The Lake of the Sky Part 38

JOSEPH LECONTE AT LAKE TAHOE

Joseph LeConte, from whom LeConte Lake is named, the best-beloved professor of the University of California, and its most noted geologist, in the year 1870 started out with a group of students of his geology cla.s.ses, and made a series of _Ramblings in the High Sierras_. These were privately printed in 1875, and from a copy given to me many years ago by the distinguished author, I make the following extracts on Lake Tahoe:

_August_ 20, (1870). I am cook to-day. I therefore got up at daybreak and prepared breakfast while the rest enjoyed their morning snooze. After breakfast we hired a sail-boat, partly to fish, but mainly to enjoy a sail on this beautiful Lake.

Oh! the exquisite beauty of this Lake--its clear waters, emerald-green, and the deepest ultramarine blue; its pure sh.o.r.es, rocky or cleanest gravel, so clean that the chafing of the waves does not stain in the least the bright clearness of the waters; the high granite mountains, with serried peaks, which stand close around its very sh.o.r.e to guard its crystal purity,--this Lake, not _among_, but _on_, the mountains, lifted six thousand feet towards the deep-blue overarching sky, whose image it reflects! We tried to fish for trout, but partly because the speed of the sail-boat could not be controlled, and partly because we enjoyed the scene far more than the fishing, we were unsuccessful, and soon gave it up. We sailed some six or eight miles, and landed in a beautiful cove on the Nevada side. Shall we go in swimming?

Newspapers in San Francisco say there is something peculiar in the waters of this high mountain Lake. It is so light, they say, that logs of timber sink immediately, and bodies of drowned animals never rise; that it is impossible to swim in it; that, essaying to do so, many good swimmers have been drowned. These facts are well attested by newspaper scientists, and therefore not doubted by newspaper readers.

Since leaving Oakland, I have been often asked by the young men the scientific explanation of so singular a fact. I have uniformly answered, "We will try scientific experiments when we arrive there." That time had come. "Now then, boys," I cried, "for the scientific experiment I promised you!" I immediately plunged in head-foremost and struck out boldly. I then threw myself on my back, and lay on the surface with ray limbs extended and motionless for ten minutes, breathing quietly the while. All the good swimmers quickly followed. It is as easy to swim and float in this as in any other water.

Lightness from diminished atmospheric pressure? Nonsense! In an almost incompressible liquid like water, the diminished density produced by diminished pressure would be more than counterbalanced by increased density produced by cold.

After our swim, we again launched our boat, and sailed out into the very middle of the Lake. The wind had become very high, and the waves quite formidable. We shipped wave after wave, so that those of us who were sitting in the bows got drenched. It was very exciting. The wind became still higher; several of the party got very sick, and two of them _cascaded_. I was not in the least affected, but, on the contrary, enjoyed the sail very much. About 2 P.M. we concluded it was time to return, and therefore tacked about for camp.

The wind was now dead ahead, and blowing very hard. The boat was a very bad sailer, and so were _we_. We beat up against the wind a long time, and made but little headway.

Finally, having concluded we would save time and patience by doing so, we ran ash.o.r.e on the beach about a mile from camp and towed the boat home. The owner of the boat told us that _he_ would not have risked the boat or his life in the middle of the Lake on such a day. "Where ignorance is bliss,"

etc.

After a hearty supper we gathered around the fire, and the young men sang in chorus until bedtime. "Now then, boys,"

cried I, "for a huge camp-fire, for it will be cold tonight!"

We all scattered in the woods, and every man returned with a log, and soon the leaping blaze seemed to overtop the pines.

We all lay around, with our feet to the fire, and soon sank into deep sleep.

_August 21_. Sunday at Tahoe! I wish I could spend it in perfect quiet. But my underclothes must be changed.

Cleanliness is a Sunday duty. Some washing is necessary. Some of the party went fishing to-day. The rest of us remained in camp and mended or washed clothes.

At 12 M. I went out alone, and sat on the sh.o.r.e of the Lake, with the waves breaking at my feet. How brightly emerald-green the waters near the sh.o.r.e, and how deeply and purely blue in the distance! The line of demarcation is very distinct, showing that the bottom drops off suddenly. How distinct the mountains and cliffs all around the Lake; only lightly tinged with blue on the farther side, though more than twenty miles distant!

How greatly is one's sense of beauty affected by a.s.sociation!

