Summer at Lake Tahoe

Everyone raves about the summer in Lake Tahoe.  We have only gone there during winter ski season, so this year we decided to camp there.  Unfortunately as we do everything last minute, we did not have many options when it came to camping and I was happy to get a place at Donner Lake Memorial park.  Fred and I took Friday off and headed up for an afternoon mountain bike ride.  

 After a severe downpour and lightening storm, we managed to make it back to the campsite only to find that it had not rained there at all.  Nice, given how much we hate wet camping.  Donner Lake was beautiful in the evening.

 The Kellys arrived after dark and Tim and Fred ended up with the lovely job of figuring everything out in near darkness.  Beer helped!

 With the campfire burning, our attention turned to eating.  Summer couldn't wait to make smores by the campfire.  Sheer extacy.

 Summer brought her friends along for the camping trip and had lots of play time at the campground.

 We decided to have a lazy day and headed to the lakefront at Donner.  Fred buried himself in a book.

 Lulu went mountain climbing.  She is quite the outdoor girl.

 Tim and Summer played sand calstles

 and donkey derby

 All in all, it was a very relaxing day for us all.
The following day we got back on the mountain bikes and cycled the 14 mile Flume Trail over Lake Tahoe.
The red line marks the mountain bike trail that we cycled.

The trail started with a nasty climb in sand.  Perfect for separating the amateurs from the pros.  This picture was taken from the top of the trail, once all the killer climbing was over.

 We cycled past Martlett lake, fantastic wilderness.

 And kept climbing......this is not a trail for the faint of heart.  This is the view over Sand Harbor recreation area.  The white dots are boats on the lake

 Perfect trail for mountain bike posing

 The trail has a sheer drop-off in many places, as well as rock slides.  The margin of error was a little too tight for me on a few occasions.

 Finally we arrived back on Terra firma.  This view was taken from the luxurious Hyatt Regency resort where we downed a very expensive two beers.  The mountain in the distance is the climb we just completed