California

The final leg of my journey this past summer (I know, these posts are a bit late) was 4 days spent with my family in a cabin in the mountains near Lake Tahoe. I got a bit of a shock upon arriving at the airport where a friend of my dad's was there to pick me up.

"When was the last time you talked with your family?"

His comment made me feel a bit uneasy, "Uhhh, 2 months or so, but we've been emailing... why?"

"Well, your mom broke her leg."

"What!?!"

"But she's ok."

"phew... OK... what happened?"


And she is OK. But it was a good shock to me at 12am after a day of traveling. It turns out my parents and brothers had decided to do a hike down to a river and camp the night a few days before I was to arrive. That was the plan at least.

The hike ended up being longer and more arduous than they had planned and in one slippery spot my mom went down and instantly felt a shooting pain in her leg. She tried to walk and was unable to. By this point my brothers had forged ahead to set up camp early and thus my dad had to tear off after them to get them to return and help. They got my mom to a comfortable spot by a creek close by and decided to spend the night and see how the leg was in the morning.

No better it turned out. They had a good 7 miles to get back to the cabin, up out of a valley, over rocky terrain. Using Patrick's hiking pack and a flat piece of wood they forged a carrier and proceeded to take 10-15 minute turns carrying my mom up out of the valley. It was slow going and they had only gone a few miles after most of the day. Just at this time though they happened to meet some rangers out doing wild life tallies who just happened to have their truck nearby on a fire road my dad wasn't aware of. Saved!

The story has gone down in family lore and the piece of wood my mom sat on for 7 hours as they hauled her out now sits on my parents mantel.




(At the cabin with my mom recovering and my brothers making faces)


When I arrived my brothers had gone back down to the river and My dad and I hiked down to join them the next day. It is one of the most beautiful spots I can think of that isn't a national park type area and I wanted to share a few photos. Note, for those of you familiar with it the countryside shown in these photos is a part of where the Western States 100 miler is run each year.




(Devil's Peak)




(Long lake - so blue!




(A big tree with my dad)




(At camp. this camp was pretty decadent for camping with a great fire pit, nice sitting stones, flat tent spots, hanging trees - the works! five stars.)




(A waterfall we descended by climbing down the first part on the side and then jumping off the second fall.)




(Matthew taking the leap! We three bros adventured down-river, jumping from rock to rock, swimming when needed, and jumping down waterfalls as often as possible. We would toss our dry sack of supplies over the edge and then head after it! Sometimes with falls of over 50ft!)




(Click on this one to get a bigger version. See if you can find Matthew in the upper right corner:) this was about the biggest one we went off.)

The trip was a capstone to a great "last summer of freedom" before coming back to start second year. which, as it is now more than half over with has for the most part been an enjoyable experience!