The Lake of the Sky Part 24

When his daughters grew up, they and their friends came here to spend their summers, and by and by, almost unconsciously, but pleasantly and agreeably, the place became a public resort. Though Mr. Gilmore has long since pa.s.sed on, having died in Placerville, Calif., in the year 1898, Glen Alpine Springs is still in the ownership of his family, and its management and direction is entirely in their hands.

As in the beginning they have ever sought to preserve its character of simplicity. It is their aim that everything should be as primitive as possible, consonant with healthfulness, privacy and comfort. While no sanitary precautions are neglected, and water, hot and cold, is extravagantly provided, with free shower baths, there are none of the frills and furbelows that generally convert these--what should be--simple nature resorts into bad imitations of the luxurious hotels of the city. There are positively no dress events. Men and women are urged to bring their old clothes and wear them out here, or provide only khaki or corduroy, with short skirts, bloomers and leggings for the fair s.e.x. Strong shoes are required; hob-nailed if one expects to do any climbing. Wraps for evening, and heavy underwear for an unusual day (storms sometimes come in Sierran regions unexpectedly), are sensible precautions.

Sleeping out-of-doors is one of the features of the place, an invigorating, rejuvenating joy, which Mark Twain affirmed was able to destroy any amount of fatigue that a person's body could gather.

Visitors are given their choice of a comfortable bed in the open, in a cottage, tent, or one of the main buildings. There are practically no rules at Glen Alpine save those that would operate in any respectable home. No liquors are sold, and visitors are frankly told that "If they must have liquid stimulants they must bring them along." In order that those who desire to sleep may not be disturbed by the thoughtlessness of others, music is prohibited after ten o'clock. One of the delights of the place is the nightly camp-fire. Here is a large open s.p.a.ce, close to the spring, surrounded by commodious and comfortable canvas seats, that will easily hold eight or ten persons, the blazing fire is started every evening. Those who have musical instruments--guitars, banjos, mandolins, flutes, cornets, violins, and even the plebeian accordion or the modest Jew's-harp--are requested to bring them.

Solos, choruses, hymns and college songs are indulged in to the heart's content. Now and again dances are given, and when any speaker arrives who is willing to entertain the guests, a talk, lecture or sermon is arranged for.

Three things are never found at Glen Alpine. These are poison-oak, rattlesnakes and poisonous insects. The rowdy, gambling and carousing element are equally absent, for should they ever appear, they speedily discover their lack of harmony and voluntarily retire.

While the Glen Alpine resort is not situated directly on one of the lakes, it owns over twenty boats on eight of the nearby lakes, and the use of these is freely accorded to its guests. That it is in close proximity to lakes and peaks is evidenced by the following table, which gives the distance in miles from the hotel:

_Miles_ 2-1/2 Angora Lake 4 American Lake 6 Avalanche Lake 3-1/4 Alta Morris Lake 7 Azure Lake 5 Center Lake 5-1/2 Crystal Lake 5-3/4 Crater Lake 6 Cup Lake 4-3/4 Cathedral Lake 5-1/2 Echo Lake 2 Fallen Leaf Lake 5-1/4 Floating Island Lake 4-1/4 Forest Lake 6 Fontinalis Lake 1-1/4 Glen Alpine Falls 1-1/4 Gra.s.s Lake 4-3/4 Grouse Lake 3-1/2 Glmore Lake 3-1/4 Heather Lake 3-1/4 Half Moon Lake 5 Kalmia Lake 1 Lily Lake 2-1/4 Lucile Lake 3-3/4 LeConte Lake 2-1/2 Margery Lake 1/4 Modjeska Falls 3-1/2 Observation Point 4-1/4 Olney Lake 4-1/4 Pit Lake 6 Pyramid Lake 4-3/4 Rainbow Lake 2-3/4 Susie Lake 3-1/2 Susie Lake Falls 2-3/4 Summit Lake 6 Snow Lake

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cl.u.s.ter of Tents, Glen Alpine Springs]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Glen Alpine Falls, Near Glen Alpine Springs]

[Ill.u.s.tration: In the 'Good Old Days'. Glen Alpine Stage approaching Office at Glen Alpine Springs]

_Miles_ 4-1/4 Tamarack Lake 6 Tallac Lake 7 Tahoe Lake 6-1/2 Velma Lakes 3-1/4 Woods, Lake of the 3-1/2 Angora Peak 5-1/4 d.i.c.ks Peak 5-1/2 Jacks Peak 2-1/2 Keiths Dome 7 Pyramid Peak 6-1/2 Ralston Peak 3-3/4 Richardsons Peak 5 Upper Truckee River 4-3/4 Mt. Tallac 7 Mt. Aga.s.siz 3 Cracked Crag

As the proprietors of Glen Alpine ask: "Where else outside of Switzerland is there a like region of lakes (forty-odd) and world of Sierran grandeur, such air with the tonic of alt.i.tude, mineral-spring water, trout-fishing, and camaraderie of kindred spirits!"

