The Retirement Sabbatical Year of Discernment Comes to an End

Beginning a solo backpack trip last week

    Today is the last day of our "Retirement Sabbatical Year of Discernment," and it feels a bit weird to realize we are closing this chapter and starting a new one, even though we continue in what we've been doing. It seems an appropriate time to reflect on why I called it "Sabbatical" and what we were "discerning." Several years ago a friend, also a United Methodist Pastor took a year off in a self-supported Sabbatical and I thought I'd sure like to do that, but knew our finances would probably not make it work. The definition of sabbatical is: "a period of paid leave granted to a university teacher or other worker for study or travel, traditionally one year for every seven years worked." I loved my work as a pastor, but I also longed for an extended period of travel, rest from the every day responsibilities of my job, and time to learn and grow. For some, taking time off in a sabbatical or study leave is also a time for discernment about how one wants to continue to work, or not. Since there was no means within the United Methodist Church for a paid year off, and we didn't have the resources to pay for it our selves, my "Sabbatical" had to wait until retirement. Rob was semi-retired since December 2011 when the company he'd worked for was sold and his position was eliminated. During my last 8 years of work he filled his time with a variety of volunteer positions and part time work as a bookkeeper for a local humane society and doing UMC  audits.  

    I think it was the spring of 2013 when we were walking across a parking lot at Prairie Creek State Park (part of Redwood National Park) to begin hiking on the Rhododendron Trail that I said, "You know what I want to do when I retire? Visit all the National Parks and hike in them." We had always been tent campers and turned up our noses at RVs - that wasn't camping in our mind - but my next thought was, "Then I guess we'll have to get an RV." Though we were die hard tent campers neither one of us liked camping in the rain, which is something we did a lot of over the years. At the time of that hike I wasn't planning to retire until 2021 so getting an RV and traveling the U.S. were a long way off, but the seed was planted. We did do a little "shopping" and looking at RVs trying to figure out just what we wanted. We shocked both of us when we bought LesThora in March 2015, many years before the planned retirement, when we had just stopped to "look." But this 26 foot Class C met all the criteria we had come up with and when I asked Rob if he was really serious about buying one that day his reply was, "I don't want to wait until I'm 70 to learn to drive one." Fearing we'd arrive at my retirement with him over 70 he'd then say we were too old for this adventure so I went along with the purchase. We had more fun with LesThora in the 5 years before retirement than we'd ever thought we would, and unlike most RV owners we know, we have not wished we had a different one. Ours is not too big, not too small, and has everything we need or want.

    So, back to the "Retirement Sabbatical Year of Discernment." In the spring of 2019 it started becoming clear to me that I wanted to retire in 2020, not 2021, and it was clear to me that I wanted to hop in the RV and explore the U.S. and try to get a gig as a camp host some where. Rob wasn't so sure about that plan - fearful he'd be bored staying in the same place for months as a camp host, thinking we needed a house to come home to. I had my own hesitations - What if what I chose to do turned out to be boring? What if I felt "let down" without the meaningful work of ministry? I longed for my plan of retirement, but what if what I longed for wasn't what I really wanted? Thus came the idea of a "Sabbatical" year - some time to discern just what it was we wanted our retirement to look like. With two houses we could easily move in to - our family home in Colfax, and the house Rob and his sister inherited in San Bruno - we have been more fortunate than many other full time RVers who have had to give up their "sticks and bricks" house to follow the call to wander.

    So, what have we discerned? We have truly enjoyed the past year including the 3 1/2 months of travel across the U.S., the unexpected 6 months instead of 3 at Samuel P Taylor State Park, wandering again in North West California and Oregon, and now camp hosting at Eagle Point Campground, Emerald Bay State Park at Lake Tahoe. We have found volunteer camp hosting to be fulfilling work of service as we help folks to enjoy our beautiful public lands and at the same time helping to preserve and protect those lands. For the indefinite future we are both happy to combine a life of travel and camp hosting in LesThora. In September and October we will take a break from the RV to travel to Europe to spend more time with our oldest daughter Sheila and her family than we have since she left the U.S. about 30 years ago. Life is good!

