Because kayak-friendly lodging is a little scarce on the northeast lakeshore, we use the Zephyr Cove campground as a base camp, and hired Joe from Shuttle Around Tahoe to drive us and our boats and gear up to the Sand Harbor put-in site on the first and last day of our trip (we paddled the last segment of the lakeshore in reverse). On a quick aside here, I can't say enough good things about Joe and his shuttle service. He's professional, friendly, punctual and an all around great guy. He took great care in loading and unloading our gear, and if you're looking for any sort of outdoor adventure shuttle in the Tahoe area, I highly recommend his service. Getting back to the paddling, we headed out from Sand Harbor on a chilly morning on glasslike water. It's absolutely amazing how crystal clear the water is, and boulders and tree snags that were under more than 50 feet of water seemed like you could just reach out and touch them. It's a little unnerving at first, but very, very neat altogether.
From Sand Harbor we headed north along the shoreline along Crystal Bay and past Incline Village. Between Sand Harbor and Incline Village is one of the most beautiful sections of shoreline you'll ever see. Boulder fields spill into the crystal waters of the lake, and the bottom is fairly sandy. It feels like a tropical paradise, but with pine trees instead of palm trees. Pure gorgeousness.
Once you reach Incline Village, the shoreline changes. We've spent a good bit of time up in the Tahoe area over the past seven years, but we were still surprised by how much of the lakefront property is built out with some very large private houses. This would be a recurring theme throughout the first day, and for large portions of the next several days as well. We ran into relatively little boat traffic as we paddled along, stopping at the few public beaches along the way for lunch and breaks. My favorite stop was in Carnelian Bay, where there are aspen-shaded picnic tables at the top of the beach. It was the perfect place for lunch.
By noon, the clouds were building in big time, and we picked up the pace a bit to try to beat the thundershower to our planned campsite at the Tahoe State Recreation Area. As we paddled, we occasionally glanced over our shoulders to watch the brewing storm following us, and of course, it made for some great, moody photos!
Another thing we hadn't totally expected was the sheer number of off-shore moorings. At the north shore of the lake, the majority of the moorings were occupied by some very fast boats, closer to Tahoe City, we came upon a few smaller fields that were relatively empty.
We reached the Tahoe SRA just as the rain did, but fortunately, when everything's packed up in a boat, things stay dry (well, at least until you unpack them!). We took advantage of the hot showers at the campground, and the strip mall (complete with McDonald's) and restaurants within walking distance, and by the time we were headed back to our tent, the rain had stopped for a lovely night under the stars.
More to come tomorrow!
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