Final days of spring

Beautiful Ruby Lake and moody Sierra skies

I’m sure you know all about the best laid plans of mice and men.  Last weekend, we had every intention of heading out for adventure, but instead we ended up vegging at home, watching a movie, and generally doing nothing.  So, when this weekend rolled around, and Tuesday promised to be halfway decent for hiking, we headed out to continue our exploration of our backyard.

The Little Lakes Valley (where we’re working) is a great place to start on a trailhead, since most of them are at least 10,000 feet.  Alpine hiking can be drudgery when you have to go up 5,000 or more feet, but not all that bad if your overall gain is just a couple thousand.  We made a 9 mile round trip jaunt past Ruby Lake, pausing for lunch at the highest point we’ve even been on our own volition, Mono Pass.

Most of the trail was clear, save for a snowfield at the top of the pass. We only passed a couple other hikers, and the weather held out, although the skies looked very threatening. Our valley is just so darn pretty that it was all I could do to pace myself on the picture-taking.  It was a wonderful outing and awesome hike.

Lots of recent snows mean that the streams are running full force!

Hello from balmy 11,900 feet!

Our valley sure is a looker!

Work is coming along swimmingly, especially since we are getting more competent and knowledgeable.  With the warmer weather, we are starting to see more customers, and in a few weeks, the season will officially be in full swing.  The full contingent of employees has arrived, and we all alternate between working in the store, restaurant, and cleaning cabins. The work is demanding and physical, but we like our co-workers, and the friendly King family owners.  We especially like when a delicate, non-savable cream pie remains unsold at the end of the day, and we get to enjoy it for crew dinner!

Here’s some scenes from our workdays:

Sue and Amy, the Pie Ladies, hard at work.  Most days they start before 6:30, and make between 15 and 40 pies.  Get here early, because when it’s gone, it’s gone till tomorrow!

Fishing accoutrements, and a picture of the Rock Creek record. It’s all still a strange world of funny names like “red-butt woolybugger” and Garlic Powerbait.

Front of the house and back of the house. Chalese will take your order, and Steve can make you some killer pancakes. If you’re really nice, he might even make you Mickey Mouse ones

Kris tackles the enormous task of cleaning a cabin kitchen. We go through each and every dish to be sure they’re clean.

And now, a brief commercial:

Steve and his dad, Doug, brew Miller and Son’s BBQ sauce at the Resort. Not only is it delicious, but it can be yours on Amazon….no need to come to California to try it!

It’s not all hard work, though; we also have a lot of fun with our co-workers, fitting in a quick game of wiffleball after dinner, or going for walks at nearby Rock Creek Lake.

Rock Creek Wiffleball Champions of 2015.

Luke, the King’s dog, loves to go for walks and swim in the lake.

This is what passes for not-so-bad snow in June!