Up at 3:45 am this morning to make my way west. I’ll stop off at Philadelphia for a connecting flight where I will be joined by long time traveling adventure buddy Ray B. He and I did the Devils River back in 2012 and a couple other adventure/fishing trips since then. The final destination is Reno airport were We will pick up a rental car and drive into the mountains stopping at South Lake Tahoe for two days of preparation before heading into the Eastern Sierras.

This is a trip my son, Ray, and I have planned for a year. We will be backpacking into the the extremely remote Eastern Sierras by way of Pine Creek Pass near Bishop, CA. Our goal will be to trek to altitudes of 11,500 feet fly fishing mountain lakes and flows above the tree line. Our target species is golden trout which are a native trout of California. We will also have the opportunity to catch a “slam” consisting of Lohanton Cutthroat, Golden Trout, Brook Trout and Rainbow trout. Wish us luck!! I’m hoping that all of us can accomplish the task!

I started the day with a two hour delay on the first leg of my journey leaving from the State College airport. Luckily my next flight had a three hour gap so I still made my connecting flight out of Philadelphia. I met up with my buddy Ray for the last two legs of the journey to Reno National and all went smoothly from there! I even had time to down a slice of cheese cake and coffee at the Phoenix airport. Don’t judge people! I’m just carb loading for the hike!! Ha ha!

The drive into South Lake Tahoe was beautiful. It’s an incredibly fast transition from desert low land to the alpine mountains. I’m always in awe of both of these beautiful and unique landscapes. We reached the Lake Tahoe in about 45 minutes. It is a clear deep lake fed by snow melt from the surrounding mountains. The water colors pass through every shade of blue from the aqua blue shallows to its darks blue depths. Is the water cold? I assume so only because it just “looks” cold.

Priorities! Our first stop in South Lake Tahoe was the local fly shop. We soaked up some local knowledge, purchased our licenses along with a few other necessities. Next stop…. reservations at Primos the Italian restaurant were my son works. They were recently voted the best Italian cuisine in SLT. They definitely deserve it!! The food was out of this world! I had the wild boar of course!! It was great seeing my son again and we are all excited beyond belief to hit the trail on Monday! Stay tuned!