On Thursday, we hiked at Sugar Pine Point State Park on the west shore of Lake Tahoe:
We only did one hike while we were there and so we took this one because it would get us close to the water:
The trail was pretty easy, but we were in it more for scenery than exercise. We hiked along a beach that we had to ourselves:
After walking along the beach the trail veered back into the woods and led to what one guidebook described as the highest altitude lighthouse in the world. The park’s literature described it as the highest navigational aid. It was a gigantic yield sign with a light on top set in place to warn boaters of some rocks near shore. I don’t know why I was expecting a more traditional lighthouse, but we had a few good laughs about it and continued our hike:
As we were heading back to the trailhead, something black moved quickly across the trail about forty yards ahead. Our first thought was ‘bear’ but then we decided it must’ve been a bird. When we got around the bend we saw to other hikers who had had a clear view of our bear/bird. Turns out it was a bear, and they were trying to decide if they really did in fact want to go hiking, but seeing that we were alive, they soldiered on.
I’ve always been fascinated by bears and was hoping to see one (preferable from the car) but I feel lucky to have gotten even the most fleeting glipmpse of a bear. Especially one that didn’t have an apetite for Texan.
After hiking, we went back to Tahoe City for lunch and then paid a visit to Truckee. From there we drove up to Donner Summit to stand around in some snow since we don’t ever see any around here.
This picture was taken at the trailhead for the Pacific Crest Trail that runs from Mexico all the way up to Canada:
James Brush is a teacher and writer who lives in Austin, TX. He tries to get outside as much as possible.
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