PARADE OF PADDLING

Has I'm writing this on New Year's Eve, rain is beating down on my rooftop, pelting the window and creating hundreds of small rivers along the hillside of my home. Weather forecasters say that a significant storm system will plow into the West Coast, bringing heavy rain, mountain snow, and strong winds fueled by an atmospheric river of Pacific moisture. An atmospheric river is a long narrow region in the atmosphere that can transport moisture thousands of miles, like a fire hose in the sky. Forecasters say this active jet stream pattern will continue to bring a parade of storms across much of Northern and Central California this weekend.
As 2022 comes to an end. It's time to look back on a parade of paddling memories and leap forward in planning new adventures. And as the rain hits the windowpane, I'll take that as a good sign we might have more water this year than last. At least, that is my hope.

I send a big thanks out to my paddling family for helping me paddle through another year. Thanks to Dan Crandall and the other superstars on Current Adventures Kayaking School and Trips, who have been there for guidance and encouragement. We have some big plans for 2023. I'm looking forward to a full schedule of classes, tours, and moonlit paddles.
To the rangers and staff of Sly Park Recreation Area, thank you. I hope for another successful season on shimmering Lake Jenkinson this year, with more water.

I lost count of my paddling events with Bayside Adventure Sports this past year. The highlights of our year included our annual Lower American River run, our camping kayaking trip to Loon Lake, and our popular sunset and moonlit paddles on our area's lakes. Of course, none of it would have been possible without our leader, John Taylor Sure, I had some great ideas, but John made it happen.
We are losing our spiritual leader Greg Weisman the longtime founder of Bayside Adventure Sports. He will be retiring in 2023.

My wife, Debbie, is and will always be my guiding light and inspiration. She has a deep devotion to God and a love for everything, living both great and small, like the starving kitten that found its way to our doorstep and our neighborhood deer herd. I continue to strive to be like her in mind and spirit. We are both excited about landscaping our new home.

Happy New Year everyone.

Paddle Day #148

I paddled close to my record of 152 paddling days in the calendar year. I did get to some new places and enjoyed some of the old ones. I'm eagerly anticipating an exciting new year in 2023.

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2022 IN REVIEW: PICTURES OF THE YEAR

Gaily bedlight, A gallant knight, in sunshine and in shadows had journeyed long, singing a song, in search of Eldorado --- Edgar Allan Poe

The picturesque Coloma river valley is stunning with beauty and steep in history. It was there, not far from where I slid my kayak in the churning flow of the South Fork of the American River, it all happened.

The quirky and rather odd John Marshall had a scheme about getting a sawmill going on the banks of the river for the much-needed lumber for the influx of new settlers coming to California. Financially funded by John Sutter, Marshall was constructing the mill in the Coloma Valley. By January 1848, workers had erected a building, installed the machinery and a water wheel, and dug a ditch to divert water from the river. Inspecting the work, Marshall peered down into the trail trace through a foot of water. If there would have been a camera there to record it, this is what we would have done seen.

"My eye caught a glimpse of something shining in the bottom of the ditch," Marshall gave a historical account, "I reached my hand down and picked it up; it made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold."

 

Lake Jenkinson

And as the story goes, after he found those flakes precious metal of metal, it ushered in a wave of steely-eyed prospectors. Along with them came adventurous storytelling photographers ready to capture the historic frenzy around them. The Gold Rush was the first event in the country to be documented extensively through the then-new medium of photography.

Using daguerreotypes, an early photographic process employing an iodine-sensitized silvered plate and mercury vapor. Photographers would polish a sheet of silver-plated copper to a mirror finish, treat it with fumes that made its surface light-sensitive, and expose it in a camera for as long as it was judged to be necessary. It could be as little as a few seconds for brightly sunlit subjects or much longer for regarding the light; removed its sensitivity to light by liquid chemical treatment; rinsed and dried, and then sealed the easily marred result behind glass in a protective enclosure.

The photographers would travel about in wagons/studios, taking portraits of the miners young and old, holding the tools of their trade, a shovel, a pick, a pan. Some would even show off their precious nuggets or flakes of gold. They would show the men working as they dug away at the earth, searching for Mother Lode.

