Leon Turnbull Photography

Taking a short break from my Eastern Sierra photos to share my adventure from this past weekend.

My wild adventure starts at 2:45AM when the alarm goes off. Grog. I tumble out of bed, literally, and reach for the alarm to shut if off before the wife wakes up, if it is indeed not already too late. I stumble out to the bathroom, relieve my bladder, and splash water over my face to attempt to wake myself up. I stumble out to the kitchen, turn on the coffee maker, pack my water and sandwich in my camera bag, pour my coffee, and get everything out to the car. Somewhere in there I also got myself dressed. I turn on the ignition. The time now is 3:10AM. Ten minutes late and I haven’t even left my driveway. How did it take me so long to leave the house? I don’t understand, but it’s not good. I didn’t build any flex time into my plan this morning.

The drive up to Lake Tahoe is uneventful. The coffee keeps me from driving off the road into the river or some other such disaster. I arrive at the trailhead at 4:40AM. Still 10 minutes late. I didn’t pick up any time on the road. It is quite dark. I relieve myself again (coffee, you know) and try to get ready as fast as I can. Then I begin the hike in the dark. I know I need to hike fast. The idea is to get to my destination, Grass Lake, for sunrise. But it is up hill, and it is hard to go too fast up hill. It is an enjoyable, but uneventful hike up the the lake. No bears or cougars seen, or any other animal for that matter. That is a good thing. As I approach the lake, I see the sun starting to hit the peaks. I am still 10 minutes late. No time made up on the trail. I arrive at Grass Lake at 5:45AM. Even though I am a bit later than I wanted to be, the light is still excellent. The peaks at the far end of the lake are just starting to see their first rays of sunlight. I look around for a composition to set up the camera and take a photo. There is a nice rock out in the lake. Nothing else on this side of the lake. No way about it. I have to get right in the lake. I set my camera bag down and take off my hiking shoes. Immediately, a hundred thousand mosquitoes swarm in for the kill. Quickly, I get out the bug juice and spray it all over myself. It seems to work. They are leaving me alone (for now). I purposely left my water shoes at home because I wanted to save weight. I did bring all three of my lenses, though I would have liked to leave one of them at home as well. But I anticipated I might want all of them today. In my bare feet, I wade out to the rock in the lake. It is deeper than it looks. The water is up to my thighs. Not too cold, however. I set up the camera on the tripod, compose the photo, and shoot the beautiful sunrise.

Can you see the rather large looking waterfall way off in the distance? Part II of my wild adventure begins next.