Spooner Lake Hike

Posted Sun Aug 23, 2009 in Nevada

Yesterday was a heavy travel day. My day started early (0500 local time; 0300 body time). I rose, made coffee, showered, packed, and finished my coffee. Check-out from the hotel was easy (it was prepaid). I drove the rent-car to the fuel depot, refueled, and then looked at the Maps.app in my iPhone, figured out the best way back to the airport, and drove on.

At 0600 in the morning, there aren’t many people out and about — even in Austin, Texas. The roads were basically clear (until I approached the airport).

I delivered the rent-car to the agency. The young man who was working the morning shift looked like one would expect a young man working the early shift — tired. But, he did his job well and I took my receipt and headed for the terminal. I was plenty early, air traffic was light, and moving through the security check-point went quickly and easily… except for the young woman in front of me who had no idea what to do. Everyone was patient and we survived the process.

I was hungry, so I approached a couple of TSA agents who were visiting (on-break I guess). I asked where was the best place for some breakfast and got the Salt Lick as a referral. So, I walked over there, ordered the Country Breakfast, and enjoyed my eggs and ham. It was good enough and food I needed to make it through the day.

I waited for the boarding process to begin. It was a light flight to San Diego, so there was plenty of room and I slept a good part of the flight. I was pretty tired after all the travel.

San Diego was not so good. The airport was crowded. To get to my gate, I had to leave the secure area and go back through security to another location. It was just busy. Then the flight was delayed as well. Argh…

The flight was full, but I had an early number so I got a decent seat. I plugged back into my iPod and dozed the remainder of the way to Reno. Then it was a quick walk to get the car, get paid-out of the lot, and start the drive home. It was good to be home.

Older Son and I decided to drive up to Spooner Lake to walk the perimeter. I needed some outside time. So, late in the afternoon we drove up to spooner. The weather up there was almost perfect — breezy and about 80F. We were some of the few folks there. The others we met were pleasant enough. So, we walked and looked, and read the postings where the USFS put up information. We saw ducks, geese, a blue heron, and maybe a fish osprey. The chipmunks and squirrels were busy getting ready for winter.

I made a lot of images, which are posted on my Flickr Gallery. I should have post-processed some of them, but decided to upload them raw.

It was a good day.