Pure Synchronicity

Our third trip up to Loon Lake this year was met with two cloudy drizzly days.  But we had a ball anyway.  The weather formations are always awesome in the mountains.  Got in some fishing (caught a nice rainbow from the kayak), hiking, kayaking, a little swimming and paddleboard for the first time.  We met up with our friends Debi King (who brought her paddleboard) and Maggie Lane with her pup Coco. Debi’s class C RV was camped right next to ours.  Learned a new game called Qwerkle ???  which was great except I got killed every game.  The sunset on the last nite was so awesome .. I had to include more than one picture of it below.  I will be back here in September.  Fall camping is the best.  So is the fishing.

This five day campout at Loon Lake was probably one of the best.  We camped next to our friends Gary Goldsmith and his wife Cheryl and their new pup Benetar.  Benetar is only 7 months old and it was his first time in the wilderness.  Kate came up with the kayaks for the last 3 days.  We hiked  10 miles plus on the Rubicon Trail into Desolation wilderness.  Kayaked all over the lake.  Swimming was glorious, even tho a little chilly upon entry.  And I did kayak fishing and caught 4 nice rainbows on a glassy, early morning still lake.  Got a nice rain shower on Thursday nite.  All in all a terrific time.

Ben and his log

Ben

Hiking on the Rubicon Trail

Merganzer family

Kate

Awesome cloud formations

Kate digging in against the wind

Got 4 nice trout

Hiking on the Rubicon Trail

I spent four nights up at Loon Lake.  First visit this year.  Kate joined me for two of the nights.  It was gorgeous!  Lake was full to the brim, right up to the tree line.  I have never seen it this full.   Shore fishing, other than right off our campsite, required a hike up the Rubicon trail about a mile or so.  And well worth it.  Butt Rock was totally submerged, not seen at all.  I only caught one fish but got quite a few nibbles.  Seems I experienced the same thing last year with the nibblers.  Only could swim the first day, and that was even quite chilly.  Great trip overall, especially having my Kate along this time.

Look at Ben airborne

Biggs… bored with the fishing

Ben and his PBR

Ben and I fishing, or attempting to catch fish.

This was after several attempts.

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Spent a really nice midweek campout at Jackson Meadows 6/10-6/13.  Only one other camper in the loop, and the other loop only had about 3 campers.  Fishing sucked, not a nibble, but it was so quiet and peaceful.  Dogs could run free.  First day went swimming as it was in the 80, delightful.  After that it cooled down to the point where it was 41 in the RV one morning when I got up.  I did a lot of studying for my upcoming CompTIA A+ exam.  Lake had dropped quite a bit from my visit two weeks ago.  Pass Creek is still running but I suspect in a couple weeks it will be just a trickle.  Here are the few photos I took.

Biggs

Biggs

Ben

Site 34, my favorite

Here are photos from our trip to Lombard, Il. to celebrate my mom’s 90th birthday on June 1, 2014.   Some pics taken at Lilac Park and some others at Morton Arboretum., but most were taken at the event on Saturday at Perry’s Pizza Joynt in Northlake.

Opening day for camping at East Meadows Campground at Jackson Meadows, 5/23/14.  When I booked it six months ago, I didn’t realize it was Memorial Day weekend.  The shoreline got a little crowded but all good people.  Lots of families, lots of kids and dogs.  Amazing how many dogs were off leash.  It didn’t bother me but it did seem the new camp host didn’t really have it under control.  But no mishaps.  I caught two nice size trout, which Kate really appreciated.  Both real fighters too.  Water was out again, so the bathroom situation was porta pottys and the faucets were dry.  Lake was down as you can see from the pics but Pass Creek was running quite strong.  Amazing how much snow was still on the mountains.  Weather was in the 70’s.

English Mtn in the background

Mount Lola at 9148 feet

Look at the snow drift along the ridge on Mt. Lola

Biggs and Ben

Pass Creek

Perrazo Meadows

Ben at Pass Creek

May 16th we had our first RV campout of the season going to Lake Davis, near the town of Portola, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mtns.   It was the first time camping there and the sites were terrific.  We brought kayaks this time but found it quite windy which limited the amount of kayaking we could do, comfortably.  My experience of fishing was lousy.  Lots of weeds in the water.  I understand Mallard Bay is a good fishing spot.  I did try it when I was leaving but also had no luck there either.  A couple days after we got back I went up to Lake Valley Reservoir for the morning  and redeemed myself as a fisherman by catching  two nice sized trout.  It was interesting to see so many pelicans at this freshwater lake.

We celebrated my Mom’s 90th birthday in Chicago area on 5/31/14.  I made this video for the event.  Around 40 people attended at Perry’s Pizza Joynt in Northlake.  It was  a terrific event.  My  mother loved it.

Here is a link for the videol

Be patient, its a big file and about 15 minutes long.

It has become an annual event for Gramps and Nana to have an Easter Egg hunt out on our property, and this year was great. Gorgeous weather and a really fun time for all. Molly, Neil and our grandkids Atticus and Ollalie, plus our friends Jeff and Laura with their sweet kids Jacob and Shasta. We must have had more than a hundred eggs spread out over the property. Luckily no poison oak was tread upon this year. The food was plentiful with all kinds various hors d’oeuvres, way more than we all could eat. The dogs didn’t eat any chocolate, no kids got hurt, and no significant bugs… oh except for the bungee jumping oak worms who kept dropping down from the trees and landing on peoples heads, spreading their silky webs everywhere. Cocktails were margaritas, bourbon, rum or bourbon and coke (and any other conceivable mixer), vodka and soda, and of course PBR. Also the frogs (Fred and Ethel) in our water tubs were quite a hit with everyone trying to locate the little buggers with huge voices. They are about he size of a thumbnail but check out the photo of one below. Eggs held candy and coin. Atticus managed to trade all his coin for candy from the others and had a huge bag of sweets when he left. We look forward to next year when we all are another year older.

Atticus

Neil, Shasta and Jacob

Olallie

Atticus and Olallie

Shasta, Jacob, Atticus and Ollalie

Fred the frog

Aticus

Neil, Atticus and Jeff

Molly, Laura and Kate

Molly and her mom

Molly

Laura and Jeff

Atticus and an oak worm