Memorial Day Weekend Getaway

We took a road trip this weekend to get out of town for awhile.  We feel fortunate that there many places to road trip to near us--and about a month ago decided we would head to the Northern Sierra's to hike.

Fast forward to Friday, when the forecast called for rain (again) all weekend--with possible snow in the mountains.   We seriously thought about cancelling, but since the cabin we rented was non-refundable, we packed some food and board games, and headed east.

We briefly stopped in Brentwood to pick some cherries, not being sure that we would be able to make it another time.   Fun, and delicious as always.

Next, we headed to our home base for the weekend: Sierra City--an old mining town located at about 5000 ft.   Though the weather was not sunny, it wasn't pouring either.   We first went to visit the Kentucky Mine--a historic mine and mill.   Though the mine is no longer functioning, it has been restored, and amazingly, a lot of the machinery is still in working order.   The whole process of how the miners dug out rocks from the mountain, and sent the rocks to the mill, where they were crushed, and how mercury used to extract the gold--was fascinating.

Saturday night, it really did pour, though let up a bit by morning.   We could see the a new snow line on the mountains about us--the overnight rain was snow up there.   We decided to try and take a few short hikes.   The first was on the Pacific Crest Trail.   The trail took us to a bridge over Lover's falls on the North Yuba River--a gushing waterfall.

We next attempted to head to Frazier falls.   About halfway up, the road became snow-covered--and shortly thereafter, a sign announced that the road was closed.   The kids enjoyed playing in the snow a bit anyhow!  

We headed back down the mountain and found a picnic spot in an idyllic town called Calpine, and by then the sun was out.   We continued onto Graeagle--another cute town in the valley, where we did some shopping, stopped for an ice cream, and the kids hit a bucket of golfballs at the driving range.   We also saw a couple who own a shop in town that we had met two years ago at mountain meadow--they do mining in an adjacent property and sell jewelry.  

For dinner that evening, we went to the Lodge at Sardine Lake.   This is a place that Jason grew up going to--it is about 90 minutes north of Tahoe, and every summer he made the trek with his family.   The lodge is located on a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains.   I can only imagine how spectacular it must be on a sunny day!   It was fun to eat there, and Jason enjoyed reminiscing.

So, overall, not a total bust! We didn't even unpack the games we brought!   Ha!