Lake Jenkinson & Sly Park Paddle Rentals

Their images were also the first to detail the environmental damage inflicted on the landscape.
Pictures show men digging away with shovels and building scaffolds in large mining operations that upheave the earth and ripped away hillsides.
The first prospectors worked their claims manually with pans and picks. But, as more arrived, the miners took to diverting entire rivers and using high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock material or move sediment to speed up their excavations. This caused a devastating effect on the riparian natural countryside. Long after the hype for gold subsided, much of the environmental damage of this form of mining still lasts to this day.  

  

Lake Clementine & Robber's Roost

Their haunting images captured historic people and places I now call home. As I document my paddling adventures, it's a bit easier with our cell phone technology. I only hope that can create the same excitement of the Gold Rush. So as 2022 draws to a close, let's look back at some of my favorite images from this past year. 

Great American Triathlon training with Current Adventures 

  

Bayside Adventure Sports at Loon Lake

John Taylor at Sly Park 

The annual Glow Paddle on Lake Natoma

       

Salmon on the Lower American River

Kayaking with Current Adventures on Lake Natoma

The Sacramento River with Bayside Adventure Sports

Debbie Carlson at Yosemite 

Sly Park Paddle Rentals 

   

Our new home in Placerville, California

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KAYAK SUMMER 2022

It is the glistening autumnal side of summer. I feel a cool vein in the breeze, which braces my thought, and I pass with pleasure over sheltered and sunny portions of the sand where the summer's heat is undiminished, and I realize what a friend I am losing. --- Henry David Thoreau

We were lying on a white granite beach on a high Serria lakeshore staring up into the cosmos. Campfires were prohibited, and rightly so. So, the stars blazing in the sky were our only source of light since the full moon had leaped over the peaks of the mountains just yet. We were waiting for meteors to streak across the sky when someone mentioned Elan Musk's Starlink. It's a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX, providing satellite Internet access coverage to 40 countries around the world. Starlink now boasts well over 2,000 functional satellites orbiting overhead.

Sly Park Paddle Rentals 

Moments later, the strange moving chain of bright dots resembling a brilliant caravan of lights traveled from west to east across the sky. I tried to count the number of the bright lights but quickly lost count as they moved in succession across the sky. Lasting a few minutes, it was like a freight train rolling by and heading off to some faraway place. And then it was gone. The progression of satellites was a quick and stunning display. And then disappeared into the sky.

My summer was like that too. It's a very fast succession of days that dwindles at the dawn of autumn. Now once again, I'm saying goodbye to my well-spent summer days.

When my wife, Debbie, and I moved from Fair Oaks to Placerville, California, last May, it brought me much closer to the proximity of Sly Park and the South Fork of the American River.
Sly Park and Lake Jenkinson were a given since I was once again working the boathouse for Sly Park Paddle Rentals for my fifth year in a row. My weekends were filled with a steady dose of canoeing, kayaking, and swimming. And to think I'm lucky enough to be getting paid for it.
On the South Fork, on the other hand, I only got to cross the Highway 94 bridge. Like a lot of paddlers, I look over the bridge while driving over it to check out the current and see if I see any boats or anyone I know. And wish I was there. It didn't matter if the flow was high or low. I wanted to go. The South Fork whitewater will have to wait a while longer.

GAT training with Current Adventures 

They had been waiting for a long-time to be racing on the Lower American River. After a Covid-related shutdown for the past two summers, the Great American Triathlon race and our training resumed with Current Adventures. Dan Crandall and I showed the racers for the racers the best lines for the kayaking section run down the American River through San Juan Rapids. Win or just participate, our paddlers rocked their evening training sessions. By all reports, they rocked it on race day.

My summers wouldn't be summer without our Annual trips to Loon Lake and down the Sacramento River with Bayside Adventure Sports. Our jewel is Loon Lake on the east side of the Sierra Nevada. A scenic vista along the entire lake. It has picturesque mountain views and splendid emerald color waters surrounded by white granite boulders, laced with Sierra junipers growing on tops and ridges and in the splits between the glacier pavements of granite. My paddling partner john Taylor and I spent the whole week there leading two different groups during August. Our paddlers never know how valuable these quiet places are until they paddled into them for a few days.

