CCK Sac Takes Tahoe

One of the downsides to working in a kayak shop is that you generally work weekends.  Every weekend.  So it can be hard to get together with friends to go paddling.  Solution:  go with friends from work!  With a forecast for 50 deg and sunny for Lake Tahoe, a Tuesday with the shop closed, and a determination to not talk about work - a group of seven CCK staff and instructors (plus one significant other) headed up to paddle Lake Tahoe.  This has become somewhat of a yearly tradition - Tahoe in the winter - though the people involved always changes.

We drive up in the morning along the beautiful American River (a little too low to be runnable right now), have a nice breakfast in the Camp Richardson store before launching off their snow covered beach, paddle over to Emerald Bay (avoiding getting run over by the paddle boat), stop for lunch at Vikingsholm, then back to Camp Richardson and dinner nearby before the drive back down the hill.  It's only about 10 miles of paddling and on glassy smooth water.  But the point is not to challenge ourselves.  We are not trying to push our limits or develop skills or even get a great workout.  The goal of the trip is sheer enjoyment:  to be surrounded by beauty in many forms, to have great conversation with friends; and to eat too much good food.

The highlights of this trip include glassy water the whole day, the first time paddling Tahoe for one person, visiting the Tea House on Fannette Island, Lisa's gingerbread for breakfast (and lunch), finding the ice sheet at the end of Emerald Bay, and lots of great pictures.  And in spite of the snow and ice (and an overnight low temp of 14 deg) most of us were actually too hot while paddling.  Never listen to anyone who says that kayaking is a seasonal sport - at least not in California!

More Pictures HERE.