Leon Turnbull Photography

I drove up to Lake Tahoe this weekend, hoping to hike up to Susie Lake and do some snowshoeing. Well. .. Fallen Leaf Lake Road was closed. I knew they close it in the winter when there is snow, but there is no snow yet. Also, the forest service website says the trailhead is open. So what the heck? Why is it closed now? I was a bit upset that I could not drive into the trailhead, but more upset that the forest service did not indicate the road was closed. It is a long drive from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe. What should I do now? The closure would add 8 miles of road walking to my hike and it would also mean I would be hiking back in the dark, but I could not think of a different hike that I wanted to do, so I decided to go for it anyway. I have done this before but there was a lot more snow at that time and snowshoes were required. Today, however, I decided to leave my snowshoes in the car because I did not want to carry them 8 miles and I figured I would not need them anyway. I would just go to Grass Lake instead of Susie Lake, so that should be very doable without snowshoes. Ummm, not quite.

I arrived at Upper Glen Alpine Falls (pictured here) about noon and had my lunch there. Surprisingly, it was in the shade so I was able to take some decent photos of it at noon. Well that’s good. Now I don’t have to come back here later in the day to take photos, so that will save a half hour of walking in the dark. It was a fantastic day so far. I was happy and very much enjoying God’s beautiful nature.

I continued on up to Grass Lake. I did not make it. There was a lot more snow than I expected, it was soft, and I was sinking in. It was getting to be quite dangerous. With snowshoes, I would have easily made it. I am so DUMB. I should have brought my snowshoes! Oh well. I turned back, stopping at Upper Glen Alpine Falls again to take some more photos.

I did not see anyone on the trail all day. No one wants to hike an additional 8 miles to go here. Except the mad man of course. When I got back to the road, however, I saw quite a few people walking up the road. They were all parked back at the gate where I did. I was very surprised to see so many people because it was late in the day. All these people would be hiking back to their cars in the dark. I barely made it back before dark myself and they were all quite a way behind me.

When I got back to the gate, I found that the gate was open. Well this is very strange. All the cars were parked on the other side of the gate as I was, so why didn’t they just drive up the road if the gate was open? Why was the gate closed in the morning anyway? Why was it open now? What am I missing here? This makes no sense.

There was an even stranger thing. My car was in the middle of the road! What? I had parked on a hill, so obviously I made sure to set the parking break, however, it was icy. My back wheels were on ice, but my front wheels were on solid ground; I figured it would not be a problem. It looked fine to me. Apparently not! My car must’ve slid down on the ice to the road. Thankfully, it did not block the road but it was sticking out a little bit. It looked like a very bad parking job. I am so DUMBER. Anyway, no damage done. I drove home. It was a great day at Lake Tahoe.