Lake Mono is surrounded by much grander and more varied mountain scenery than this; its waters are also very clear, and it has the advantage of several very picturesque islands; but the dead volcanoes, the wastes of volcanic sand and ashes covered only by interminable sagebrush, the bitter, alkaline, dead, slimy waters, in which nothing but worms live; the insects and flies which swarm on its surface, and which are thrown upon its sh.o.r.e in such quant.i.ties as to infect the air,--all these produce a sense of desolation and death which is painful; it destroys entirely the beauty of the lake itself; it unconsciously mingles with and alloys the pure enjoyment of the incomparable mountain scenery in its vicinity. On the contrary, the deep-blue, pure waters of Lake Tahoe, rivaling in purity and blueness the sky itself; its clear, bright emerald sh.o.r.e-waters, breaking snow-white on its clean rock and gravel sh.o.r.es; the Lake basin, not on a plain, with mountain scenery in the distance, but counter-sunk in the mountain's top itself,--these produce a never-ceasing and ever-increasing sense of joy, which naturally grows into love.

There would seem to be no beauty except as a.s.sociated with human life and connected with a sense of fitness for human happiness. Natural beauty is but the type of spiritual beauty.

Enjoyed a very refreshing swim in the Lake this afternoon.

The water is much less cold than that of Lake Tenaya or the Tuolumne River, or even the Nevada River.

The party which went out fishing returned with a very large trout. It was delicious.

I observe on the Lake ducks, gulls, terns, etc., and about it many sandhill cranes--the white species, the clanging cry of these sounds pleasant to me by early a.s.sociation.

_August 22_. Nothing to do to-day. Would be glad to sail on the Lake or fish, but too expensive hiring boats. Our funds are nearly exhausted. Would be glad to start for home, but one of our party--Pomroy--has gone to Carson City, and we must wait for him.

I went down alone to the Lake, sat down on the sh.o.r.e and enjoyed the scene. Nothing to do, my thoughts to-day naturally went to the dear ones at home. Oh! how I wish they could be here and enjoy with me this lovely Lake! I could dream away my life here with those I love. How delicious a dream! Of all the places I have yet seen, this is the one I could longest enjoy and love the most. Reclining thus in the shade, on the clean white sand, the waves rippling at my feet, with thoughts of Lake Tahoe and of my loved ones mingling in my mind, I fell into a delicious doze. After my doze I returned to camp, to dinner.

About 5 P.M. took another and last swim in the Lake.

Pomroy, who went to Carson, returned 7 P.M. After supper, again singing in chorus, and then the glorious campfire.

CHAPTER E

JOHN VANCE CHENEY AT LAKE TAHOE

One of America's poets who long lived in California, and then, after an honorable and useful sojourn as Director of one of the important libraries of the East, returned to spend the remainder of his days--John Vance Cheney--in 1882, made the trip to Lake Tahoe by stage from Truckee, and, among other fine pieces of description, wrote the following which appeared in _Lippincott's_ for August, 1883:

One more ascent has been made, one more turn rounded, and behold, from an open elevation, close upon its sh.o.r.e, Lake Tahoe in all its calm beauty bursts suddenly upon the sight.

Nestled among the snowy summit-peaks of the Sierra Nevada, more than six thousand feet above sea-level, it lies in placid transparency. The surrounding heights are all the more pleasing to the eye because of their lingering winter-cover; and as we gaze upon the Lake, unruffled by the gentlest breeze, we marvel at the quiet,--almost supernatural,--radiancy of the scene. Lakes in other lands may present greater beauty of artificial setting,--beauty dependent largely upon picturesqueness, where vineyards and ivied ruins heighten the effect of natural environment,--but for nature pure and simple, for chaste beauty and native grandeur, one will hesitate before naming the rival of Lake Tahoe. This singularly impressive sheet of water, one of the highest in the world, gains an indescribable but easily-perceived charm by its remoteness, its high, serene, crystal isolation. Its lights and shades, its moods and pa.s.sions, are changing, rapid, and free as the way of the wind.

A true child of nature, it varies ever, from hour to hour enchanting with new and strange fascination. The thousand voices of the lofty Sierra call to it, and it answers; all the colors of the rainbow gather upon it, receiving in their turn affectionate recognition. Man has meddled with it little more than with the sky; the primeval spell is upon it, the hush, the solitude of the old G.o.ds. The breath of powers invisible, awful, rouse it to the sublimity of untamable energy; again, hush it into deepest slumber. Night and day it is guarded, seemingly, by wonder-working forces known to man only through the uncertain medium of the imagination. The traveler who looks upon Lake Tahoe for a few hours only learns little of its rich variety. Like all things wild and shy, it must be approached slowly and with patience.

