Hiking with Heidi

Hike Details: Elevation range - 7400-7600' Location - Echo Lake - from Hwy. 50 Eastbound, take the Echo Lake/Sno-Park turn-off (just before reaching Echo Summit). A Sno-Park permit is required ($5) and must be purchased ahead of time, I got mine at REI. The snow trail begins right across from the entrance to the Sno-Park, on what would be Echo Lakes Road. Mileage - 1.25 mi. from the parking lot to the edge of Echo Lake. From there we hiked up just a little ways on the north ridge to see the view overlooking Lake Tahoe. Hiking time - about 3 hours, with lots of time for stopping to take pictures and lunch at the lake. An awesome group of nine of us set out on the trail on this beautiful, sunny winter day! A few of the women were first-time snowshoers, so it was fun to share a new adventure with them! I've hiked here in the summer a few times, so I was looking forward to seeing what it was like all covered in snow. The trail to the lake essentially follows what wou...

Hike Details: Elevation - low approx. 6,250 ft. - high of 7,000 ft. Location - Emerald Bay State Park Mileage - 4-5 miles Hiking time - 3 hours Route -We parked in the Emerald Bay State Park parking lot (fee area) on Highway 89, then walked back to the Eagle Falls trailhead. Just follow the signs to Eagle Falls and then on to Eagle Lake. Permits for the Desolation Wilderness are at the trailhead, make sure to fill one out. After coming back to the trailhead, we headed down the trail to the Vikingsholm Castle and then back up again. If I were to do this over again, I'd recommend starting by going down to Vikingsholm, then hiking back up and then over and up to Eagle Lake and then back down to the parking lot. Ending a hike with an uphill slog is slightly less fun. Weather - Cool in the morning, but it started getting pretty warm by the time we finished around noon. Link to CalTop map I haven't had time to do much hiking yet this summer but I finally have some on ...

I love making goals when the new year rolls around, when everything feels fresh and clean. It feels sort of like hitting the re-set button and starting over again. I always include some kind of goal for better health, but last year I also included a hiking goal -- to hike 50 miles in honor of my 50th birthday. Fortunately, I didn't specify whether it had to be all in one trip or not. Last summer was a crazy, busy one in our family so a multi-day backpacking trip wasn't going to happen. It was much more realistic to log 50 miles over the course of numerous day trips. Even that took some planning and scheduling, but I made it and did some great hikes! Probably my favorite one was the day after my birthday with this big group to Sierra Buttes Lookout -- it was awesome!  And to get to drag along two of my kids was extra fun! Now, on to 2015, hmm, what to do...I could add another mile and hike 51 miles for my 51 years, but nah. I "bagged" a few peaks in 2014,...

Hike Details: Elevation - 7,000 - 8,000 ft. Location - Highway 88/89 south of Lake Tahoe Mileage - 6 miles Hiking time - 3 hours Route -We parked in the lot at Sorensen's Resort , but there's also a small amount of trailhead parking just West of the resort, or also in a few turnouts on the road. Weather -Crisp and cool, but beautiful, sunny and perfect for a strenuous hike Yep, we're pretty proud of ourselves! :) After hiking here last year, I knew I wanted to come back again and try to catch the fall color at its peak. It's hard to predict exactly when that will be, but I think we hit it pretty close.  We started at Sorensen's Resort (see link above), an adorable collection of cabins nestled among the trees, with a cafe that smelled delicious the minute we got out of the car. Tempting to just skip the hike and have breakfast! We were also greeted by these adorable and fortunately not-real bears. But, hey, we ca...