This fall when momma’s in-laws were visiting, we decided to take a camping trip to Tahoe. And by camping trip I mean it was just me, Lolo and momma so we could be out of the house and out of the pressure of “visiting”. (As I mentioned, we don’t take in-laws on camping type of overnights, and frankly, this was just a few days after our overnighter at the AirBnB with them in Tahoe.)
The weather in Tahoe allowed for us to get a couple of days of paddling in with relatively good wind – and by that I mean it was conditions we would never paddle in during the wintertime, but in the summer when it is warm and it’s OK to get wet, we can totally handle it! Not that I like it – the falling in part, ya know.
We spent our time camping at our favorite beach in Tahoe – Nevada beach. It’s a forest service campground that is extremely well-managed by the staff. It is only open for maybe 5-6 months of the year, and it’s very popular because it is literally on the beach of Lake Tahoe!
It was a little chilly at night, but that isn’t really an issue for us. The first day we went and paddled out of Sand Harbor and had a whole epic where Lolo knocked me off the board no less than 3 times. I was a little annoyed with that, needless to say.
Momma wanted to take advantage of our camp location and the weather on the east shore to log a new section of the lake, from Cave Rock up to Glenbrook for our “Tour de Tahoe”. We have paddled from Nevada Beach to Cave Rock before in one big push, but have never gone beyond that.
There is a small fee to park and put-in at Cave Rock as it is part of a Nevada State Park, but you can’t beat being able to put in within steps from the car. We headed north and had to first get past the boat launch, which did have some traffic going in and out, but everyone was very courteous to us.
The chop was most noticeable as we went directly underneath Cave Rock before we tucked back in. I’m sure that was just because of the boats coming in, the wind and the fact that it’s just set out further into the lake. Once we got past that it was relatively easy paddling on our way north.
We got to a place where the water got really shallow and there were tons of cool rocks out in the water. Those are some of momma’s favorite things to take pictures of at Lake Tahoe, which is why we have a dozen pictures of it. Technically, it’s Logan Shoals, which is something most people stop at and see from the road, way up above.
We eventually entered Glenbrook Bay and knew this was our turnaround spot, but momma decided that we would try paddling as much of the bay as possible. Just in case we have to paddle north to south and turn around sometime to link all of this up, she wanted to get it done! Of course, since we weren’t sure what parts of undeveloped land were OK for stopping, this meant that Lolo and I were on the board without a break FOREVER. Which is not the greatest (for any of us). But Glenbrook is a private neighborhood and beach, so there wasn’t much we could do except admire the view from the bay!
Eventually, we got to the end of the beach-y part of Glenbrook and momma finally decided to turn around, which is right around the time the wind really started to pick up. Going back home there was suddenly a lot of wind and a lot of wake. There was a moment where the wind-wake picked up the board at such an angle that all three of us lost contact with the board. Luckily for momma and Lolo, they had the board to come back down on. I did not.
It got so windy and wavy that momma made Lolo lie down and she paddled a mile or two from her knees just because we all were acting like a gigantic sail and not making much progress at all! Momma tried to let us off for a break in an area of undeveloped land, but there was no beach for landing and the board then started clanging on the rocks. I got my foot wet (again, and honestly it didn’t matter by that point) and so no-one got to potty before we had to get back on the board again. Momma was totally stressing that we’d cracked the board bad enough that we may not make it back!
Spoiler alert: we did eventually make our way back to Cave Rock. Boy were Lolo and I happy to have that over with! Momma loaded us up and the board and then took us to run around and hike the trails at Zephyr Cove a bit just for something fun to do before we went back to camp for the night.
So, there you have our epic Cave Rock to Glenbrook travel day! We are getting a lot closer to finishing our Tour de Tahoe, but we have just a few more logistics to getting these link-ups done.
Olaf 