 

Loon Lake with Bayside Adventure Sports

Our Sacramento River weekend trip near Red Bluff, California, finished my summer season just last weekend. The highlight was seeing Lassen Peak, one of the largest domed volcanoes in the world, as a backdrop for our fast river run.

Sandwiched in between, I paddled throughout the summer, trying to squeeze every drop out of our summer I could.

 

Lake Jenkinson & The Boathouse

"Suddenly, I experienced the feeling of longing, longing for the canyon. It was almost as if we left something back there." Recalled adventure paddler Andrzej Pietowski when describing the fleeting moments of looking back into Peru's Colca Canyon, the deepest on earth, after making its first descent down it, "Something viable, breathing, some small but living part of ourselves. The longing has remained with me ever since."
Summer 2022 is over. It's time to officially remember what day of the week it is. I do look back, longing for more of it. I feel like I left part of myself behind. I feel like I left something out.
And now, as we hurtle ourselves toward another autumn, I reflect on that high Sierra beach watching Starlink satellites trek across. Just like them, summer might be gone, but memories still flicker.

Here is a look at some of my favorite images from this past summer.

The Sacramento River with Bayside Adventure Sports 

Lake Natoma 

The Lower American River 

Shore dinner at Loon Lake 

GAT training on Lower American River 

Lake Jenkinson

The Lower American River 

Lake Jenkinson 

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BOATHOUSE DAYS, MY FIFTH SUMMER ON LAKE JENKINSON PART II

Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability --- Sam Keen

Summertime and the livin' is easy," the popular George Gershwin song goes. On Lake Jenkinson at Sly Park Paddle Rentals, it definitely had that feeling when the blue skies and sunshine greeted me on the weekend mornings. The rains of June are soggy memory now through the end of August. It would be only sun-splashed days at the boathouse.

After 5 years, I've got my routine down, opening up my little boathouse. Make a list of reservations at home, grab the park radio at the front gate, and drive the 3 miles meandering through the park to Stonebreaker Boat Launch.
Once there, I would resemble a pack mule carrying a weekend supply of ice, food, and water down the long path to the boathouse. 

After a gulp of coffee, I would pull the stacked paddle boards out of the boathouse and line them up on the dock. Then knock a few kayaks off the dock into the water and stage an arm full of PFDS nearby.
Almost there. Next, I set up my flag and throw up my open sign that I'm ready for business.
If I was early, and usually was, I would save the flag and sign for later and enjoy a quick wake-up swim in the lake followed by breakfast with a cup of coffee.
"Morning simply isn't morning without a cup of coffee, but not just any cup will do," wrote canoeist and writer Jerry Dennis, "I want it black and strong enough to kick-start me into wakefulness."

If a Saturday or Sunday, y crew of high school kids, Walden and Noelle, jump into action outfitting the novices with PFDs and paddles.
Tandems and SUPs are the crafts of choice on these hot summer days. Canoes are still very popular for families with small children. Want to paddle on your own? Check out a single kayak.
While anyone can walk up and get a boat, reservations are encouraged. Since they have already paid for the rental and filled out the waiver, they are in the express lane to the water.

  

     
Friday, July 8...Busy start to my day. Dan and I had Great American Triathlon Training last night. We did the whole course. Afterward, I had to bring some boats up to Sly with me because our paddlers wanted to try them out on the lake. I suggested they come up to Sly Park. So, here I am, unloading two sit-inside kayaks. I dropped them off at the boat ramp and floated them over, thinking that the way winds work, they would be pushed over the rest of the way to the boathouse. It didn't happen, and I ended up swimming them over the rest of the way.
The water is very swimmable now. It's clear and refreshing. When I jumped in, there, of course, was a little shock of cold, but it quickly subsided as I swam toward the boats.
Last month I would have paddled them over but being so warm out, it's the only way to go.
All is well for Friday. I brought a good lunch and even dropped off some cookies at the front gate for the staff. Just a random act of kindness. It made his day. He was really hungry. 

