Christmas in...September!

As many of you know, I am obsessed with Christmas. But as many of you also know, I usually try to hold off until after Thanksgiving to give into my urges of merry tidings and good cheer. And that was my strategy for this year as well except that good old Mother Nature had another plan. We were minding our own business, driving home from our camping trip when the rain became hail...then became....SNOW!
Can you believe it? Here we are in September, and here I've been trying my best to keep my holiday spirit at in check, when all of the sudden it starts to snow! And oh my goodness, let me tell you! I'm not talking about a couple of sissy flurries. No. I'm talking about a full on, no expense spared, honest-to-god snowstorm!!! Woohoo! It was so beautiful I could hardly stand it!
In my wildest dreams I'd only hoped to see a little fall color on the trees during our trip. But Lady Nature overdid herself, and gave me Christmas in September!
I was lucky in addition because a.) I was not the one driving through the two inches of icy slush on the road, and b.)  my Sweetie had a Christmas album in his CD case. (BTW, this is something anyone who knows me has on hand in case of such emergencies.)
So what did I do? What any other normal person would, I pumped up the volume on The Blenders holiday album, sang along, felt Christmassy all over, and took hundreds of photos of the beautiful storm!!!
I don't believe in miracles, so I don't mean it literally, but it was a Christmas miracle! It's a world record for me too. My first Christmas music in September,!?! Holy cow. And it wasn't even weird, because if you'd been there you would have thought it was the middle of December. How awesome is that? Don't believe me? Throw on a holiday album and take a look at these photos and see if you don't feel like Christmas has come early this year. (BTW I didn't take these in black and white, they are in color, it's just that it was so snowy!)

The Brewing Lair

The Brewing Lair

While I was camping up in the Sierra this weekend, I had the opportunity to visit the most remote (well, except for perhaps Silver Gulch Brewery in Fairbanks AK) micro-brewery I've ever been to. It's just outside the tiny town of Blairsden. And when I say "just outside" I mean about 200 yards. And when I say "tiny town" I mean the whole of it includes a hardware store, a florist (odd I thought) and a laundromat.
Anyway, the entrance to The Brewing Lair, as it is called, was about as noticeable as any other winding dirt driveway along the highway...except for the cutout sign of a rather ominous comic-book man in a fedora and trench coat holding a pint of beer. Things were looking good!
We followed signs painted on wood pallets up to the tasting room, which also happens to be the brewery. The building that housed everything was clean lines and modern, but it also had a woodsy feel because of the corrugated rusted metal siding, and the array of hand-hewn patio furniture surrounding it that comprised the seating area. Most of it looked like it was made from the redwoods on the property.
When we got out of the car we were greeted by two dogs. One was white and fluffy, the other looked like a Rottweiler mix and was clearly the boss. She greeted every car (all three) that pulled in while we were there.
The brewery is run, and was built by, a single person. He was described to us by a local as a "savant who had eclectic taste, and who excelled at everything he put his hand to". From my experience, that clearly was the case. The place was meticulously thought out in every detail.
There were five beers on tap, and so we got a sampler, which included a taste of each of them. My two favorites were the Simco, which was a "Single hop session IPA". I don't have any idea what that means, so don't ask, but it was light, hoppy, and had a ton of citrus (grapefruit) flavor to it. Yum-ee. The other was a dark beer, a porter of some kind made with 20 pounds of coffee. I can't remember what it was called, but we joked that it should have been named the Double Buzz.
It just so happened that the sun peaked out enough to dry the outdoor chairs, and so we enjoyed a couple pints while absorbing the sun into our chilled bones.
I have no idea how the owner makes a living at it, being all the way out there in the middle of nowhere, but I can say he makes a damn fine beer, and has a gorgeous tasting room. We will be back. Oh yes, we will be back.

The brewmaster

Our tastings!

My favorite is at the front!

The brewery/ tasting room

Inside.

Graeagle, CA

The nearest town to our campsite at Gold Lake was a quaint little place called Graeagle. It's pronounced "Gray Eagle", and was apparently named after a nearby creek.
There are about 750 residents in Greaeagle, and by most standards it's a pretty tiny town. It is located in what the locals call the "Lost Sierra" (i.e. north of the area where most  tourists dare venture). But for all it's remoteness it was charming, and had all the necessities. There was a grocery store with a good selection of coffee and sundries,  and a cafe that served homemade soups and baked goods, and sold candy and tea by the pound. The hardware store was located in the next town over, a mere mile or so away, and had everything from door hinges to Christmas ornaments, and wine glasses. What else do you need?
Since we'd spent the better part of the morning freezing, getting soaked, and trying to make breakfast under a makeshift shelter at our campsite, we decided we'd braved the weather long enough to retain our "hard core" camper status and headed into town.
Our first stop, the grocery store was, as I mentioned, well stocked. The floors were creaky old wood ones, and they slanted every-which-way, but the store was full and the isles packed with everything you could think of, and they had a surprisingly good meat department stocked by local farmers.
After that we went to the hardware store in Blairsden. It was one of the nicest ACE hardware stores I've seen. On top of all the normal stuff they had clothes, fall decor, dishes, candles, wine glasses, souvenirs, and sporting goods of all kinds. It was really nice.
The next stop was back in Graeagle at the Graeagle Mill Works Cafe. It was about the most charming, homey little cafe I've ever been to. Nestled in an old house (all the businesses in town were in similar converted homes) it had mismatched tables and chairs, little homemade crafts for sale, a candy counter, and a really sweet waitress (who'd dog was attacked by a bear we overheard her telling a local patron!).
The Cafe had fresh baked items like pumpkin pie, and snickerdoodles the size of large pancakes. The kitchen of the restaurant was actually the kitchen of the old house! Ha ha. They had homemade soups and sandwiches, and espresso drinks and tea. I ordered tea, and I got a whole pot of water with it just for myself! The taco soup was delicious, and it was so nice and warm in there after our windy morning in the rain! It felt like heaven! What am I talking about, it was heaven!
After that we went to a small brewery back in Blairsden...but I'll save that for the next post.
All in all I really enjoyed the town of Graeagle, and can't wait to visit again!