While the foregoing list gives a comprehensive suggestion of the wide reach of Glen Alpine's territory there are several especial peaks and lakes that are peculiarly its own. These are Pyramid, Aga.s.siz, d.i.c.ks, Jacks, Richardsons, Ralston, and the Angora Peaks, Mount Tallac, Mosquito Pa.s.s, and Lakes Olney, LeConte, Heather, Susie, Gra.s.s, Lucile, Margery, and Summit with Lake of the Woods and others in Desolation Valley, Gilmore, Half Moon, Alta, Morris, Lily, Tamarack, Rainbow, Grouse, and the Upper and Lower Echo. Desolation Valley and all its surroundings is also within close reach. This is some four miles westward of Glen Alpine Springs, and is reached by way of easy mountain trails under sweet-scented pines and gnarled old junipers; besides singing streams; across crystal lakes, through a cliff-guarded glade where s...o...b..nks linger until midsummer, ever renewing the carpet of green, decking it with heather and myriad exquisite mountain blossoms. On, over a granite embankment, and lo! your feet are stayed and your heart is stilled as your eyes behold marvelous Desolation Valley. Greeting you on its southern boundary stands majestic Pyramid Peak, with its eternal snows. Lofty companions circling to your very feet make the walls forming the granite cradle of Olney, the Lake of Mazes. The waters are blue as the skies above them, and pure as the melting snows from Pyramid which form them. He who has not looked upon this, the most remarkable of all the wonder pictures in the Tahoe region, has missed that for which there is no subst.i.tute.

The whole Glen Alpine basin,--which practically extends from the Tallac range on the north, from Heather Lake Pa.s.s (the outlet from Desolation Valley) and Cracked Crag on the west and southwest, Ralston Peak and range to the south and the Angora Peaks on the east,--is one ma.s.s of glacial scoriations. Within a few stone-throws of the spring, on a little-used trail to Gra.s.s Lake, there are several beautiful and interesting markings. One of these is a finely defined curve or groove, extending for 100 feet or more, above which, about 1 feet, is another groove, some two to four feet wide. These run rudely parallel for some distance, then unite and continue as one. Coming back to the trail--a hundred or so feet away,--on the left hand side returning to the spring, is a gigantic sloping granite block, perfectly polished with glacial action, and black as though its surface had been coated in the process. Near here the trail _ducks_ or markers are placed in a deep grooving or trough three or four feet wide, and of equal depth, while to the right are two other similar troughs working their winding and tortuous way into the valley beneath.

In Chapter VIII an idea is given of the movements of the great glaciers that formed Desolation Valley and all the nearby lakes, as well as Glen Alpine basin. These gigantic ice-sheets, with their firmly-wedged carving blocks of granite, moved over the Heather Lake Pa.s.s, gouging out that lake, and Susie Lake, in its onward march, and then, added to by glacial flows from Cracked Crag, the southern slopes of the Tallac range, and the Angora Peaks, it pa.s.sed on and down, shaping this interestingly rugged, wild and picturesque basin as we find it to-day. How many centuries of cutting and gouging, beveling and grooving were required to accomplish this, who can tell? Never resting, never halting, ever moving, irresistibly cutting, carving, grinding and demolishing, it carried away its millions of millions of tons of rocky debris in bowlders, pebbles, sand and mud, and thus helped make the gigantic moraines of Fallen Leaf Lake. The ice-flow itself pa.s.sed along over where the terminal moraine now stands, cutting out Fallen Leaf Lake basin in its movement, and finally rested in the vast bowl of Lake Tahoe.

To the careful student every foot of Glen Alpine basin is worthy of study, and he who desires to further the cause of science will do well to make a map of his observations, recording the direction, appearance, depth, length and width of all the glacial markings he discovers. On the U.S. Government maps the stream flowing through Glen Alpine basin is marked as Eau Claire Creek. To the proprietors of Glen Alpine, and the visitors, the French name is absurd and out of place.