Saturday, July 9...By far one of our busiest days of the season. It was a tandem day as every one of them went out. Some even went twice and three times.

The weather was perfect, with light winds and clear blue skies.
The only drawback was the lake was dropping. Our gangplank was even with the last cement block of our sidewalk. It won't be long till it's dirt.
The night before, I took a paddle and hike up to the falls just to see them flowing. I haven't been able to paddle to the bridge for a few years now. I have to remind myself over and over again of what it used to look like with water. Each year I say, hopefully, next season, we will have more water.
I'm so grateful that this view of Middle Earth did not burn up in last year's fire. It was so so close.
Sunday, July 10...We have a few reservations. But most of them haven't shown up yet. Some folks are like that. They'll rush to get here and run behind. When they get here. I tell them to take it slow and relax, you're at the lake now. 

“Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn,
 J.K. Rowling

We had a few days in the middle of July that was more than a little upsetting for me. Our boathouse and dock are an easy target for someone when it is unattended. Even with the gate securely locked, I've found muddy footprints, beer cans, and tangled fishing lines left behind on the dock. And while usually, the park brings in some great patrons, we did end up with the door kicked in this year, some boats taken on a joy ride, and on another night had a paddle board stolen off the deck. I would try to keep a look out for it for the rest of the summer.

In the meantime, it was always a great way to start the day with either; a quick swim, a canoe ride, or both before opening up. And at the end of the day, I would always paddle my kayak. Sometimes I would stay in the comfort of the upper lake by paddling up the creek or across the way from the boathouse to the wind-protected bay, while other times, I would head out across the big lake and round the island on the far west end. When there is enough water, it is two islands, but with the lake dropping every week, it has become one large one. It can be pretty bumping out there as I crash through the waves of motorboats. But the setting sun always makes the water glisten in gold. Coming through the narrows in the twilight, the water was very still and quiet.

 

 

I send all sorts of people away in boats. There are big people, small people, men, women, and kids. Some have paddled before, and some have never stepped into a canoe or kayak in their entire life. And yes, I think that is a little alarming when I think about it since I'm about to send them out onto the lake.
Good luck, I tell them. I hope you have fun. See you in an hour, and glad you signed the waiver.
My rescues are few. Most of the time, they come back safe sound, saying they had a great time. Sometimes they come back soaked to the skin, but they still say they had a great time.

 

Friday, July 15...Greeted today with a busted-in door and a missing kayak. What a way to disrupt my morning. 

Saturday, July 16...An eventful day yesterday with our door getting bashed in and a kayak pirated away. But we got it back, and the ranger came and fixed the door. The first one didn't work. Since I didn't want him to carry them up the hill, I stacked them on canoes and paddled them to Stonebreaker. 

Sunday, July 17...The start of another disappointing day as one of our SUPS was stolen last night. Thinking someone took it for a joy ride, I search and search along the lake shore early this morning with no luck.

Friday, July 22...A much better way to start the day at Sly Park. Quiet and uneventful. No break-ins, nothing stolen, just peace and quiet. 

After opening, I took a canoe out on the morning's breathless waters floating along, listening to the sounds of the forest. The swish of my paddle, the buzz of bugs, and the caw of crows.

Friday, July 29...SUP paddling is certainly all the rage right now. Here at the lake, I'm seeing more and more of them. Mostly inflatables, made with hard materials but easy to store and transport. They fit in the closet as well as in the trunk of a car. It's getting common to see folks pumping their SUPS up either by hand or with an electric pump either in the parking lot or right at the lake access, hooked up to a car battery. The sound of their electric pump's hums over the water. 

There are generally two types of paddlers for them. The first is there for a power paddle workout going from one end of the lake to another. The others are there as social paddlers more interested in rafting up in groups of 2 to 20, never leaving sight of the boat access.

Sunday, July 31...The lake is going down. It dropped, even more, this week. I had to start building a trail again.

Sunday, August 7...Quiet start to my day. The sign at the gate says the lake is 74% percent, but it seems to have dropped more overnight. The boathouse and dock keep sinking further and further into the lake. No telling what it will be in two weeks. But summers are like that now in the foothills.

