Silver Lake, Caples Lake, and the Carson Pass

So often when we drive the various highway passes through  the Sierra Nevada we blaze along with a destination in mind. The twists and turns and steep sections on the road seem like obstacles slowing us down from getting to where we want to go. This isn't a great mindset to be in as it causes us to miss so much of the beauty through which we pass, so I fight it every time I become aware that I'm slipping into it.



On Saturday we were headed high up into the mountains above the Carson Pass. We definitely had a desire to get there and do the thing (in this case, hiking a mountain) we'd set out to do. Highway 88 passes by so many places worthy of visiting. Since we had a few extra hours in the day from our Friday Night Halfway stay at the foot of the mountain in Jackson we decided to stop and stretch our legs at a few of the spots we otherwise blast past when we're driving on Highway 88. The first of these was Silver Lake, shown photos above and below.



Silver Lake is at elev. 7,300' (2,225 m.) just west of the Carson Pass. It's a surprisingly large lake for being this high in the mountains. It even has sandy beaches in parts, as the first picture above shows. On Saturday the weather was a cooler than normal, part of a two-week cool spell across Northern California, I believe, otherwise there might have been families out in the sand enjoying the day. Two weeks earlier it was probably 80+ in the middle of the day. This Saturday it was about 65° and windy.



Above Silver Lake, Highway 88 to the east climbs through the Carson Spur. This isn't the Carson Pass; it's lower at only 7,990'. But it's visually striking nonetheless because of the steep rocky cliffs the road winds around. I remember passing through here once during a brief summer storm years ago, when those cliffs turned into impromptu waterfalls. It was both beautiful and scary as the water was pouring directly across the road!



On the other side of the Carson Spur, still below Carson Pass, likes another large and beautiful lake, Caples Lake. It's at elev. 7,804'. At this point we're near a place we've gone hiking several times before.... That tall peak in distance beyond the lake is Mount Round Top. The lower peaks to the right of it are The Sisters. Beneath those peaks are Winnemucca Lake and Round Top Lake.

"We ought to go back there," Hawk remarked as we stopped to appreciate the vista.

"I agree. I thought about doing it today!" I explained. But both of us were more interested in trying a new trail and a new place than revisiting one we've already hiked a handful of times. Plus, weren't we there a few years ago? Now that I'm back home and can check my files, I find that our last visit to Winnemucca and Round Top was seven years ago. Wow, that's longer than I thought. "We'll have to plan another trip there soon," I agreed. "But not today."



Continuing east from Caples Lake we ascended through the Carson Pass at elev. 8.574'. We didn't stop in the pass this time like we did on that trip seven years ago, when we visited the pass during a summer storm. Instead we spent a bit of time appreciating the descent down the east side. The photo above shows a view of Red Lake Mountain just above the Carson Pass. Further down from this is Red Lake itself... which is where I'll start my next blog.

I Cleaned My Car and I Liked It.

I did a thing today that brought me more satisfaction than I expected. I cleaned my car. ...Not the whole car, though. It's really dusty. But part of it.

I took our Xterra to the car wash to clean the outside with a pressure hose. Then, back at home, I scraped some stubborn pine tar off the windshield with a razor blade and scrubbed the residue. Inside I wiped dust off the dashboard and vacuumed the floor of the front seats. OMG, the floor mats were dusty. I shook one of them out at least 10 times, and even on the 10th vigorous shake there was still a huge cloud of dust coming out of it.

I did this work not expecting a satisfaction payoff. I did it as matter of obligation. It was a task I felt I had to do.

I mention that because it ties in to a strategy to motivate myself to do things. Instead of thinking of reasons why I have to do something— negative reasons involving words like "should" or "ought to"— I imagine the enjoyment or the positive experience I'll have once it's done. For example, I don't take a shower after exercising because "I stink and thus I ought to clean up" but instead because "I'll feel refreshed and so much more comfortable after a shower."

Cleaning the car, though, was a task for which I hadn't thought of a positive outcome. It's a thing I did out of obligation, a "should". Thus I was pleasantly surprised this evening when I went out for a short trip with the car and noticed how good it looks. Oh, it's not showroom-new or anything like that. But with clean windows, a clean dash, and no more musty-dusty smell inside it no longer felt like the same 13 year old vehicle with over 125,000 miles.

Identifying this nice little satisfaction payoff from cleaning the car will help me next time I feel like the car needs cleaning. Instead of telling it's a duty with negative reasons— "I should clean the car because it's too dirty"— I can motivate myself instead with the positives. "I'll put in some effort to clean the car, and the payoff will be I enjoy driving it more!"