Goodbye Tahoe National Forest! Thanks for a wonderful several months.

Well, if you hadn’t gathered it from my last several posts… my detail assignment on the Tahoe National Forest is done. I’ve checked out of my rental cabin here in Grass Valley, I’m back home in Arizona and I’m back to my normal job on the Coconino.

I had an AMAZING four-plus months living and working in northern California.

I’ve already highlighted some of the cool weekend adventures I got into: A quick detour to hike Yosemite National Park, some hiking along the Pacific Crest Trail, ice skating and brewery hopping in Truckee, snowshoeing around the Yuba River Ranger District, a weekend trip to San Francisco, wine tasting in Sonoma, a day trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park, a holiday weekend trip to Sequoia National Park, hiking around Lake Tahoe, a drive through Death Valley National Park…

I’m honestly tired just reading all of that.

But, outside of my previously-documented weekend adventures, I did get to spend a few weekends exploring some of the communities in and around the Tahoe National Forest.

I also got to do some really cool stuff with work! In addition to that aforementioned overnight field trip where I got to hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, I had the chance to hike in to a snow-covered Van Norden Meadow and photograph the California National Guard’s winter Search and Rescue training.

Outside of work, I also found time to try some of the restaurants here and wander around local trails and shops. Downtown Grass Valley (half a mile from my cabin) and downtown Nevada City (half a mile from my office) are gorgeous cities!

Some of my favorite restaurants in Nevada City ended up being Heartwood Eatery, Three Forks Bakery & Brewing Co. and Cosmic Roots.

I loved South Pine Cafe, Corvus, Cirino’s, Pine Street Burgers and Diego’s in Grass Valley, and concluded pretty much every hiking trip along Highway 49 with beer and veggie burgers at Two Rivers in Downieville.

I got to spend quite a bit of time outside.

I’ve already detailed some of my on-forest adventures, like hiking along the Pacific Crest Trail to a waterfall, ice skating on frozen Truckee reservoirs and snowshoeing around the Sierra Buttes.

I actually loved Sardine Lakes so much that I hiked them twice: once in the fall (below) and once in the winter, with snowshoes.

I spent almost every single weekday running or hiking through Empire Mine State Park since it was RIGHT across the street from my cabin, and I had a chance to check out the Nisenan Tribute Site’s trails during a working hike with the Nevada County PIO.

I also got to take a weekend trip up to the Plumas, and hike around Big Bear, Little Bear and Cub lakes, followed by beer at the Brewing Den and food at Gumba’s in Blairsden.

I also spent QUITE a bit of money at Mountain Recreation and BriarPatch Food Co-op.

Looking back, it’s really easy to sit here and think “oh, I wish I’d done this. And this. And this.” But, I mean, time is limited and I do think I made the absolute most of my four-plus months (minus the holidays and my COVID isolation spent back in Flagstaff) here. I went out on an adventure almost every weekend. I made it as far north as Lassen Volcanic, as far west as the Pacific Ocean and as far south as Sequoia and Death Valley. That’s honestly not bad! I do wish I’d done more, but given that I can’t freeze time… I think I did as much as I could with the time that I had.

I guess my one regret is that I didn’t try more restaurants! I’ve gotten into the habit of cooking a lot when I’m home with Ryan because we’re both sick of all the restaurants in Flagstaff, and that habit kind of carried over here, too. I’m also not too crazy on dining alone, so I put off eating out at restaurants until Ryan visited. Then, once I realized he wasn’t going to come out and visit, I simply ran out of time (and money) to eat at every restaurant I wanted to.

I guess it gives me an excuse to come back!

Work-wise, I also feel like I accomplished a good amount.

Details are a little weird, because four months is a weird amount of time. It actually kind of felt like my COVID-interrupted Peace Corps service in a way. I was here JUST long enough to familiarize myself with the people, the job, the land, the projects… and then as soon as I hit my stride, I had about a month of ACTUAL, real work before I had to pack everything up and leave.

Regardless, I learned a LOT about myself. This was my first managerial role, and moving up from deputy public affairs officer to public affairs officer made me very, very cognizant of my shortcomings and areas of improvement. It was nice to get a chance to try out this kind of a role before committing to something like it full-time, and now I know, professionally, where I can improve and grow.

I’m already excited for my next four-month detail assignment, and I’m already excited to come back to the Tahoe to finish exploring… whether that’s on, or off the clock.