Middle Loch Leven Lake
Tahoe National Forest
July 27 - 29
Coral picked up Stacie from an early morning doctor appointment and we headed out of the heat. We were going in the "easy way" to Upper Loch Leven, where we camped 6 years earlier. After leaving highway 80 and spending 45 minutes driving up, up, up on dirt roads, we arrved at the Salmon Lake trailhead. It was 82 degrees, but we were sure it would get cooler as we got higher. Well it didn't. The trail was mostly uphill. Coral had 43 pounds on her back and Stacie had 34. We reached Lower Loch Leven Lake and headed up to Middle Lake. All we could think about was jumping in the lake and cooling off. We passed Middle Lake and made our way in the direction of Upper Lake, but somehow lost the trail in the granite. We had been on the trails for 3 1/2 hours and were beat, tired, hot, a little confused, and just generally fussy. So we went back to Middle Lake and scouted a campsite right on the lake, which turned out to be perfect. We put down our packs and went right for a refreshing swim! The rest of the day was spent setting up camp, gathering firewood, swimming, and we started our perpetual Rummy game. The bet was loser buys lunch. Coral provided happy hour drinks and we swam again. The beauty of our day was it didn't get dark until 8:45 pm. We watched an awesome full moon rise over the mountains and light up the night as it reflected beautifully off of the lake while we enjoyed a campfire. It was such a nice night that Stacie only put her rainfly on half her tent and went to bed watching the stars. The next morning dawned as a beautiful day, and we were determined to hike up to Upper Lake and find that trail and old campsite. However, as Stacie was changing from her water shoes to her boots, she discovered an intruder on her heel. A Leech! Yuck! That was a first for us. Stacie was having difficulty keeping her band-aid on her upper lip so we had the cleaver idea of tying a bandana over her upper lip and around her head to keep the dirt off, which was making Coral laugh. We found the trail easily, and realized that we were just very tired and hot the day before, which caused our lack of attention. Once we got to Upper Lake, we couldn't agree which campsite we used in 2012, as the forest had changed quite a bit with down trees and scattered logs. We spent the rest of the day floating in the lake on our inner tubes, reading, playing cards and reminiscing. Coral made us some great wild strawberry cocktails at happy hour along with the usual snacks. We enjoyed dinner, another campfire and continued our card game. Coral made a last minute run to the finish and beat Stacie by 200 points! The evening ended with another spectacular showing by the full moon and magnificent stars. The hike out was much easier as we were going down hill most of the way and definitely cooler in the morning. We enjoyed cheeseburgers at TJ's Roadhouse in Colfax and Stacie bought Coral lunch to pay off her Rummy debt. Another great trip in the books.