Sand Harbor with the Binghams

Our friends the Bingham's invited us to spend the day with them at Sand Harbor about a week before school started. We had never been to the lake with them and were in for a special treat. We met Todd through Fall AYSO soccer last season he then became Madison's basketball coach in the winter. Madison and Hannah hit it off right away and have been good friends ever since.

Todd is a big kid at heart and he has a LOT of toys. When we arrived at the lake we had to trek quite a ways to get to what can only be called "base camp". I could list the toys here but I think it is best illustrated with pictures.

Madison and Hannah started off the afternoon by building a sand castle. The sand was imported from the other side of the harbor by Todd and Hannah via the kayak. Evidently the sand at base camp was not architecturally sound for castle building.

Then it was time to attack the boys in the blow up boat with water guns. Todd shows Madison how it is done here.



Since the ground attack was not successful, it was time to take it to the water. Here are the girls and Todd preparing to attack by sea.

Then it was time for Madison to try out the remote control boat. Todd caught a crawdad with his bare hands which he then placed in the remote control boat and Madison gave a ride. He was later released back to the lake unharmed.

Shirlee and I also played paddle ball in the sand and our feet kept getting impaled by hidden stakes in the sand. Madison used the folding shovel to remove them for us. My feet hurt for days after that but it was fun and good exercise. There are no pictures of us because we are the photographers. I am sure we looked super cool doing it though.

After a beautiful day at the lake we headed back to town and our respective homes to clean up and get ready to regroup for a bbq at the new Bingham home. Todd and Shirlee are great hosts and a good time was had by all.

Good friends, good food, good times!

Sunday on the Flume

A couple weeks ago Brent and I did the
Flume Trail for the first time this
season. We usually try to do this trail at least 4 or 5 times per summer but since we got the road bikes we have not been mountain biking nearly as much.

This is Max Jones in the background talking with Brent. Brent and Max play soccer together on a masters team (over 40) on Friday nights. As you can see here, they are in deep conversation about bikes. From what I understand, Max built the Flume trail and initially it was an illegal trail but thanks to his advocacy, it is now a legal and very widely known multi-use trail. It is open to hikers, horses, and mountain bikes in the summer and in the winter it is used for cross country skiing and snowshoeing.

There are also cabins available to rent. Brent and I actually stayed in the Wildcat Cabin one year for our anniversary. This was before I was such a biker and we had to pack our gear in on our backs. Lets just say I was crying when we arrived to the cabin and too tired to even make it to Marlette to see the lake! Times have sure changed...thank god.

We started from the parking area at Spooner Lake and headed up to Marlette Lake then took the trail clockwise around Marlette to the Flume then up a crazy amount of switchbacks and back down into Marlette for the decent back to the car. In total it was about 22 miles of goodness.

This is the other side of Marlette Lake once you are on the Flume. The trail is right at lake level here.





Here is the view of Sand Harbor from the Flume. This section of the trail is one of the most photographed of the entire route. It is a single track section that is way up in the mountain with a large drop off on one side. Our dog once chased a squirrel and fell down this section and Brent had to rescue him.

There is one section of the trail that has to be walked because it is too dangerous to ride. It was here where some dumb college kids tried to run me over because I was walking and they were not. I had to tell them that they were supposed to walk this section and they looked at me like I was retarded. Then they walked the section and realized why. It was these same college kids that I passed that were walking up the steepest section of the climb from Spooner.

Here I am climbing yet another hill. This is one of the more challenging rides that we do fitness wise, it will definitely max out your heart rate.

Here I am at the crossroads near the end of the most awesome section of downhill single track that is on the Tahoe Rim Trail. This is the reason we climbed the crazy amount of switchbacks so that we could come down this section rather than climb it.






This is a vista where you can see both Marlette Lake and Lake Tahoe. We took this picture using the delay setting on the camera, got the horizon a bit crooked which reminds me of a Todd Snider song...It's a Crooked Piece of Time that We're Livin In...

The wildflowers are still in bloom in sections of the trail. This is the last little climb out from Marlette Lake to the downhill that takes you to Spooner.

The hardest part of this trail is the climbing but there are several ways to do the loop and there is even a shuttle if you only want to do part of it. This recreation area makes me thankful I live where I do. It is only 20 minutes from our house and absolutely gorgeous.

Madison's First Poker Run

This past Sunday we attended the Slow Rollers Bicycle Club's poker run in South Lake Tahoe. It is about an 9.5 mile ride total with 5 stops along the way about every 2 miles or so. You start and finish at the Horizon Casino with stops at Tahoe Hemp Company, Turn 3 Bar, Tudor Pub, and Hot Gossip coffee bar. The money raised is used to buy bikes for less fortunate children.

At the beginning you pay and get a "map" (I use that term loosely) and then at every stop you draw a card. The person with the best hand at the end won a bike. There was also a raffle for a New Belgium Brewing Company bike that we have been drooling over for years.

This is Brent with his own custom designed cruiser with his new iPod speakers. It was pretty cool to have music along the way it added a lot to the already festive atmosphere.

About half way from the start and before the first stop we had to stop for a picture in front of the lake. Madison was so funny since she had no idea what to expect and was anxious asking every time we stopped if this was THE stop.


Our friends the Mosers were there too so it was great to cruise with them and hang out. Our lives have gone in such different directions that we rarely get the chance to do that so it was a special treat. Kristy and Madison had fun too at one point they were cruising along and Madison was looking at Kristy and then looked up and she was headed directly for a pole! Notice the plume of smoke in the background?


That is the Angora fire which started while we were at our first stop of the poker run. We were standing outside (Madison can't go to bars!) the Peanut Bar and it started raining ash on us. Click here for more pictures of the blaze from a local news station.


Madison did real well on the ride and did not get tired until about the third stop, the Tudor Pub. They had a nice grassy area with tables and chairs so we relaxed for a bit. Her skort was too short and so her bare legs were rubbing on her seat. We told her she had monkey butt

.


This is us at the home stretch back to the Horizon for the BBQ. They did the raffle drawing (we did not win) and a slow drag race. Jeff had already loaded he and Kristy's bikes into the truck so he borrowed my Hello Kitty bike and won two flame tires.

It was a great day with beautiful weather (cept the fire) and good friends. We were so proud of Madison for being able to make the entire ride with little complaint and she actually enjoyed herself. We can't wait to do it again!

You can read more at the FBC blog which also has a link to more photos.