Friday, August 19...Like always, the lake has dropped. Had to extend my little foot trail to the gangplank another six feet. Who knew that running a boathouse would involve trail building.

Not a cloud in the sky right now, and it's hot! I'm hoping for a breeze soon. It will be easy to cook my burritos by wrapping them in tin foil and laying them on the deck.

Later, I thought their tandem with two dogs was a little overloaded. They opted for a tandem boat. They had told me they rolled a canoe years before. Too bad they had the same result today. Not 100 yards from the boathouse. But I was quick to rescue everyone. I paddled out in a canoe telling everyone in a calm voice that they were all ok. I gathered up their dogs first. Then told the woman to swim toward shore while the gentleman needed a little help. I had him wrap his legs around the bow of the canoe and paddled him to shore. 

The rangers came, but it was all ok. We got everyone out of the water to shore. The PFDs worked like they were supposed to, giving us all a happy ending. I think they were both a bit embarrassed by all the fuss. But it all ends well.

It's a long goodbye to summer once the calendar rolls mid-August. The season that brought us warm nights, canoe camping adventures, and, of course, my great boathouse tan is quickly fading away.
While it's still scorching hot outside, the season is a time for folks to get back to normal. School is starting. There are games and activities to go to, and the trip to the lake is a summer vacation memory.

For the last few seasons, the path to the boathouse gets longer and longer as Lake Jenkinson shrinks and the boathouse and dock sink into the lake valley. The sidewalk leading to the dock dropped off sometime in July. Leaving me to continuously fashion a trail the rest of the way to the gangplank.

The lake was still a treasure for me. Morning swims, Paddleboard floats and ending every evening on the water with a kayaking experience taking out across the lake left.
At the boathouse, I found you have to be ready for anything, from a person forgetting their paddle at home, a canoe drifting away, or a boater's family being marooned on the other side of the lake, and another wildfire.

Sunday, August 21...The season is going fast now. School is starting, and folks are not thinking about coming to the lake. Yesterday was a busy day. Folks mostly wanted to rent SUPS.
I did have another boat rescue which is actually that. The boater could make it back from Stonebreaker access due to the fetch. So, I swam over and paddled it back.

 

Friday, August 26... It's the last weekend in August for paddling. We only have a few weekends left. But hey, last year, we had already been shut for a week due to the Caldor Fire and would never open again that season.
The lake looks great, considering what it looked like last year. It's at 69%, and the waterfall is still flowing into the lake. We'll take it.

Saturday, August 27...At close last night I paddled with Rob back to the main boat launch. He paddled with us at Current Adventures and raced during the Great American Triathlon. He often paddles here at Sly early mornings from one end of the lake to another and back. I met him on his return leg and paddled back with him.

Sunday, August 28... A sleepy start to the day. I did rescue a paddler who forgot his paddle.
Again, last night, I paddled to the other end of the lake. There was not a lot of boat traffic. It was nice not to battle their waves.
On the other hand, Stonebreaker has been busy this morning with the crew after crew unloading their SUPs and kayaks. A lot of folks with their own gear in this post-pandemic world.

 

Friday, September 2...It's going to be super-hot this weekend. Temperatures in the valley will be well over 100 degrees. It's even too warm up here. Escaping the heat is going to be a good plan for the day.
I dropped off a kayak and floated it over to the boathouse. Luckily, I still had to swim for it. It was the best part of my day.

Saturday, September 3... I did paddle up into what is left of Sly Park Creek yesterday. There is no backwater there anymore. Only a narrow bar of sediment about 6 feet tall between the stream and the lake. The upper end of the lake is dry indeed. 

