21 Dec Trip to Lake Tahoe

Leaving San Francisco to go to lake Tahoe was my first chance to get out of the city. The ride there took nearly 4 hours and was organizes by the outdoor resource center of Mashouf. After arriving at lake Tahoe our group of 8 people and I quickly built up our camp and cooked up some lunch. The hours afterward, we spent taking a walk along the shore of the huge lake until we ended at a beach where we watched the sunset. After returning to the camp we sat by the fire and ate some s’mores.

In the evening of the first night, we had an encounter with a black bear. For me, this was the first time seeing a bear outside of a zoo and honestly, it was spectacular. The bear was about 1,5 meters long and when on all fours and about 70-80 cm tall. Though this doesn’t seem crazy big you should’ve seen that thing on two legs cause trust me it was terrifying.
For obvious reasons, the bear was not interested in eating us it just wanted our food. So, after we scared the bear away with the help of our camping neighbors we put our food in the bear lockers and were able to sleep.

After our encounter with the bear, the evening before the entire group was slightly tired. Nevertheless, that did not hinder us from leaving the camping ground to go on a hike. We went hiking near the emerald bay, a great place to see if you ever have the chance to go to lake Tahoe. The “hike” took around 45min and brought us to a small mountain lake called eagle lake. Here we went for swimming in 85 degrees and enjoyed the sun till late in the afternoon. Afterward, we went back to camp had lunch then headed out to Lake Tahoe again to watch the sunset. That evening the bear came back and the police offer told us that our camping spot was located in immediate distance of the bear’s den. What a weekend!