July 2016
It was around 10 am on a quiet Thursday morning in the Homewood area of Lake Tahoe. June, her sister Kelley, her nephew Stevie, and myself all agreed to go on a short hike up to Quail Lake. Yep, I agreed, but what else could I have done?
I would have loved to hike somewhere more adventurous, more challenging. June and I usually spend two weeks or more every summer at her brother's cabin in this area. At least once, usually more, we would do an adventurous hike to somewhere new. I do like to push myself a bit out of my own comfort zone once in a while. Or maybe it is just the little boy in me trying to get out from its 62 year old body.
Assuming we would be back to the cabin in an hour or so, I took a water bottle and nothing more. We walked up through the Homewood ski area. Thirty minutes later, Stevie and I arrived first at Quail Lake. While waiting for the rest of the group, I told Stevie that I would go to the right around the lake looking for the Northwest passage. I had pushed through to the left of where we sat through some heavy growth and very hilly terrain to get to close to the other side of the lake. But the only other time I tried to the right, the area was very overgrown. That was a several years before, and by now, enough people had trampled a very narrow but obvious rabbit trail through the brush.
Quail Lake
and Quail Face - there is a path at the top of the face, 800 ft. above
the lake level. It is as high as an 80 story building.
After 10 minutes, I popped through into a clearing, stood on a rocky perch, and whistled for the group to see me. They all looked up, waved, and quickly went back to their phones. At least they knew I was alive. I wanted to close the circle around the lake to connect to the trail to the left, but that would take another 20-30 minutes, so I figured I would go back to the group. By the time I got there, they were ready to go back to the cabin, the land of WiFi in an otherwise desolate connectivity desert. I knew I would NOT spend this beautiful morning doing that, so I said I would meet them back at the cabin soon, as I would like to explore the passage around the lake. June reluctantly agreed and then she offered me her phone.
But what would SHE do without her phone? She has a million pictures on it! And what if I lost her phone, or damaged it. $600! That's what! Plus, I would be very quick; 30 minutes at most. And I know a short cut, so I could very well beat them back to the cabin.
"That's Okay, you keep the phone. I will be fine. I will see you back at the cabin."
Oops! I regretted that decision almost immediately.
I took off to the right again, into the brush, and quickly popped out on the other side close to the rock. I looked back and they were all gone. I continued in a counter-clockwise route to find the Northwest passage.
On the other side of the lake, I encountered a large granite rock, shown in the center of the above picture. I could see a marshy, swampy area on the other side of the rock that would not be fun to cross, so I instead headed up the steep hill looking for a path through the tall pine trees. The green splotches on the Face are Manzanitta bushes, almost my height, and very prickly. I couldn't get through, so I continued up the hill. After 10 minutes or so, I was quite a ways up and still no path through the brush. Then a thought occurred to me: Maybe I can just walk up the Face of this mountain?
There really is a good reason for doing this. You see, the ultimate destination in the picture below is Ellis Peak, the highest peak in the area. And, as the crow flies, it is a mere 2.5 miles away. Yet, it takes most of the day to hike there one way; impossible to go there and back in one day. A big part of the reason is that the trail to the top of Quail Face, in red below, is a very long circuitous route. It would be very expedient to just walk up the Face, and you are almost half way there!
The trail across the face turned out to be much closer to the top than I remembered. I persisted very slowly, and deliberately. Eventually I stepped out on the trail and vocally rejoiced in the moment. Here is a view from the top from a previous hike. Before this adventure I couldn't even get close to the edge.
I came out at a fork in the trail, one leg heading to the left in this photo, along the ridge at the top of the face. It looked like it was a small ski run, so I walked down thinking maybe this would be an easy way to get down, and up, the elusive Quail face. Then, a quarter mile down the trail, it ended abruptly with no easy way to continue. Reluctantly, I turned around and walked back, then headed down the familiar, but long walk on the circuitous route, back to the cabin. I decided to take the short cut back along lake shore (on the right of the lake in this pic) which is normally a scramble. But after the scrambling I had already done, this was nothing. I jumped over the spillway, down the narrow trail, and shortly I was back at the cabin.
As I figured, June had been nervous about me getting back so late, and regretted me not taking her phone. I admitted to her that it was a stupid move on my part, and she was pacified. Never again will I do something like this!! (without a phone in my pocket.)