Well, I’m back in Flagstaff!
I’d originally planned a slightly-longer trip heading home from my work assignment in northern California, but given everything that’s going on with Ukraine, I just didn’t really have the heart to… yunno. Enjoy life.
I cut my trip back from four-ish nights to the standard government one, but I did at least do a few things on the drive home.
Like… finally seeing Lake Tahoe. Which I hadn’t seen at any point during the… almost five months I spent working on the Tahoe National Forest.
Granted, Lake Tahoe isn’t on the Tahoe National Forest (anymore) — it’s managed separately — but, it’s still pretty close by.
I’d planned to get to this hike super, super early Saturday morning so I could make it to Mammoth Lakes for some more hiking, but I stayed up late Friday reading news/ checking in with my Ukrainian friends, and I didn’t end up packing.
Then, once I finally packed up my Jeep, cleaned my cabin, checked out and made it to Truckee… I got a message from my landlord. I had left my keys and wallet at the cabin. So, I had to turn around to get them.
Great.
I didn’t end up at my trailhead until almost 2 p.m. Luckily, it was really easy to find parking and it wasn’t too busy.
But, I guess the bonus? The weather was really nice! It was about 40 and sunny.
The hike itself — Picnic Rock — was pretty easy. It was about three miles, out-and-back, with an elevation gain of 800 feet over the course of a few switchbacks.
The hardest part was at the end, where previous hikers had kind of made their own trail really steep uphill.
The snow was pretty hard, so I didn’t need snowshoes, but I’m glad I brought my spikes for the hike back down! It got a little slippery.
The views at the top were totally worth it, though.
Anyway. I have a few more posts to publish wrapping up my time on the Tahoe and my venture back home, and I’ll get to those soon-ish. I’m going to be pretty busy settling back in here in Flagstaff and helping my Ukrainian friends as much as possible over the coming days, but more later!