Our shelter at camp.

Exactly.

Don't steal.

The "infamous" Graeagle Store

Warming up at the Mill Works Cafe

A beautiful sight on a cold rainy day

Candy and baked goods!

Festive too!

Downtown Graeagle

Gold Lake, CA

This past weekend I went camping yet again! This time it was a little farther north in the Sierra, and a little more remote than Lake Tahoe. We met friends up at Gold Lake, which is about a fifteen minute drive from the little hamlet of Graeagle.
Our camp site was beautiful!!! We were just a few steps from our own private beach right on the lake. When we arrived our friends were already there, so we pulled out our camp chairs, and headed down to the lake to take in the last of the afternoon sun, and watch the sunset over the lake.
It was so peaceful and quiet. Out of 15 or so campsites there were only 2 besides our occupied, and they were a little ways away, so we practically had the place to ourselves! It was awesome! And I'm glad we took advantage of the sunshine...because that was the last we saw of it until we were on our way home.
Anyway, it was a beautiful area, and we are for sure going to go back there next summer to camp out again!
Here are a couple shots I got of the lake and sunset.

Our campsite on the gold Lake

Relaxing with a beer

Late afternoon over the lake

Sunset

Twilight with firelight (long exposure)

Long exposure transition to night

Fallen Leaf Lake, CA

If Fallen Leaf Lake was anywhere else besides right next to Lake Tahoe, I am sure it would be considered one of the prettiest lakes in all the Sierra. The haze is smoke from the Rim Fire down south near Yosemite.

Night Sky

I've been experimenting with my astrophotography photos, and here are the two best ones I got from my trip to Tahoe. I think I need to do a little more research on how to take different kinds of night sky photo's. At the campground the Milky Way was bright and visible, but when I tried to photograph it, it didn't show up. I had to leave the shutter open long enough to form star trails to see it, and even then it just looks like clouds (see second photo). I'd like to work on my technique a little more, and then maybe plan a trip to Death Valley or somewhere really dark and try again.

Polaris

The Milky Way

Tahoe Blue

Last weekend I went camping in Tahoe with my brother and some friends. We stayed at Fallen Leaf Campground, and it was pretty nice except for the yellow jackets.
One of the days we were there we decided to go hiking and ended up on the Lighthouse Trail at D.L. Bliss State Park. It was a warm day, and the lighthouse itself was pretty disappointing to look at (it looked more like an outhouse with a window), but the trail itself was really nice, and the views were out of this world! Usually I'm at lake level when I look at it, but the trail was up higher, and the blues and greens really popped out and were so incredible! Now I know what they mean when they say "Keep Tahoe Blue". They are some of the most brilliant, rich, deep blues I've ever seen in nature.
The trail went along the waters edge, and eventually came to a parking lot (at the north point) and there was a trail down to a very nice beach. I hadn't worn my bathing suit, but that didn't stop me. I just went in anyway, with all of my clothes on. Ha! Sometimes you just have to do crazy things! It was totally worth it too. The water was as refreshing as it was clear.
Here are a couple shots I took along the trail. The haze in the background is the smoke from the big Yosemite Rim fire. When the wind was blowing from the south it was pretty thick all over the lake. But even so, it was really beautiful.

Seiad Valley, CA

I'd considered calling Seiad Valley a "one horse town" since the only thing marking it's place on the earth is rustic country grocery store, post office, and attached cafe that closes at 4:00. But it turns out there are about 12 horses that live there (just across the street) that I ran into a couple days later at our camp, and so I'm left wondering how to describe it. It was our closest link to civilization, and the store had everything a person could need. From socks to baked beans to laundry detergent it was all there, but without ANY variety, which left you feeling strangely at peace, not having to compare prices or ingredients, or any of the other things we do in regular stores.
Anyway, here are a couple photos from around "town". Enjoy!

Downtown Seiad Valley

Fine dining options

Mulder and Scully watching you pee.

A real live payphone!

Post office