But our sketch must not include more than the hasty glimpses of a day. The stage conveyed us directly to the wharf, which we reached at ten o'clock, having accomplished our fourteen mile ride up the valley in about two and a half hours. As we boarded the little steamer awaiting us and looked over its side into the water below, the immediate shock of surprise cannot be well described. Every pebble at the bottom showed as distinctly as if held in the open hand. We had all seen clear water before, but, as a severe but unscholarly sufferer once said of his rheumatism, "never such as _these_." The day being perfect, no breeze stirring, and the Lake without a ripple, the gravelly bottom continued visible when we had steamed out to a point where the water reached a depth of eighty feet. Two gentlemen on board who had made a leisurely trip round the world and were now on their way home to England, remarked that they had seen but one sheet of water (a lake in j.a.pan) of anything like equal transparency. It is presumed that they had not visited Green Lake, Colorado.

Our course lay along the California sh.o.r.e, toward its southern extremity, the steamer stopping at several points for exchange of mail. These stopping places are all summer-resorts, where the guests, snugly housed at the base of the mountain-range, divide the time between lounging or rambling under the shadow of the tall pines and angling for the famous Tahoe trout in the brightness of the open Lake. All looked inviting, but we were not wholly enchanted until, gliding past many a snowy peak, we suddenly changed course and put into Emerald Bay. This little bay, or rather lake in itself, about three miles in length, is the gem of the Tahoe scenery. Through its narrow entrance, formed by perpendicular cliffs some two thousand feet high, we moved on toward an island of rock and a succession of flashing waterfalls beyond.

For a time the dazzling mountain-crests and glistening gorges absorbed attention. So high, white, silent! We longed to be upon the loftiest one, from the top of which can be seen thirteen charming little mountain-lakes, midair jewels, varying in feature according to the situation. Two of these lakes, widely dissimilar in character, are but two miles distant from Tallac House, a comfortable resort at the base of the n.o.ble peak from which it takes its name.

But not even the crystal summit ridges delighted us as did the changing waters in the path of the steamer. Following immediately upon the transparency preserved to a depth of some eighty feet, a blur pa.s.sed over the surface. This changed by imperceptible degrees to a light green. The green, again, speedily deepened, shading into a light blue; and finally, in deepest water (where the Lake is all but fathomless), the color becomes so densely blue that we could not believe our eyes. Indigo itself was outdone. Description fails; the blue deep of Tahoe must be seen to be appreciated.

The ride from Glenwood back to Tahoe City was not so calm. The Lake was considerably agitated; less so, however, than on the following day, when, as we learned afterward, our little steamer lost its rudder. Owing to the gorges in the mountains upon either side, through which winds rush unexpectedly, Tahoe has her dangers. She is a wild, wayward child, but thoroughly lovable throughout all her frowns as well as smiles, equally captivating in her moments of unconquerable willfulness as in her seasons of perfect submission. Reaching Tahoe City at four o'clock, we found the stage standing in readiness, and, with a last, hasty look at the Lake, we were soon on our way by the banks of the Truckee, back to town.

CHAPTER F

THE RESORTS OF LAKE TAHOE

In the body of this book I have given full account of some of the resorts of the Tahoe region, including Deer Park Springs, Tahoe Tavern, Fallen Leaf Lodge, Cathedral Park, Glen Alpine Springs, Al-Tahoe, Lakeside, Glenbrook and Carnelian Bay.

But these are by no means all the resorts of the Bay, and each year sees additions and changes. Hence I have deemed it well briefly to describe those resorts that are in operation at the time this volume is issued.

It should be remembered that each resort issues its own descriptive folder, copies of which may be obtained from the ticket offices of the Southern Pacific Railway, the Lake Tahoe Railway and Transportation Company, or the Peck-Judah Information Bureau, as well as from its own office. All the resorts not already described in their respective chapters are reached by steamer on its circuit around the Lake, as follows:

HOMEWOOD

The first place for the steamer after leaving the Tavern is Homewood, a comparatively new resort, but already popular and successful, conducted by Mr. and Mrs. A.W. Jost. This is six miles from Tahoe City. The hotel was built in 1913 and has hot and cold water piped to all rooms.

In addition there are cottages of two and three rooms, which, together with single and double tents, provide for every taste and purse. The tents are protected by flies, have solid boarded floors, are well carpeted, and afford the fullest opportunity for out-door sleeping.

Homewood possesses a gently sloping and perfectly safe bathing beach for adults and children. It also boasts a unique feature in an open-air dancing platform, with old-fashioned music. It owns its power-boat for excursions on the Lake, and its fleet of row-and fishing-boats. A campfire is lighted nightly during the season, and song and story cheer the merry hours along.

For circulars address A.W. Jost, Homewood, Lake Tahoe, Calif.

MCKINNEY'S