Lake Tahoe, Durden style

Just when the temperatures in the East were on the rise, I jetted off to the cool and dry West for a week long Durden family vacation at beautiful Lake Tahoe, CA. Everyone had such a fantastic time, we did a ton of fun activities (the logistics were smoother for some more than others) and I felt thoroughly pampered. The trip began on July 3rd, with a quick visit with my good friends Leslie and Chef Dan. I rendezvoused with Leslie in the late morning for a quick bite of dim sum and finance talk. We discussed index funds and the proper way to set aside moneys for retirement.

Tasty Chinese food gave way to distinguishable discussions of climbing anchors. However, before we delved into the mechanics of climbing fall-forces, I had to interrupt the moment for a quick forage to the local Goodwill store. For me, a staple of coming to SF is shopping at the thrift stores, the selection of top-quality, name brand clothes is second to none in this city saturated in culture. I came away with a high performance t-shirt, that might retail for 35 bucks, but I snagged for $1.99!

Shortly thereafter, our good friend Chef Dan made an impressionable appearance and took us to a local spot to practice setting climbing anchors. Meantime, Ashley was securing a new flight to the Bay Area because her former one was delayed by some hours. Plans changed quickly and she arrived later that night in Oakland, but not before I had a memorable dinner of homemade Moroccan chicken with figs served by Leslie at her place.

Soon Ashley's mom swooped by Leslie's place in her Volvo sport-utility to pick me up, we headed to Oakland airport right away. Ashley emerged tired with a carry-on. We made quick time from Oakland to Santa Rosa to sleep for a night in order to be ready for Lake Tahoe in the morning! The drive went by quick, with a stop at In-N-Out Burger, a CA classic. Of course the weather at Tahoe was perfect, CA sunshine and a temperature moderated by the altitude. Later in the evening we viewed fireworks near Tahoe City:

I'm not going to lie, it took me a little while to get used to the all Kodak-moment-making in the Durden family. I really like it now, and find myself always fine-tuning to get the best look for each shot. They required to take my specs off to pose for a photo (flash glare)!

That night everyone slept like royalty, with king beds all around at our super plush Hyatt resort. I don't have a great photo of the actual hotel building, but the architecture is remarkably similar to the rest of the Northstar village:

This photo was taken on the only day it rained, this thunderstorm came through and soaked the area nicely, I never would have expected humidity to feel so good (: Its funny when you live in a humid environment you loath it and look forward to a dry wind, but in a dry environment the opposite is true.

We all awoke leisurely to breakfast and then to rent bikes for the afternoon. Check Ashley on the cruiser!

We rode all the way out to Squaw Valley before turning around to go back. The bike path was real mellow, it followed the Truckee River as it flowed northwest, tubers and rafters floated along it too, albeit alot slower than us. The water is quite clear, as it originates from Lake Tahoe, we stopped for some Kodaks and to admire the beauty:

Everyone grouped for a photo during our break in the shade:

That evening we washed up and cruised back to the Tahoe City area for a very delicious dinner at a fine restaurant. I don't recall the name of it, but we didn't have a reservation and so Mrs. Durden suavely put in for a table for all of us. I ordered a filet, and it was cooked to perfection, little did I know, this was to be the beginning of a fine-dining culinary trend that carried through the week. Thanks to the Durden's for dinner that night. Some nice photos were taken after dinner out on the dock too:

The next day we all woke up and Ashley's parents, Ashley and I all embarked on a hiking excursion. This was my blunder for the trip; we couldn't get to the proper trailhead and finally did some off-roading in order to get in. Looking back on it, I really wish I had brought the family to Mt. Rose, which offered better opportunities for waterfall viewing, panoramas and alpine meadows gleaming with wildflowers. Nonetheless, we all had a great time, we hiked towards Freel Peak and came around the corner to this:

Not a moment to miss for the Durden family:

And great tasting snow melt water:

Alpine scenery, water you can drink out of the creek, I was stoked!

The next day was a sort of do whatever you want day, so while the others frolicked down by the lake and the beach, I investigated Mt. Rose. Mt. Rose is the third highest peak in the Lake Tahoe Basin and sits nicely in the northeast end of the region. I think it was one of the faster peaks I've ever climbed, I started in the early afternoon and was down and back to the Hyatt for dinner. It was a standard walk up, nothing technical at all. I really had a craving for some snow in July and that was soon satisfied:

In fact, the trail crossed over snow numerous times, in some places it was steep too, allowing for some slides. The trip was about 10 miles roundtrip, it started fairly flat, traversed past a very nice waterfall and then continued up nearly unabated to the summit. The vegetation changes to the summit came quickly, and treeline was only a few hundred feet below it. Here is a struggling whitebark pine next to the trail, the dense krummholz of more pines are clearly visible in the background. The environmental conditions are unsuitable for trees to grow higher.

However, if one turns around to view the trail they came up, the scene is different with contiguous trees, but if you look close they are in little islands:

Interesting strategies trees use to colonize higher elevations, with many factors working against them. The view from the top was pretty spectacular looking east into the Reno area:

But to the south, the view was equally rewarding:

No alpine summit is right without alpenblumen!


Those who saw this video from the summit thought it was pretty comical, so I decided to throw it on here.

The next day the Durden's treated everyone to boating, it was probably the highlight to the trip for most of us. A 19 foot motor boat was rented and we cruised pretty much the length of Lake Tahoe. Our destination was Emerald Bay, site of the only island in the entire lake. See if you can guess who the skipper was:

As we were finishing lunch, clouds moved in and made the way back quite choppy. Requiring some more careful maneuvering towards shore, which was ok because then we could get a closer look at some of the more opulent lake houses. After dropping off the motor boat, we made quick time back to the hotel to get washed up and return to a restaurant near the shoreline.

Dinner was absolutely delicious as usual, I don't recall what I ordered, but I remember everyone being very generous with sharing. After dinner, we had the wait staff bring out the cake that was bought earlier at a specialty bakery. Thanks to Ashley for planning out a great carrot cake for the 3 folks with August birthdays!

The sun was setting after dinner, giving everything a splendid tone and bathing the sky in a deep glow.
Not a moment to be missed for another couple Kodak moment!


What a stunning, awe-inspiring trip! A gigantic thank you to the Durden family for allowing me to spend 6 wonderful days vacationing with them. You all really know how to do it in style and are excellent at keeping everybody super stoked!