Lake Valley Reservoir/Fuller Lake, 8/12 & 8/13

Left last Sunday for a short vacation with my lovely wife and two step-sons.  We'd rented a cabin just west of Truckee, and the plan was to leave early and do a white water rafting day trip down the American River before driving to the cabin.  It was our first white water adventure, and turned out to be a real blast.  We had a fun guide (a summer worker from Ireland) who did his best to get us as wet as we wanted to get.   



That's my wife on front, seconds before getting sucked off the raft as we went through "Satan's Cesspool".    I'm the guy in the back staying dry...

We got back to the launch around 4:30, and after a short break hit the road again, arriving at the cabin around 6pm.  We stayed at Shinneyboo Creek Cabins, about 20 minutes west of Truckee. 



As a family who normally goes tent-camping, these cabins were a real treat.  Not only did they have comfy beds, they also had hot water showers, a jacuzzi bathtub, a gas grill on the rear porch, and a breakfast basket delivered to our doorstep every morning.   Definitely something I could get used to...

After unloading the car we took a short walk down to the Yuba River, then ate some delicious beef stew for dinner before retiring to the firepit for smores.



Monday morning we woke up, enjoyed the food in our breakfast basket  and packed lunch for our planned day trip to one of the local lakes.  This is where things started to go wrong.  It turns out that waking up early to go rafting caused us to forget things...we had hot dog buns but no dogs, bread but no lunchmeat...you get the idea.  Little did I know that it would get worse.

MIchael, the proprietor at Shinneyboo, had recommended that we try out Lake Valley Reservoir rather than going to Lake Spaulding (my first choice).  Apparently PG&E has drained quite a bit of the water in Spaulding, leaving something like 30-40' of a rocky dirt bank.  It had looked pretty low from the road, and since we wanted to spend the day by the water we opted for Lake Valley Reservoir.

Sadly, this is where the photos end.  We forgot the camera when we left for Lake Valley, and by Tuesday morning it decided not to work at all despite having been charged.  It's probably a good thing that we didn't have it at Lake Valley, otherwise you'd be looking at photos of me that resembled this: 

You see, this trip was the first one in our CRV.  Normally I carry my yak on the top of my Toyota, but since it only seats two we had to find an alternate way of transporting the kayaks we were taking on our vacation.  I went down to Rack & Road and picked up some landing pads & control towers for the Honda, and using the bars from my truck I had a system.  Since we were leaving early Sunday I loaded the yaks on top of the CRV Saturday night and secured them with my trusty Master Python lock.  Maybe you can see where this is going...new vehicle, locked kayaks...    Yep - after backing down the launch ramp at Lake Valley, I went to unlock the kayaks only to realize that the KEY was on Toyota keyring at home.  The spare key was in the glove box...of the Toyota.

So, after cursing for five minutes I unloaded as much gear as possible and told the family to go eat lunch on the beach while I drove into Truckee to look for cable cutters.  The 20 minute drive turned into 45 due to bridge work, which didn't help my mood.    I finally arrived in Truckee and found what had to be the most well-equipped Ace Hardware store in the world.  That place had everything, which thankfully included cable cutters.

A quick word about the Master Python lock:  If you use this device, you can rest assured that the smaller, easily concealed type of cable cutters will take HOURS to defeat this lock.  I found this out after spending $27 and dinging the blade just enough so it wasn't returnable.  However, the large 2' cable cutters will slice through the lock like butter.  I found this out after spending another $87...  Counting the price of the lock it turned out to be an expensive, stupid mistake.

The good news is that we now had kayaks that were good for more than a roof ornament.  I arrived back at Lake Valley Res 90 minutes after dropping off the family & tossed the yaks into the lake.  The kids immediately took off in them while I enjoyed a much-needed beer.  Later, I got to hit the lake myself.  It's really pretty; about 2 miles long, with a couple of small islands in the center.  The water level ranged from 50' deep near the dam, to 15-18' at the far end of the lake.  I didn't have any luck fishing that day, but did see a couple of fish caught from shore.

Tuesday morning I slipped out of the cabin at 5am and headed to Fuller Lake.  Fuller was about 20 minutes from the cabin, and easy enough to find.  There's a $5 launching fee if you park in the main launch area, but on the west end of the lake I had noticed a small parking area so I returned there.  The sign said nothing about a use fee, and the water was just 20 feet from my car - good enough for me!  Fuller is a small lake, and suprisingly shallow.  The deepest spot near the dam was barely 20', and the rest of the lake was a consistent 15-16'.  Fishing was slow; I caught 3 small rainbows during the 4 hours I spent on the water, keeping the largest one only because it had swallowed the hook.  When I left I spoke to an older gentleman from Sac who said he had caught 14 fish that morning (from the bank), the smallest being 3"!  I had tried using a variety of lures, including the Wolly Bugger that was recommended here, but it seems that Powerbait was the way to go. 

After returning to the cabin we headed back to Lake Valley Reservoir for 4-5 hours.  We explored a bit first though...we'd seen a sign for "Hysink Lake", which was 5 miles up the dirt road past Lake Valley.  After sharing the road with 2-3 logging trucks we found the "lake"...more of a small pond.  We returned to Lake Valley and stayed there.  It was a beautiful day, but no fish.  In all, a great vacation despite the forgotten items. 

Family road trips are priceless = NO MATTER WHAT 

I felt my own stress level going up as I read your story but it sounds like despite the unfortunate occurances you had a good time with the family and in the end that's what matters most.

If I had cable locks that required a key I know I would forget my keys too so I bought the combination locks instead.

Good report though, you had me involved there for a second.  Now back to work for me.

Wow, despite all the road blocks you happened upon you guys stuck it out and had a good time anyway. Good job. I don't think I've ever heard of a family vacation that didn't include at least a little stress.

FF

IMO:Combo locks are the best - keys are always meant to be lost....just like your left sock