No Frenchman has ever resided here, and if it was desired to call it Clear Water Creek, why not use good, understandable, common-sense English. At the request of those most intimately concerned, therefore, the name has been changed on the map that accompanies this volume, to Glen Alpine Creek, a name that "belongs" and to which no one can possibly have any objection.

CHAPTER XXIV

FALLEN LEAF LAKE AND ITS RESORTS

Fallen Leaf Lake is a n.o.ble body of water, three and a half miles long and about one mile across. Why it is called Fallen Leaf is fully explained in the chapter on Indian Legends. Some people have thought it was named from its shape, but this cannot be, for, from the summit of Mt. Tallac, every one instantly notices its resemblance to the imprint of a human foot. It is shaped more like a cork-sole, as if cut out of the solid rock, filled up with a rich indigo-blue fluid, and then made extra beautiful and secluded with a rich tree and plant growth on every slope that surrounds it.

The color of the water is as richly blue as is Tahoe itself, and there is the same suggestion of an emerald ring around it, as in the larger Lake, though this ring is neither so wide nor so highly colored.

In elevation it is some 80 feet above Lake Tahoe, thus giving it an alt.i.tude of 6300 feet.

At the upper end, near Fallen Leaf Lodge, under the cliffs it has a depth of over 380 feet, but it becomes much shallower at the northern or lower end near the outlet. Its surroundings are majestic and enthralling as well as picturesque and alluring. On the west Mt.

Tallac towers its nearly 10,000 feet into the sea of the upper air, flanked on the south by the lesser n.o.ble and majestic Cathedral Peak.

In the earlier part of the season when these are covered with snow, the pure white materially enhances the splendor of both mountain and lake by enriching their varied colorings with the marked contrast.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Glen Alpine Falls]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Glimpse of Gra.s.s Lake, looking across and up Glen Alpine Canyon]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Triumphant Angler, Lake Tahoe]

To the southwest rise the Angora Peaks, and these likewise catch, and hold the winter's snow, often, like Mt. Tallac, retaining beds of _neve_ from year to year.

To the geological student, especially one interested in glacial phenomena, the lateral and terminal moraines of Fallen Leaf Lake are of marked and unusual interest. The moraine on the east is upwards of 1000 feet high, and is a majestic ridge, clothed from the lake sh.o.r.e to its summit with a rich growth of pines, firs and hemlocks. Its great height and bulk will suggest to the thoughtful reader the questions as to how it was formed, and whence came all the material of its manufacture. It extends nearly the whole length of the lake, diminishing somewhat in size at the northern end. There is a corresponding moraine on the western side not less compelling in its interest though scarcely as large in size as its eastern counterpart.

The terminal moraine, which is the one that closed up the lake, separating and raising it above the level of Lake Tahoe, is a less n.o.ble mound, yet geologically it allures the mind and demands study as much as the others. In Chapter VIII, Dr. Joseph LeConte's theories are given in full explaining the various glacial phenomena connected with this lake.

The fish of Fallen Leaf are practically the same as those of Tahoe, though rod and fly fishing is more indulged in here.

Boating, canoeing and the use of the motor boat are daily recreations, and swimming is regularly indulged in during the summer season.

FALLEN LEAF LODGE

The distinguishing characteristics of this resort are simplicity, home-likeness, unostentation. It makes its appeal especially to the thoughtful and the studious, the not luxuriously rich, those who love Nature rather than the elegance of a first-cla.s.s hotel, and who desire to climb trails, study trees, hunt, fish, and generally recreate out-of-doors rather than dress and fare sumptuously.

It is situated on the southwestern edge of Fallen Leaf Lake, five miles from Tallac, reached by a road that winds through the trees of the Baldwin estate, and then skirts the eastern and southern sh.o.r.es of the Lake. Stages--horse and automobile--run daily during the season and meet all the steamers at Tallac.

The "Lodge" consists of a number of detached buildings, conveniently and picturesquely scattered among the pines on the slopes and at the edge of the lake. There are dining hall, social hall, post office, store, electric power-house, boat-house, with stables far enough away to be sanitary, and cottages and tents located in every suitable nook that can be found. There are one, two or three-roomed cottages, tents, single and double, all in genuine camp style. There is no elegance or luxury, though most of the cottages have modern toilets, porcelain bath-tubs with running hot and cold water. Electric lights are everywhere.

