On Friday we went back to the mountains to #optoutside for Black Friday, although to be honest, we pretty much #optoutside ALL THE TIME so I am not quite sure why it was such a big deal. After our 12.2 miles of hiking in wet snow to Lake Aloha the day before momma decided we should go to a spot where there wasn’t much snow yet so we started up to the Glacier Lake hike from the Grouse Ridge campground trailhead in Tahoe National Forest.
The last five miles of road to the trailhead is a dirt road, which I love because momma has to drive slow and will open the windows for me to look out and listen for chipmunks. As we were driving up momma was shocked to suddenly see some snow on the trail. First there was just a little, and then a little more. I didn’t think anything of it since I totally love the snow! But as it turned out, it was too much snow for cars or trucks to get past as we neared the campground.
As momma realized we couldn’t get up to the trailhead (although we were really close!) she decided we would turn around and park a little lower and just walk up to the trailhead. She asked daddy to get out and guide her to a good place to turn around since we were on the side of a mountain and it is a one-lane road. He didn’t understand what she told him apparently and before we knew it she had backed up to the side of the road and our back right tire sunk into a hole where there was a rotted old tree stump!
The tire was sunk all the way in and the ground was very soft from the recent snow melting so the car started wanting to slide down the mushy hill, with me and Lolo still inside!
As luck would have it, there were three pickup trucks in front of us that were trying to get past the snowy part just for fun. They saw we were in trouble and backed down the trail to help. And help the did! One pickup truck had a winch and another was so gigantic they used it to stabilize the front of our car from sliding down the hill while they winched the back end out of the tree-stump hole.
Of course, momma had already pulled Lolo and I from the car so that JUST IN CASE it went down the hill, we would not be in it!
Within 10 minutes the guys had us all freed up and back on the trail and went on their way with their families to spend the day playing in the mountains.
Momma was a little shook up and decided we should get back onto a paved road, so we went to do a hike we’d done in the middle of the summer that goes along Lake Spaulding.
It was a lovely hike with hardly anybody out besides the folks fishing on the lake and we went on to find and have lunch at this amazing stream that was really gushing down the mountain!
The only downside to the day ended up being we didn’t hike in any snow, but that was good for my daddy who had gotten a huge blister the day before from his wet boots. Momma said that was good for me too since I have a tiny little raw spot on the outside of my foot that got scraped in the snow a few weeks ago. I’ve since licked all the fur off the area so it looks really gnarly now, even though it isn’t!
Olaf 