Jellied Moose Nose: Alternate Work Schedules- Yippee.

To help improve the morale of civilian employees who no longer get adjustments for inflation, the government put out the option of an alternate work schedule about a year ago. Under an AWS you can have every other weekend as a 3 day on a recurring schedule, you work the extra 8 hours during the rest of your pay period to make sure you still add up to 80, so it works out on paper. In reality, it means that the support offices are short staffed on mondays and fridays. I always felt weird about it previously, but now that I live a remote lifestyle, I decided to join in. I had my first 3 day and now I'm hooked. Normally, going out of town means staying within a 2 hour drive roughly. You go somewhere you can make it to comfortably on Friday night and back on Sunday night and you get really a day and a half of relaxation, etc. Under this plan, every other weekend, I can head out to anywhere I am comfortable driving to in about 8 hours, and still get 2 FULL days of relaxation/exploration. This past Thursday I headed up to Lake Tahoe to meet friends. This trip was done a la cheap with the Prius and the fact that we stayed at J Kats parent's house in Incline Village (Thank you very much) and the fact that we ate at home all but 1 meal and 1 midnight (actually 1:30 am) snack.

It's about a 6 hour drive straight up 395 for me to Tahoe. I finally got going around 7pm Thursday after packing up the Prius for the unknown ahead. Once the sun had gone down just before Bishop, I drove in the dark missing such all the famous landmarks of the Sierra in the distance, Sequoia, Mt.Whitney, Yosemite, King's Canyon, Mammoth Lakes. I missed a turn after Carson City and ended up going the wrong way adding an hour to the drive. I finally rolled in about 2am. I was so stoked though that I was up and moving at about 6 and none the worse for the wear. We did up breakfast, got a late start and hit the beach, Friday was to be a water day. We had stand-up boards, a kayak, radio, beer and snorkeling gear. I started out on a stand-up messing about. I'm getting a little better, but still think a bigger board would be better, I am a big boy after all. My balance is improving but I still have to think about it too much.

This is the private beach on Lakeshore Drive in Incline Village, gorgeous but you do have to be a member.

So, after paddling around, I took a break and had a beer and cranked some tunes. Then Scott, Jenny, Nate, Kim and I grabbed all the floating things and headed down to a pile of rocks off the point, about a mile paddle likely. It was a little choppy but not too bad. The rock pile was cool, we did some 10' rock jumps into the cool crystal blue waters and laid on the rocks in the sun. After a little while we decided to get going and found that the wind and chop had come up substantially. The kayak was sitting pretty low as Kim and I were in teh back and the chop kept pouring into the open cockpit. A sprayskirt would have solved our issue, but instead we headed back in and got just out from the shore as the boat took on too much water and went under. We swam it up to the shore and emptied it. I realized I'd lost my mask and Scott and I took turns looking for it. I found it in about 6' of water behind a boulder. I gave Scott his mask and I threw on my mask and fins and decided it would be easier to subtract myself from the paddle. So I started swimming. The bottom contour was all rock and sand and thousands and thousands of 1" fishes. The chop kept pushing me in, and the fins started chafing my middle toe on each foot. I made it probably 3/4 of the way before Ted showed back up in the kayak so we could paddle the rest of the way in. I was worked, my legs, my arms, my shins, my middle toes, even my neck was tired from looking around to stay on course. As we sat on the beach afterwards, I asked Scott for my sunglasses I had left on the rock, he didn't have them. Ugh.

Ted and Scott paddled back and got them for me for the low low price of 2 bottles of red wine and a 12 pack of Corona. Not a bad deal for $400 prescription sunglasses.

We left the beach about 5 and headed to a brew pub down in Tahoe City. It was okay, the food was decent, albeit a little pricey, and the beer was okay but the staff was kind of dry and almost snotty. Not talkative or friendly really. So we had a few beers and headed back to the house. We hung out for a little bit but called it an early night. The sun and paddling around sure can take it out of you.

I got up around 8 the next morning to Scott getting ready to make pancakes and reminded him there was a paddleboard race down in Tahoe City. We ate up and hit the road with everyone else planning on hiking. We were intent on catching up with them before they took off, if everything went well.

The race was cool. It was a one way race up the lake. We missed the start but after a little searching found the finish line and hung out there until they started coming in. It was six mile race, with the top finisher coming in at just over an hour. Paddle board seems to appeal to an older crowd, thirty somethings and up and of course their children. The event had a cool family vibe that definitely appealed. I'm still putting change in a jar to buy my own. After the race we boogied down to Emerald Bay, which is this amazing cliff ringed bay on the West side of Tahoe. The only real way in is by boat the the bay was already full by mid day. We parked and hiked to where the kids had left from , but were an hour behind so we decided to hike up, literally up, the road and hike the trail they would be on backwards. The altitude, 7000', did not treat me well, and I had to go slow to keep my legs and lungs happy. We hiked about a mile in to Granite Lake to wait for them.We finally all caught up together, went for a short swim and headed back down the trail tired again.

Dinner on Saturday was a group affair or bbq chicken (sorry southern friends for the blasphemy, I know BBQ is only pork and slathered with mustard sauce in SC) corn on the cob, potatoes, salad and hodge podge of accoutrement. I made a pre snack of guac that was a hit while we sipped ale sodas, listened to tunes and made fun of the bbq afficianados. Everything turned out great in the end and we ate until buttons on pants begged to be free and we all dreamed of stretch jeans and sweat pants.

Granite Lake

J Kat Jones with Ted chilling on a submerged tree

Kimbo

Moon Nugget, looking old and gray but fit, taking in the sun

Random girls sitting on a rock off the trail

looking back down to Emerald Bay

Guac

Sh*t Show BBQ

After dinner we cleaned up and headed to one fo the fine gambling establishments in the Greater Tahoe area to catch a free show of the White Buffalo. If you don't recognize the name, hit up youtube or itunes. He's done some stuff for Sons of Anarchy and some surf films, which is why I've heard his stuff. But moonie turned me onto him during my birthday trip to Monterrey. he does a great show too. I love it when a big guy can get a crowd of ladies worked up so well.

You go brutha. After the show, we headed to Calneva for a picture on the state line in the casino, grabbed a late night snack, talk to Buff's bassist, then headed home. Sunday was big breakfast, then pack and drive. All the way back, i got to see the signs for all the places I missed on the way in at night. So now I find myself planning my next 3 day, probably headed to Sequoia and Kings Canyon. Never been there and I love big trees. Yippee.