Manzanita Lake - Mem Day 2016!!!

Manzanita Lake 2016!!! Woot Woot!  That was awesome.  

We had a great time in 2013 with the Metreses and Chases; in 2014 with the DeJesus, Metreses, and Souzas.  We were in Montana last year over Memorial Day for Uncle Sonny's memorial, but we returned in 2016 with a crew!  The Souzas, Smiths, Hoefts, Craigs and us were all in cabins.  Nickelsens in their Westy, and the Garz and the Dufours (sans Alexis) camping.  Sooo much fun.... hence the insane number of pics.  Oh well...

Fri

• Left the bay area around noon, promptly sat in traffic while the kids napped
• Stopped a the Burrito Bandito for some C- burritos.  
• Got to Manzanita Lake for a nice sunset paddle
• The Hoefts arrived with an ice cream cake!!!

Sat

• Went on a morning run with Sam & Rob partly up Chaos Crags.
• then lots of hanging out by the lake, paddling, swimming, playing in mud, etc.
• potluck dinner!

snow plants!

see the fishy?

watermelon snack time!

the osprey coming in for a landing

Sun

• Went on a morning run to the top of Chaos Crags with Sam & Rob... Seth was 5 min late.  Alas...
• Went on a hike around the lake with the kiddos
• Stopped at the museum, which was pretty cool...
• Went on a ridiculous backcountry ski mission with Kev up the flanks of Lassen, but we only had 1.5 hours cabin to cabin... and we were 20 min away... 

Lassen, Diller, Brokeoff, etc...

looking down at Manzanita Lake from the summit

Chaos...

Check out the mudslide that caused total devastation below...  creating Manzanita Lake 300 years ago.  

Sam and I went for a nice dip at the bottom...

Kev about to get his one turn in...

goslings

chocolate covered almonds power!

We certainly didn't see anyone catch anything on Manzanita...

Mon

• After brekky, we took the canoe out, and hug out for a bit.  
• Drove home to watch game 7 of the Warriors vs OKC game.  

Next time:

• Wake up Seth... and tell him that we are meeting 15 min earlier than we are actually meeting...
• Hunt for more Morels
• Take the steel wool items for some fun night time SUP long exposure photos on the lake...
• Cook over the fire!
• If the road is open, 
• pond skim!
• head up to the other attractions in the park with the kiddos
• If road isn't open, 
• go ski Lassen proper... from the devastated area.
• bring a road bike and bike up as far as we can?

Tips:

• take a saw - the ranger said we can gather firewood.
• don't bring your scooters... the cabin loop is dirt.  Striders and bikes work best.