It was a lovely hike, though a bit longer than I was really prepared for. Six miles in, not too bad, but it was my first time in a while doing that much with a pack on.
The views were rather nice though, so you didn't feel so bad taking a small break.
I loved all the crazy trees, both dead and alive.
I found this little stream at the bottom of a gully. Monty jumped right in. I dabbled my toes. It was cold!
Monty was absolutely wonderful on this trip. He was off leash the whole time, always stayed nice and close (but not too close), and was generally just wonderful.
The silly boy loved to play in the snow drifts, would just go crazy. jumping, rolling, digging. This picture was caught just as he came down from a very goofy jump. Contrary to appearance, he was having the time of his life. Just happened to catch him wrong, he looks terrifying doesn't he?
There were tons of meadows up there, very lush and full of wildflowers. Unfortunately also full of mosquitos. I hate bug spray, but I didn't skimp here. ugh.
Wildflowers
Not a flower, but still pretty cool! It's a coral mushroom.
More pretty views
Love the lichens on the trees.
Monty sleeping. He would run and play and explore any time I was on my feet, but by the end of the day, any time I stopped he would curl up and sleep.
Unfortunately, this wasnt a blissfull trip, many things went wrong. For starters, I forgot the tent poles. Now, before you think too badly of me, the dang things don't actually fit into the bag with the other tent stuff. I bought the darn thing for my south america trip, so essentially only packed it once. The poles had hidden themselves in the back of the closet, so I forgot them. ugh. Luckily, the weather was great, got cold but no rain or anything. The bugs at dusk were horrible without that refuge, but I survived. Poor Monty froze though. The little guy has very short hair, spent half the night shivering. I slept as much as I could with my feet (and thus my sleeping bag) over him. 
Oh, and my little camping stove dropped and wouldn't work, so not hot food. The morning was spectacular though.
When I was leaving, things really got interesting. I first got to my car to find out it wouldn't go into gear. The clutch was acting up. I eventually got it to work, how I don't know, and started driving out. Only to see the smoke plume from the big fire in Tahoe. That fire almost caused me to ge into 4 or 5 wrecks. The first 2 due to idiots looking at the fire and not looking where they were driving. One of them I was on the outside of a hairpin turn, and he came around looking at the fire. He was moving pretty fast too. I didn't have time to do much more than pull as far to the side as I could, without going over the edge, and hold onto the steering wheel tight, so when he hit me I wouldnt get shoved off the cliff! The bastard missed me by centimeters. I couldn't even honk, I was so worried about going flying. All the rest of the close calls were due to people reacting bizarrely to the fire trucks screaming by.
Tahoe Fire
Since the fire was right by HW 50, my route home was either blocked by the fire, or by the gawkers. The line of cars went for miles. So, I went the other way, took the long way home around Lake Tahoe to Truckie and HW 80. It was a LONG drive, especially when you weren't sure if you car was going to crap out on you (drove fine for the rest of the day though). Pretty views though. The smoke plume from the fire was quite impressive.
