Dead wood

Part of the ritual of the weekly bowling league is a 10 minute warm-up session prior to the three-game match. Normally I don't even bother with practice because it's such an ordeal to cut through the swarm of other bowlers in order to toss a ball. But this week I arrived early, so I had already selected a ball and put my shoes on before they started the lanes for practice. Once the lanes came on, I figured what the hell.

When practicing, its customary to throw one ball and move out of the way to let the person behind you throw the second ball. Or if someone has already thrown a ball and you're next, you try to complete the spare.

The first ball I threw was a strike, and I moved over to the other lane where another bowler had just thrown a ball. My ball quickly came back up through the machine, so I grabbed it and threw it at the remaining pins. Just as I released the ball, I could hear Max, one of our opponents yell, "What the hell are you doing?" And right then I saw the metal pin guard come down and my ball hit it with a loud bang, sending fallen pins out on the lane.

"Dead wood on lane 23," someone yelled.

Seems as though I threw the second ball before the machine re-racked after the first ball.

Ok, that's the last time I do that. I'm back to no warm-ups.

These boots were made for hiking

When I aworke Saturday morning to the bright sunlight, I was quickly greeted by curious marmots.

These funny alpine rodents were watching me pretty closely until Zoe emerged from Mike's tent, and then they scampered off before she even saw them.

After breakfast, we decided to check out some of our surroundings with a day hike. Being there was still a lot of snow around and therefore there were also numerous small streams, we often found ourselves off trail and just trying to find our way. Eventually we made it above the waterfall that fed Twin Lakes, and then above that to a great overlook.

We hiked another 6-8 miles Saturday, and when got back to our camp we could see Zoe was feeling some pain. We could see her muscles were a bit sore, but also her feet and toe nails were getting pretty beat up from all of the granite that we were hiking on.

Luckily Mike brought along some boots for Zoe for just this problem, and while a bit reluctant, she wore them all the way down the mountain on our hike back to the car on Sunday.

Desolation Wilderness

It had been a few years since I had been on a good backing trip, so my buddy, Mike, his dog, Zoe, and I packed up and headed into the Desolation Wilderness just outside of Kyburz off of US Route 50.

We turned on Wrights Lake Road and headed up several miles gaining altitude until we reached the Wrights Lake Visitors Center. Unfortunately the road was closed beyond that point because it was still early in the summer season, so we had to put on our gear there and walk up one mile of paved road before reaching the Twin Lakes Trailhead.

Putting on a heavy pack is never fun, and it's always hard to get used to, but Zoe had no problem. In fact, Zoe wasted no time checking to see if her pack was waterproof.

The answer? Nope... As it turns out, in addition to dog food, Zoe's pack also contained Mike's roll of toilet paper, but he got that out before it got soaked. I strapped that on the back of Mike pack as you can see in one of the photos.

After a couple of hours, about 4.5 miles of trail and 1500 feet of altitude gain, we got to our destination: Twin Lakes. The scene was beautiful.

I would have jumped into the lake, but it was still being filled by melting snow and couldn't have been much warmer than 33 degrees. That didn't stop Zoe, though. She took advantage of every body of water she encountered, and I never once saw her shiver.

After surveying our surroundings, we decided to head to the other side of the lake to find our campsite. The only problem was that there were only two ways to get there. One involved a steam crossing (while wearing our 40+ pound packs), and the other involved crossing a snowfield just above the shore. We opted for the latter.

Amazingly, we made it without incident, and we quickly found a nice dry and level spot for our camp. Prior to setting up our tents, I dropped two beers I was carrying into the lake to chill. Beer on backpack trips is usually discouraged due to inefficient weight, but there's something about a cold brew after a long hike.

Pete Coors would have been proud. Besides, one must ease into the Jack Daniels.

Mike also brought along another luxury, fresh marinated tri-tip. No freeze dried grub tonight, this was the real thing. Man that smelled so good on the propane stove. I knew if there were any bears around, they would surely be attracted to that.

We sipped our beers, chomped on steak and then sipped Lynchberg Lemonade (if Crystal Light + JD qualifies), and eased into the beautiful evening.

What more could we want? Ok, well, except for that?