five years

This week is our five year anniversary together. Hard to believe it’s been five years already. Seems like just yesterday I came home to a tall, dark haired stranger sitting on my couch…who quickly convinced me to quit my job and travel around the country in a trailer after less than 6 months knowing him. Ahhh, the memories! We’ve had some good times together over the last five years, that’s for sure.

To celebrate five wonderful years together, we decided on a last minute trip to Tahoe for the weekend. I get these weekly emails from a company called Weekend Sherpa giving me the insiders’ scoop on the best outdoor adventures all around California. About two weeks ago, my weekly Weekend Sherpa told me about a fun mountain bike ride in Truckee on the Commemorative Emigrant Trail. A quick chat with Luke and it was all set – we would drive up to Tahoe bright and early Saturday morning, check out the 25 mile mountain bike ride from Weekend Sherpa, stay at our home away from home in Squaw Valley on Saturday night, and climb Mt. Tallac on Sunday. And that is exactly what we did. (To get your own weekly emails from Weekend Sherpa, click here.)

Luke ready to ride

Smooth rolling Emigrant Trail

The bike ride was amazing, this trail would turn any mountain bike skeptic into a mountain bike enthusiast! Rolling smooth single track, not too technical, and gorgeous scenery. It’s been a while since either Luke or I have gone on that long of a ride so by the time we got back to the car, we were pretty tired. We packed up the bikes and headed to our home away from home, Olympic Village Inn at Squaw Valley.

Squaw Valley

A quick hot tub and a few glasses of wine, and we were feeling rejuvenated and ready for dinner. I wanted to take Luke to Sunnyside because he had never been, but no such luck as the restaurant was closed for a wedding. So we went to Garwoods instead and had a delicious dinner right on the water. 

Cheers to 5 years

The next morning we headed to Tallac. Luke and I have been wanting to climb Tallac for some time now so the fact that we were finally doing it was pretty exciting. There were some dark looming clouds in the ski and threat of thunderstorms so we wore layers and hoped for the best! The hike to the top is roughly 5 miles with about 3,200 feet of elevation gain. It was a gorgeous hike with breathtaking views of Lake Tahoe, Fallen Leaf Lake, Emerald Bay, and Desolation Wilderness. We survived the hike and the rain stayed away! The Sierras are on winter storm watch right now so we feel pretty lucky for the beautiful fall weekend we had!

Starting up the mountain

Made it to the top, do you spot my chipmunk friend?

These chipmunks were everywhere tyring to steal our lunch!

View of Lake Tahoe from the top of Mt. Tallac

View of Desolation Wilderness from the top of Mt. Tallac

After the hike we rinsed our feet off in Lake Tahoe and enjoyed the last of our wine from the night before (straight out of the bottle), with the Tahoe Queen in the distance


This is one of the first pictures we ever took together. I can't believe how young we both look! 

And here is one of the last pictures we took together - a beautiful night on Lake Tahoe.

Here’s to you babe! Thanks for the best five years of my life. I’m excited for the next 5 and beyond together!