Loon Lake 2016

Lighthawk

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Nevada City, CA
We are creatures of habit and like to visit favorite spots when conditions are ideal. Such is our love affair with Loon Lake in August. It's Susan's favorite place to celebrate her birthday that month.

We left town on Thursday after work. Hwy 49 from Auburn to Cool is a twisty set of curves down and up the American River canyon, but the Tundra/Hawk was up to it. The sway bar in the rear helps with cornering while the first gen Tundra V8 provides plenty of power, although the mileage could be better.

Soon enough we reached Georgetown, the last place for Jeepers to stock up for the Rubicon Trail. We turned left and went up Wentworth Springs Rd., driving through the devastation of the 2014 King Fire. This drive ranges from 540' above sea level at the Hwy 49 American River crossing, rising almost six thousand feet to the alpine granite of Loon Lake at 6378'. Small burgs are passed along with way, including Uncle Tom's Cabin.

We arrived just before dusk and quickly dismounted our two kayaks at the boat ramp. Susan took Callie in her kayak and towed my boat behind her, setting off for the beach below our camp while I drove the camper to our site. I walked down with bright headlamp shining and met her at dark where we secured our kayaks for the night. It was a quick five minute walk from our camp to our boats for the next three days, which is why this spot works so well for us.

By 9pm we had our campsite set up and our boats in position. Life was grand. We celebrated by eating fresh mex with tomatoes from the garden with plenty of chiles.

---------

Friday morning we took our time and hit the water at a leisurely pace.
We set our sights on a group of granite boulders several hundred yards off shore.





Ultimately we were in the sun from 10 to 4pm, which is about the maximum despite full brim hats and plenty of SPF sunscreen and sun shirts. We toured the back of the lake and enjoyed a wonderful spot with our own beach complete with excellent waters for swimming. There's nothing as refreshing as jumping into an alpine lake when the heat of August is upon you.




We had recently debated shade structures and entertained several large systems, including a Kelty Cabana, which we sent back. Instead, i deployed a cheap Grocery Outlet umbrella, but added a few guy lines and we had just enough shade for all three of us. Low budget and effective!



Plus it looks sporty too. Now where can I order a frosty margarita?



Susan took Callie out for a private cruise.



Callie did really well, although at one point her boat started yawing back and forth wildly, but she sat down when we encouraged her and rode it out. Captain Callie!





We explored the back bays of the beautiful Pleasant Lake.
Callie enjoyed running the shoreline.






The scenery really is spectacular.








It was a fine start to a three day weekend.

We parked the boats on the shore, using a cable lock to secure them and carried our paddles back to camp. We encountered a large toad on the way back up to camp, causing me to recall the Calaveras Jumping Frog story by Mark Twain. There were many small toads or frogs in the shoreline rocks.




Our NorCold 3 way refrigerator gave up on this trip and each day the temperature rose from the mid-fifties to mid-sixties. The propane flame was strong and the coil was hot, but the inside cooling was negligible. I decided to BBQ the chicken I brought, which was still good. Callie got her fair share, but the meat bees were a constant problem. I packed down the Webber Q into the bear box after it cooled to keep the bees and any critters from temptation.

Hot showers were delivered via our Zodi and popup tent system each night.

The Perseid meteor shower was predicted to be a good one, with a late setting moon. I set up my tripod and recorded 25 sec exposures using a timer until the batteries gave out after 400 frames. My wide angle 14mm view was hampered by the trees near camp, and I didn't actually record that many meteors, only about a dozen. Interestingly, the light trails all show some sort of prism effect.




Stay tuned for Part II
 
What a wonderful birthday for SR! And when will Callie be getting her Captain's License? The meat bees in the mid elevations have been at record levels this year. Everyone mentions them. A couple weeks ago on a short Sunday hike during a break I had one quietly crawl up my short sleeve unnoticed. It stung me twice in the armpit as I swung my pack on. There is nothing like the yellow jacket dance.

Staying tuned here and got the popcorn on! Looking forward to the next part. :)

The late evening shot with the calm lake and orange kayaks is wonderful.
 
Thanks for the TR. I haven't been up there in summertime for quite a few years, it looks wonderful. Great photos, and that looks like one happy dog!
 
ski3pin said:
The meat bees in the mid elevations have been at record levels this year. Everyone mentions them. A couple weeks ago on a short Sunday hike during a break I had one quietly crawl up my short sleeve unnoticed. It stung me twice in the armpit as I swung my pack on. There is nothing like the yellow jacket dance.
The meat bees are terrible this year, especially around lake shores. SR got stung twice last weekend on a hike up at Grouse Ridge. The dog doesn't like them either.
 
