Reservoir Hopping

We just scrubbed off the last duff of the weekend. Outlaws that we are, we managed to car camp amidst our fellow hikers and campers without paying for gas, camping or bathing for four days plus we picked up 70 gallons of veggie “fuel.” Michael has developed an easy way to carry a battery and pump for getting the oil now we don’t have the second set of batteries under the camper (shown here.)
We camped at reservoirs, which defines most all of the lakes you can drive to in California. First we went to Carr, a PG&E lake that is a trailhead for the Grouse Ridge trail. That’s where we saw this oddly blunt bodied non-colored snake. Next night we went deeper down that bumpy road to much bigger Bowman Lake.
The next day we came out to I-80 and went up the Donner Summit road through a migration of the same orange on the inside, mottled leaf brown on the outside, butterflies we’d seen in Sugar Lake, B.C. this time last year. These were succumbing in great numbers with each passing of a vehicle. I was squirming with distress as we lumbered the truck amongst their fragile, flittering bodies, which also littered the road.
We hiked the Judah Mountain trail above Sugar Bowl with dozens of other day hikers out on the Pacific Crest Trail. At lunch, up on an escarpment facing the least human impacted vista, we watched a scruffy juvenile coyote trot smartly just below us while Sasha twisted on her collar to be after him.
Lastly, we went home via Stampede Reservoir and up and around the Henness Pass Road, where settlers and stage coaches once traveled through Washoe land. Beautiful valleys and long meadows leading us back to our usual way home.