    One thing I've been planning to do as we anticipated coming to Tahoe for the summer was to try backpacking alone. Rob is not interested in backpacking anymore, it's hard to find someone who wants to join me, and I've been intrigued with the idea of doing it solo for some time. Truth be told, the only time I've ever really camped alone was one night on Angel Island, and that time I shared dinner with Erin before she went back to her room on the island for the night. I enjoyed that experience but I wanted to try a "real" solo back pack trip into the beautiful Desolation Wilderness area. In reality, with the number of people on the trails, solo backpacking is not all that "solo." On my over night adventure I saw lots of other hikers and camped about an 1/8th of a mile away from a father and two young sons. My route was up the BayView Trail that starts about a mile from our campground, up and over a ridge into the grandeur of Desolation Wilderness, camping at Upper Velma Lake and coming out on the Eagle Lake Trail down to just above lower Eagle Falls. It was about 5 miles in and 5 miles out on very steep trail. I had not hiked the BayView Trail before, but I had hiked on the other trails many times over the years. It was a good experience, I never felt scared, I stayed warm, I wasn't bored or particularly lonely, I hiked and camped in some of the most beautiful real estate anywhere in the world, and I'm undecided whether I'll do it again. Yes, I got tired carrying my backpack, yes, there were mosquitos, and yes, the ground even with a state of the art sleeping pad is not as comfortable as my bed. But..it's pretty hard to see the sunrise over the Velma Lakes on a day hike.

A view of Maggie's Peaks from near the Overlook in Eagle Point Campground.

The Bayview trail starts at Hwy 89 just to the left of the big slide area in the picture and then climbs steeply to Granite Lake and over the ridge between the two peaks. 

It's quite a climb with or without a backpack!

The picture at the beginning of this blog was taken at the top of that slide.

Part of BayView Trail

Looking down into Granite Lake

Higher up on the trail with Granite Lake close and Lake Tahoe in the background

Some Snow Plants along the trail

Looking into the grandeur of Desolation Wilderness from the ridge top

More Desolation grandeur!

The peak on the left is a side of Mt. Tallac you don't see from Lake Tahoe.

Some Lupine along the trail

Mountain Pride, the beautiful pink penstemon that is my favorite high sierra wildflower.

More Mountain Pride

Upper Velma Lake - I took a late afternoon swim here - not very cold at all!

My campsite

The creek going into Upper Velma Lake

Early rising sun reflected on the mountains as viewed from my campsite

Upper Velma Lake at sunrise

Part of the trail going out

Another part of Upper Velma Lake

First glimpse of Lake Tahoe from the trail going out

A balancing rock above the trail

"My" mountain as seen from high up on the trail

Looking down into my beloved Eagle Lake

Water as it flows out of Eagle Lake - I went wading here on my way down the trail.

My initial plan was to hike across Hwy 89 to the Vikingsholm Trail, then down the 1 mile to Emerald Bay and up the two and a half miles back to our campsite, but I called Rob to pick my up at the Highway.

The five mile hike out to that point was far enough with my loaded backpack.

    The three day on, three day off schedule we have here as camp hosts gives us more freedom with our time off than we had at Camp Taylor, but because of the heat and the bears we're not comfortable leaving the cats over night. We could leave in LesThora, but really every place within a couple of hours from here is at least as hot as it is here so we are content with day outings. Last Saturday we went to Auburn to see granddaughter Avienda in her first dance recital - she was a beautiful little ballerina and then we had dinner with Ruth in Colfax. Last Wednesday, June 23, we went over the mountains into the Carson Valley via Kingsbury Grade, then through Genoa, on to Costco for gas and groceries at the base of Hwy 50 and then back over the mountains into the Tahoe Basin. Sunday afternoon we went back to the Tallac Historic Site just a few miles from here to wander through the grounds and buildings, watch an informative video and talk to volunteers there, and then to Camp Richardson to wait in line for 30 minutes for an ice cream cone. Monday we went to South Lake Tahoe to pick up a book at the library and an Amazon delivery at one of their drop boxes at Whole Foods and then to a laundromat that is conveniently located very close to an excellent pizza restaurant, finally to Safeway for groceries before heading back to camp.

This beautiful historic park is in the little town of Genoa at the base of the Sierras.

It was very interesting learning the history of this area in the little museum and nice to walk the shady grounds of the lovely little park.

A statue of Snow Shoe Thompson who delivered mail between Genoa and Sacramento for 20 winters.