Just plain beautiful. I'm staying tuned.

Meteors give off an emission spectrum that is mostly due to the air around the meteor being heated, but also to material being ablated off the meteoroid itself. Speed of entry plays a role, too. That's awesome that you caught colors in your images. I guess what I'm trying to say is those colors could be real and not an artifact of the camera.
 
highz said:
Just plain beautiful. I'm staying tuned.

Meteors give off an emission spectrum that is mostly due to the air around the meteor being heated, but also to material being ablated off the meteoroid itself. Speed of entry plays a role, too. That's awesome that you caught colors in your images. I guess what I'm trying to say is those colors could be real and not an artifact of the camera.
I was hoping you would chime in, highz

All the meteor tracks had the same spectrum signature, from what I can see on my screen.
I assume the camera sensor is recording 'accurate' color.
 
super doody said:
Great TR. What a lucky pup. Did you guys get ride of the inflatable sea eagal kayaks? Which camp ground did you folks stay at?
Hello Super D

We only have the Wilderness Pungo 'yaks, which are rigid. You may be mistaking us for someone else.

We stay at the Loon Lake CG, on the southern tip of the lake. Reservations are recommended.
We prefer the first or last loop where we have access to the shore. There's another loop that's away from the lake.
Some of the outhouses seem to date back to the 1960's and I don't think SMUD does much for them.
We bring our own clean waste potty, to avoid those stinkers. :ninja:
 
ski3pin said:
On the west slope of the Sierra Nevada yellow jackets are commonly called meat bees.

Yellow Jacket - Meat bees

How to - Meat Bee Trap
Yellow jacket seems more accurate but around here we call them meat bees. I've heard they go after protein, but apparently eat carbs too. :unsure:

The trap seems like an excellent idea. We've killed queens before when SR has recognized them.
We'll have to try out the trap idea next year in the spring.

Here's what I found interesting:

There are hundreds of species of wasps in California, and like bees they are part of the heritage of the land. In the San Francisco Bay Area some of the most common wasps are: yellow-jackets, paper wasps, mud daubers, sand wasps, thread-waisted wasps, and potter wasps.

We also have paper wasps at home and also bald-faced hornets down in Grass Valley. Don't even get me started on how many different sorts of bees we see. Maybe this is a topic for another forum about entomology . . .
 
Wow, what a beautiful lake. Why haven't I heard about this place before? Well, now I have and it'll be on my "to do" list soon.

I like the beach umbrella--I'm all about cheap and effective.

While reading you TR, I thought, I'm going to have to send you a link to a Meat Bee trap I just found online, but I saw that Ski3Pin beat me to it.

Looking forward to Part II
 
Lighthawk said:
All the meteor tracks had the same spectrum signature, from what I can see on my screen.
I assume the camera sensor is recording 'accurate' color.
In the photo you posted in the TR, the green side is the side closest to the radiant of the shower (closest to the Double Cluster in Perseus in your image). Is that the case for the other meteor images you took?
 
Some of you may be interested in the history of the reservoir that damned, Bixby, Loon, and Pleasant lakes. Although it has an interesting history dating back to the gold rush days - The California Water Company - now it is a catch basin for moving water from the Middle Fork American River watershed over to the South Fork American River. It is at the top of Sacramento Municipal Utility District's hydroelectric project. For power production, it is said, that every inch of water is worth a million dollars. The first power house in the series is a quarter mile under the reservoir.

History can be found here -

Loon Lake & Dam
 
highz said:
In the photo you posted in the TR, the green side is the side closest to the radiant of the shower (closest to the Double Cluster in Perseus in your image). Is that the case for the other meteor images you took?
Thanks for your interest, highz

Here is a composite I created using over a dozen images, with foreground lit by the setting moon.
The top left object may not be a Perseid or I may have goofed the rotation.



crop


I used the David Kingham method with this tutorial. I was really frustrated until I realized that while doing the transform step, you must drag the center to match with Polaris. The key concept is that you shoot hundreds of frames using an intervalometer (some modern cameras now have this function), hopefully capturing a number of exposures with meteors. My battery worked for 200 mins. during which the earth's rotation will advance the celestial view. Therefore, you must rotate the images with meteors to align to the stars in your base image, then use a mask and paint in the just meteor track, which should then be aligned with the radiant. It was my first try and I got it, but my 2009 iMac was smoking under the hood before I dumped all the excess layers.

https://youtu.be/u7JVwSX1iAg
 

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