The camp has been in existence now (1915) for seven years and each year has seen considerable enlargement and improvement, until now Fallen Leaf Lodge in the heart of the summer season is an active, busy, happy and home-like community.

The table is wholesome, substantial and appetizing. There is no pretense at elaborateness. Home-cooking, well served, of simple and healthful dishes, in reasonable variety, is all that is offered.

Needless to say there is no bar or saloon, though there is no attempt to compel a personal standpoint on the liquor question upon those who are accustomed to the use of alcoholic liquors at meals.

In its natural beauties and advantages Fallen Leaf Lodge claims--and with strong justification--one of the very best of locations. Fallen Leaf Lake is large enough to give scope to all the motor-boats, row-boats, canoes and launches that are likely to be brought to it for the next hundred years, and ten thousand fishermen could successfully angle upon its bosom or along its sh.o.r.es. For millions of Tahoe trout, rainbow, Eastern brook, Loch Levin, Mackinac and German brown have been put into this and nearby lakes in the last few years. While some jerk-line fishing is indulged in, this lake, unlike Lake Tahoe, affords constant recreation for the more sportsmanlike fly-fishing.

Another of the special advantages of Fallen Leaf Lodge is its possession of a fine log-house and camp on the sh.o.r.e of Lake of the Woods, five miles away, in Desolation Valley. To those who wish to fish in greater solitude, to climb the peaks of the Crystal Range, or boat over the many and various lakes of Desolation Valley this is a great convenience.

Nothing can surpa.s.s the calm grandeur of the setting of this glorious beautiful water. Lying at the lower edge of Desolation Valley and facing stupendous mountains, the picture it presents, with Pyramid Peak reflected in its gorgeously lit-up sunset waters, is one that will forever linger in the memory.

The close proximity of Fallen Leaf Lodge to Mt. Tallac, Cathedral Peak, the Angora Peaks, Mounts Jack, d.i.c.k, and Richardson, Ralston Peak, Keith's Dome, Maggie's Peaks, Tell's Peak, with the towering peaks of the Crystal Range--Pyramid and Aga.s.siz--to the west, and Freel's, Job's and Job's Sister to the southeast, afford an abundance and variety of mountain-climbing that are seldom found in any region, however favored.

But in addition to the peaks there are Sierran lakes galore, rich in unusual beauty and picturesqueness, and most of them stocked with trout that compel the exertion of the angler's skill, as much as tickle the palate of the uncorrupted epicure. Close by are Cascade, Cathedral, Floating Island, Echo, Heather, Lucile, Margery, Gilmore, Le Conte, Lily, Susie, Tamarack, Grouse, Lake of the Woods, Avalanche, Pit, Crystal, Pyramid, Half Moon, with the marvelous and alluring maze of lakes, bays, straits, channels, inlets and "blind alleys" of the Lake Olney of the ever-fascinating Desolation Valley. And those I have named are all within comparatively easy walking distance to the ordinarily healthful and vigorous man or woman. For those who seek more strenuous exercise, or desire horse-back or camping-out trips another twenty, aye fifty lakes, within a radius of fifty miles may be found, with their connecting creeks, streams and rivers where gamey trout abound, and where flowers, shrubs and trees in never-ceasing variety and charm tempt the botanist and nature-lover.

While to some it may not be an attraction, to others there may be both pleasure and interest in witnessing the operations of the Fallen Leaf sawmill. This is situated on the western side of the lake, and is a scene of activity and bustle when logging and lumbering are in progress. On the hills about the lake the "fellers" may be found, chopping their way into the hearts of the forest monarchs of pine, fir and cedar, and then inserting the saw, whose biting teeth soon cut from rim to rim and cause the crashing downfall of trees that have stood for centuries. Denuded of their limbs these are then sawn into appropriate lengths, "snaked" by chains pulled by powerful horses to the "chute", down which they are shot into the lake, from whence they are easily towed to the mill. The chute consists of felled logs, laid side by side, evenly and regularly, so as to form a continuous trough. This is greased, so that when the heavy logs are placed therein they slide of their own weight, where there is a declivity, and are easily dragged or propelled on the level ground.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Boating on Fallen Leaf Lake]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fallen Leaf Lodge Among the Pines, on Fallen Leaf Lake]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Camp Aga.s.siz Boys setting out for a Trip, Lake Tahoe, Cal. Copyright 1910, by Harold A. Parker.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tahoe Meadows, With Mt. Tallac in the Distance]