Sunday, September 4...I started the day by giving her a canoe ride to Stonebreaker. She had rented kayaks for her kids and needed a ride to her kayak waiting for her. It was an easy trek, unlike last night when I had to paddle across and rescue a family.
I was just closing when a guy came up and said his boat had conked out and wouldn't start, and he couldn't get to his family on the other side of the lake. I called the rangers, but he said the boat patrol was off the water. So, I told him I would go get them in our canoes.
I lashed two canoes together and crossed the lake. I said, "I'm your Uber," once I reached the other side. They had lots of kids and lots of gear. I piled their cooler, tent, and kids into one canoe and tied on a water toy with two others on it. Then loaded the other boat with the other folks and told them to head to Stonebreaker.
We paddled across all the way laughing all the way. It was a great adventure for them all to be rescued by canoe. Dad was thankful and handed me a wad of wet cash. An unexpected way to end the day on the lake.

Monday, September 5...Labor Day. I can't believe the summer season is already over. It's not over in the temperature department. It's sizzling out there.

Friday, September 9...Well, I thought we would escape the fire season, but we didn't. Another one burns near Forest Hill. Last night my wife and I saw the smoke and glow of the fire from our Placerville home. It's too close for comfort.
I was greeted with heavy smokey skies this morning hanging over the lake. The park is quiet. The smoke will be keeping the folks away. It's too bad. It's great to paddle into the fall season, but not enough water and now smoke make it bad for business.

Saturday, September 10...Better day than before. Just a bit of haze on the lake. The sun was a glowing ball of orange rising over the lake. I have several reservations, but who knows who will show up.

Sunday, September 11...I'm seeing ash particles on the kayak seats, and I can't even see the trees across the lake. It's time to call it a day.

 

Saturday, September 17...Well, it's a wrap for the boathouse this season. I came to the lake to clean out the boathouse. Yesterday it was just too smokey. Today it's super windy, and tomorrow it is supposed to rain. So, we are calling it a season. 
I loaded all the kayak seats, PFDs, and paddles into a canoe and made four trips back and forth to Stonebreaker. Certainly, would have liked to end the summer on a high note. We will hope for better days to come.

The end of summertime is accompanied by a bit of sadness. However, this season has brought some great memories. I look back at those moments with gratitude. 

Thanks to Dan Crandall, the staff at The River Store, and all the rangers and park staff who helped us keep afloat during the season. Most of all, I'd like to thank our amazing customers for their patronage in making the long walk down the hill to our boathouse. 

We'll see you all next spring. 

If you want to go on a canoe or kayak trip at Sly Park contact:
Current Adventures Kayak School and Trips
PHONE: 530-333-9115 or Toll-Free: 888-452-9254
FAX: 530-333-1291
USPS: Current Adventures, P.O. Box 828, Lotus, CA 95651
info@currentadventures.com
owner Dan Crandall dan@kayaking.com
 

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A WEEK IN THE SIERRA PART II

By far the greatest of all these ranges is the Sierra Nevada, a long and massive uplift lying between the arid deserts of the Great Basin and the Californian exuberance of grain-field and orchard; its eastern slope, a defiant wall of rock plunging abruptly down to the plain; the western, a long, grand sweep. Well-watered and overgrown with cool, stately forests; its crest a line of sharp, snowy peaks springing into the sky and catching the alpenglow long after the sun has set for all the rest of America. --- Clarence King

Each morning I'd peel open my tent fly and look out over the stillness of Pleasant Lake. I was at the far end of the peninsula on a flat spot, a stone's throw from a small cove less than a hundred yards wide. It was an easy swim back and forth, that I had done the day before. On the other side, a granite white and grey wall rise out of the water. The fissures and cracks in it made it look like a high-rise apartment. Its mirrored reflection in the water doubled its size. In the shadows of the morning, the wall appeared to glow.
The sun hadn't peaked over the ridge of Sierra just yet. The moon was fading into the western skies. My tent inhaled the cool dawn air as I climbed out of the tangle of my sleeping bags and put on my pullover and stocking hat.
I had the same feeling that naturalist John Muir described best on a July day in his book My First Summer in the Sierra, "Exhilarated with the mountain air, I feel like shouting this morning with excess of wild animal joy."
 

