area and lots of new friends. Mo and I both agreed we would like to return next year for another season, the owner and managers welcomed us to return, so we'll be traveling back next May.
We were so busy I didn't get to post in the blog as I'd like to have, I didn't get to run as much as I'd like to have either! Mo worked hard, too, and she also was ready to crash early every night. We had such a great summer it's hard to recap it in words, we even just about stopped taking pictures. I'm gonna post the pics we did take and, again, just give a brief comment about each.

Here is Mo trying to show the size of the trees, this one is 'average'.

The summer was really moving fsat, seemed everyday started and all of a sudden it was evening, there wasn't a day that past that something eventful didn't happen. The cabins had a wide variety of guests but mostly everyone came from the southern area of California, San Fernando area and Los Angeles  mostly. Everyone was great and really glad to be in the cool climate. They were coming from HOT desert conditions and we were consistantly in the 40' to 70' range. I think I said previously that the cabins are on a lake, Lake Mary, and so almost everyone fished. There were groups of fishermen that would rent several cabins, 3-6 cabins, and fish and party the whole week. We saw a lot of fish caught, Trout was the main fish, and since moany guests were there to fish and relax, not cook and clean, we got a fair share of fresh trout to eat. I'd throw them straight on the grill! We'd eat our fill that night and I'd debone the rest for sandwiches the next day. (or fish tacos...YUM!) Some days bears would come through, actually, quite often. It was kind of comical at times, the bears are very smart, they know the fishermen are along the bank with stringers of fish, lunchbags and drinks. The bears would just walk along the shore line, the fishermen would move up to the road when they saw the bear coming, the bear would eat the fish, the lunch and then move on down the shore to the next meal! We always knew when they were coming when we say the fishermen coming up to the road and then going back down in a way that resembled the 'wave' at a baseball game. There was one mother bear that had two cubs, one black and one brown, that came all summer. We got to see them grow from little babies to big fat chubbies ready to hibernate for the winter.
One of the highlights of the summer was when Michael and Carin came out to visit for almost a week. They flew into Los Vegas, rented a car a drove up. They stayed in the owners apartment above the lodge. We hiked and jeeped as much as we could together and they explored the rest of the time either in the Jeep or the car. her are a couple of pictures of a hike we took one day, this is only a few of the many but ........

 Here we are starting the hike, it was a gorgeous day

 The trail enters the JM Wildernes and runs beside several mountain lakes.

 Well as we were hiking up Michael informs us that Sarah dared him to jump in one of the lakes. Now you might guess that a dare from a sister is not to be taken lightly and Michael of course then double dared me too. So, here Michael is coming out of a snow melt lake at 10,000' elevation. When he dove under and came up you could hear him holler a mile away !

 Here I am coming out.....fast! (Forgot to rotate the picture again)

 Well here you go Sarah, we did it! We got dressed quickly and had some lunch. That seemed like a good turn around point so we headed back down, it was probably about a 12 mile hike that was perfect!

While Michael and Carin were there we went on a jeep drive to a canyon we knew of called Silver Canyon. Mo and I drove up it a ways earlier in the year but it was late so we didn't go all the way. We got there and I turned the Pilots seat over to Michael. Carin sat up front with him, we didn't know she wasn't fond of heights, that just added to the entertainment!

 As we headed up the canyon 'road' we had about 6 water crossings, we came upon these mountain goats about stream #3. there were two that we saw and they weren't spooked at us, this is maybe 15 feet away.

 They just kinda walked up the hill aways a looked back

 Here's a shot looking back down where we came from

 This is a good section of road, I can tell because Michael took the picture!  on the left it is a steep high drop off.

 Again, a shot from where we came from.

 We made it to the top and had another couple take our picture.

 At the top there is a Bristle Cone forest. These are the oldest living plants on earth. Some date back to before Christ. This is a very protected area.

 Some of the blooming flowers that were everywhere. These are Indian Paintbrush

We all sat around the fire at night and Tom entertained us with his music. We went on other adventures but as you can tell, you just had to be there to experience it. Looks as though Michael and Carin are going to return next year and bring Sarah and Josh with them. THAT will be a time to remember! Who knows, maybe Sam and Leah will come too.


Moving on;
Later on, the first of August or so, Debbie and Chuck had a business trip scheduled to Los Angeles. We made arrangements at our work to take an extra day off and drove down to meet them. You have to understand, Debbie is Mo's closest friend, maybe ever, so this was not to be missed! We made our hotel reservation close to where they were staying, maybe two blocks away, and left early to get there. The drive was easy and the sights kept our attention. It was great to see them both. Here's a couple of pics we took.

"THE WITCH" and Chuck aka Bubba Chuck

and Mo and I. Here is a picture of the famous sign. Mo and Debbie drove around until they found it.

 We had a faarwell breakfast and headed back to Crystal Crag Lodge.

August and September seemed to fly by, all of a sudden we where looking at the end of the season and starting to get ready to close up the property for winter. The Lodge closes on Columbus Day for guests and that gives us about 5 days to shut it all down. Clean and inventory the inside, clear the porches, remove outside lights, board up windows, doors, chimneys, turn off water and drain all pipes, turn off gas and the list goes on. well we were warned.... Tom and Pam told us it usually snow a bit the first week of October. AND IT DID!

 This was the dusting we got.... to begin with.

 Looking up at Tom and Pam's place

 The next morning

 Stepped outside and took this pic, it was about 7am

Looking across at the cabin and Pam coming home later that day

 I managed to move my jeep but it continued to snow

This is a picture of the road, it snowed non stop for two days plus some of the third day, a total of about 14 inches.

We continued to work through it and although Mo and I were truly worried we were going to get stuck there. Tom and Pam assured us that after seven years experience, it would melt in time. We trusted and sure enough the snow melted and we broke up the ice in the driveway a little more each day and we pulled out right on time, actually a day early. I have to say, we worked hard at Crystal Crag this past summer but we really enjoyed it. The clean air, the people we worked with a guests we worked for, the mountains ans the wildlife all played a part in making this past summer a wonderful memory. We're looking forward to going back next year and then....who knows, maybe the next, too?