Snow Shoe Thompson is also credited with bringing skiing to California!

    Every morning I walk to the Overlook spot about 1/2 mile from our campsite to write in my journal and drink my tea. I'd like to be there for sunrise, but I rarely get up quite that early.

Sun rising over Lake Tahoe as seen from the Overlook bench

Early morning sky looking north from the Overlook Bench

More early morning sky looking north from a different spot near the bench

Late evening sky looking north - Rob and I walk to the Overlook each evening.

    We are fortunate to be located at the end (or beginning, depending on your perspective) of the Rubicon Trail, and I've hiked it numerous times, but for awhile I hadn't been hiking it regularly and I was beginning to feel the weakening of my conditioning. My average of 10 miles of walking a day dropped to 6 or 7 miles and I was feeling the difference. This week I resolved to hike down the Rubicon Trail to Vikingsholm (and beyond if I have time) each morning between morning and noon camp checks. The round trip from our campsite to Vikingsholm is about 5 miles, so combining that with morning and evening walks to the Overlook and some other moving around I'm getting back up to my 10 mile plus average, and the hike up the long hill from Emerald Bay is getting easier.

Vikingsholm as seen from the Overlook Trail reflecting in Emerald Bay in the early morning.

Some pretty Columbine along the Rubicon Trail

A beach on the bay before reaching Vikingsholm

Lower Eagle Falls on June 29, 2021

The same Lower Eagle Falls on June 4, 2021.

I wonder what this will look like by Labor Day?

My turn around point this morning - a little ways past Vikingsholm.

Can you see the ant pulling the piece of pine cone?

This movement caught my attention on the way back this morning.

    Yesterday was the first day that I've gone swimming in Lake Tahoe. I have waded a couple of times and the water seemed Tahoe cold, and I wasn't ready to go all the way in. It's really been hot here, especially for June, so yesterday afternoon I decided I wanted to cool off at the beach in our campground. We cheated by driving the Gator down the fire road that the campers have to walk up and down (about a half mile.)

My chauffeur to go swimming.

The little beach facing the opening to Emerald Bay.

The water was not really cold at all - surprise!

Rob collected trash while I swam.

The beach looked pretty clean, but he collected a surprising amount of litter.

We find that the vast majority of folks clean up their messes, and even other people's messes, but litter still has a way of getting dropped or blown about.

    Everyone thinks the main thing camp hosts do is sell firewood, and we do go around each evening to sell wood, but according to our job description it is an optional activity for us to do. Last night we loaded up the gator to head out on our nightly rounds. The first couple of campers said they didn't need any, and then a camper told us they'd heard there were no campfires allowed so we went back to the kiosk to learn that there was indeed a Red Flag warning due to weather conditions and no fires were to be allowed - they forgot to tell us who are the people most responsible for seeing what the campers are doing in their sites! We unloaded all the wood and then went around the campground letting folks know that no fires were allowed until the Red Flag warning is lifted. There were at least a half dozen campfires that we asked folks to put out. All the campers were happy to comply. The Red Flag warning, at least at Lake Tahoe's California State Parks remains in effect tonight, so we won't be pedaling firewood.

Loading the gator with the firewood that we would later unload.

    Each evening after the sun goes behind the mountain ("My" mountain) to the west we walk to the Overlook Bench. Last night the sky was particularly dramatic, with clouds, perhaps a bit of smoke, and even a rainbow. We had experienced some very light sprinkles of rain while patrolling the campground earlier.

Emerald Bay under the colorful sky from the Overlook Trail

A rainbow in the east

Looking north

Another shot looking north

Notice Rob looking at his phone?

We go to the bench each evening for the walk and the view, but also to check news and use our cell phones. Cell reception is pretty iffy in our campsite. There is Park Wifi at the kiosk, but the signal from it is weak on our phones, but surprisingly it works well on my computer. I wonder if my 10 year old laptop has some kind of wifi booster? I'm sitting at the picnic table outside LesThora in the shade of a Jeffrey Pine tree typing this using the Park Wifi.

Elsie on the bed

Straus on the table

Both kitties getting their nightly treats from Rob.

    The Retirement Sabbatical Year of Discernment has come to an end, so this is the last post in that blog. I will be starting a new and continuing blog soon - any suggestions for a title?