Paddling Pleasant Lake

It's a bit too early for shouting. Whispers were more in order, as I zigzagged through the brush and the hardier little Sierra Junipers trees and leaping sagebrush lizards to our Bayside Adventure Sports campsite. Where I found John Taylor already boiling a kettle of water. Nothing better to start the day than with a little pore over coffee. We've been bringing these faith-based groups from Bayside Adventure Sports for a week of outback camping to Loon Lake in the Crystal Basin Recreation Area for five years. As Muir put it so elegantly and simply, "And into the forest, I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.” Our participants always return to the flatlands, refreshed and recharged.

Paddling along the granite shore of the lake

Throughout the week, during morning and sunset paddles on the upper part of Pleasant Lake, we'd explore the narrow coves, bays, and polished granite formations. Paddling here, one can see the mountains' history, through the stories left behind in the rock.

When Padre Pedro Font named the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 1776, they had already been around for a long, long time. The ice- and snow-covered sharp saw-bladed peaks, the Spanish padre, saw had begun forming under the ocean about 100 million years ago. Beneath the surface of the earth, the granitic rocks formed from molten rock that gradually solidified. Powerful geological forces then gradually forced the landmass up under the waters of the Pacific Ocean and below an advancing North American continent. As a result, plumes of plutonic rock were pushed up towards the surface, and sheets of lava poured down the slopes of volcanic chimneys rising to the surface.

 
  

Exploring the many coves of the lake

About 50 million later, the volcanoes were extinct. The erosive agents like wind, rain, and frost ate away the softer sediments exposing the salt-and-pepper speckled Granitic rocks containing minerals including quartz, feldspars, and micas.

As the world grew colder, beginning about 2 or 3 million years ago, the Sierra Nevada mountains were coated with an extensive thick mantle of ice. It covered much of the higher altitudes and sent massive ice-crawling glaciers down its valleys. The glacial ice quarried loosed and transported vast volumes of rubble along the way, scouring and transforming the landscape that we see today.

Paddling by the polish white granite boulders, it's easy to see the evidence of the path of the last glacier. Deep grooves are carved into the rock, and erratic and huge slabs of rock are left behind and out of place in a natural balancing act. To our delight, flat smooth polished boulders at the water's edge are perfect for sunbathing and drying off on a hot day after jumping into the cool lake.
 

At sunset the mountains of the Sierra glow red 

Only the bravest trees succeed in the summit crags along the lake, despite struggling against the wind and snow. We see the Sierra junipers growing on tops and ridges and in the splits between the glacier pavements of granite. Muir called them a sturdy highlander, "Seemingly content to live for more than a score of centuries on sunshine and snow...Surely the most enduring of all the tree mountaineers, it never seems to die a natural death."
Nestled in these trees and granite walls of the Sierra are these man-made reservoirs like Loon Lake and Pleasant Lake. After years of construction, they are part of the mountain landscape. These once meadows, canyons, and riverbeds are now glimmering lakes ready to explore and make part of a new history.

On our evening trek around the lake, we were able to paddle into a picturesque pond filled with blooming water lilies protected by steep walls on all three sides. It was only because the water level was still higher than normal this time of year that we were able to see the beautiful yellow flowers in all their glory in our kayaks.

  

A hidden coves reveals blooming water lilies

We paddled back to our camp in the twilight. The sky was ablaze with brilliant golden skies and orange-tinted mountains.
Back at camp, we lay on our backs staring up at the star-filled sky just as Muir did over a century ago. "How hard to realize that every camp of men or beast has this glorious starry firmament for a roof! In such places standing alone on the mountain-top, it is easy to realize that whatever special nests we make leaves and moss-like the marmots and birds, or tents or piled stone," wrote Muir, " " We all dwell in a house of one room – the world with the firmament for its roof and are sailing the celestial spaces without leaving any track.”

At 6,378 feet, we had no trouble seeing the heavens. We were dazzled by the Starlink satellites, a moving train of bright dots traveling across the sky. Blown away by an amazing streaking meteor that burned across the sky, from horizon to horizon, and later overwhelmed by the full moon rising over the silhouetted mountain top. In my tent, I looked over the lake as moonbeams glimmered off the still water before pulling down the fly. In the distant coyotes howling at the moon, I'm sure, with pure wild animal joy.

 

A beautiful sunset ends the day on Pleasant Lake

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