Donner Summit park

At Truckee is the monument to the Donner party. It is quite an attractive exhibit.




The snow the year the Donner party got stranded was twenty-two feet deep. As deep as the top of the stone monument pictured.

The bear incident

We were driving down the road from Truckee on our way home from Tahoe, just sightseeing getting settled in for the long trip home when Terry says...."Hey, I just saw a bear". We were right along I80 so I thought he had seen a rock shaped like a bear, but he stopped and backed up and sure enough it was a bear, right at the edge of the road. Melissa got her camera out and was taking some awesome shots.

Then he picked something up and started to carry it off. It was so cool
He stood on his hind legs to pick the carcass up to carry it. It was a dead buck deer with horns. As we watched with the windows down you could hear him crunching the bones as he tore off bits to eat. Some moron tourist got out of her car and stood between our truck and the bear to take pictures. I commented out the window that if I were her I wouldn't get much closer, cause the bear may try to protect his dinner. What an idiot....this isn't disneyland.

The cruise

Dinner was awesome, dessert was divine....

After dinner (they had to seat the other people for dinner) we went to the upper deck for music and dancing. They had an awesome two man band. It was fun.

Cruise pics

Melissa and Dan brave the out of doors on the boat to get a picture.


It was sooooo crowded cause the other dinner cruise boat couldn't do rough weather so we just crammed everyone on this boat.


It was so crowded that you couldn't even get up from the table and was a little crazy....we were all a little crazy.

The Boat Ride/Dinner

As part of the birthday celebration Thelma invited the family and friends attending for a dinner cruise on the Lake. The weather was iffy to say the least.


Here is the boat...look at those clouds! It was a three hour cruise, a three hour cruise........(gilligans island theme for those who don't recognize the words :0 )

I think Russ got in trouble...he always gets caught.

But it should have been Terry....this is what was under the table and those are Terrys legs....he brought the bar with him.
That is why he is smiling!

Trip to Tahoe

We (Terry, Julie, Melissa, Dan) just returned from a whirlwind trip to Tahoe. Terry's Mom Thelma had her 75th birthday celebration (I am awaiting pictures from the fam to post them)and we were fortunate enough to be able to go down for the festivities.
Tahoe is an extremely beautiful place, the trees, the view of the lake, the crystal clear water etc.




And Dan is super happy to be here too!

After the mountain trip

After getting off the hill huckleberry picking, our fingers are purple, our clothes are dusty and we had sticks and twigs in our hair so we head down to the river for a cooling swim and cleaning off, and some fishing. It is wonderful to be able to be high in the mountains in the morning and down on the river in the same afternoon enjoying the peace and quiet of the water. We are blessed.

From the top

In order to get to the huckleberry picking grounds we have to get up on top.....and I do mean on the top!! You can see our house from here if you have a good pair of binoculars.


It's a pretty steep road and you can look straight down off the side to see the river and below is Hells Canyon RV park.


Dan leans out the window for a good look over the side.

Honey

A local area beekeeper set his hives down by my moms house for this season. He has since collected them and has brought back honey as "payment". This is primarily blackberry flower honey with a bit of the honey locust flower as well. It is so lightly colored and super good.

Our new "Secret Spot"

We found a great huckleberry spot but its a secret (Jim and Diane, it is the same place that we got the morels) The huckleberries were fantastic here as you can see.




They were so good we could even pick from the truck as we drove by.

Look at the size of some of these huckleberries!!

Next stop....Huckleberries!

Hazel gets to ride in the back of the truck for awhile when we got up to the top of the hill to pick huckleberries. Shes a mountain dog too!



Unfortunately she also likes to eat huckleberries.

Blackberries!

The kids had alot of things they needed to get done this weekend. First fishing (of course) then they had to pick Blackberries for Dan's Grandmother. Look at the size of those berries! When 5 Blackberries make a handful, those are big berries.

The Float tube

Terry has had this float tube forever and we just haven't used it much. So we get it out, figure out how to pump it up and everyone gives it a spin. When the water temp gets around 74 degrees and it is around 100 degrees out side it feels really good to cool off and float around. We did some fishing from the tube as well.

Heading out to our favorite spot

Hazel knows where we are going. She keeps watch at the bow of the boat.


Down on the river bank the immature Bald Eagles gather to rest and to try to fish. This time of year they make lots of noise as they call to their parents to come feed them.....their parents ignore them most of the time....trying to get them to fend for themselves. Teen-agers!! ;}


Here is the mom eagle heading for the trees.

Gettin' worms

I'm not sure why Dan always gets picked to get worms, but here he is again!


Maybe it is because he is SOOOO good at it and he only gets the very best ones!!

From the top

A great old tree snag.



From this vantage point on top you can see the Deep Creek drainage and over to Horse Mountain Lookout and Sheep Rock area.

At Black Lake

We made it to Black Lake and had lunch, took pictures and waded in the lake.

The road to Black Lake

We rode to the top of the hill where the lookout tower is. It is unmanned but the view is breathtaking. Terry and Jim drove to the top while Diane and I waited just below the summit. The road was pretty rough.

Jim and Diane coming up the road.

This is the view looking back from the lookout summit. You can see how high we are.

Jim and Terry looking over the edge from the lookout.