Shay Creek Summers

How it Began

Following 20 summers in Utah (https://shawnpheneghan.wordpress.com/2022/04/29/the-pro-fun-tours-twenty-utah-summers/ ) My wife and I bought a summer home in the Sierra Nevada at Shay Creek Summer homes across from Grover Hot Springs State Park (GHSSP) in Markleeville CA. It is about 3 hours from my winter home (much closer than Utah was) and is a real two BR cabin – unlike the 60 year old trailer I had in Utah.

I and the wife still had the desire and the ability to get out and “do” things like bike riding and hiking. Markleeville, located about half an hour south of Tahoe and on the Hot Springs/Markleeville creek (formerly the middle fork of the Carson River) at about 6000 feet is nicely located for many day hikes or bicycle rides. As in Utah, I kept a log of the multitude of hikes, bike rides, city visits, wine tastings etc. While we were not as busy as we had been in our younger days, we did, at least for a while, maintain a pretty busy schedule.

The following is a list of the adventures we undertook during our stay at Shay. We are essentially done so the list is basically complete.

2016 New Pro Fun Tour 1 (NPFT1)

Our first year at the new cabin there was much to do. The cabin needed to be “improved” to our liking and maintained to the HOA liking. And, of course, the area needed to be explored. We needed to learn about the park, the neighbors, and the town. We were pretty busy. Details concerning the cabin and improvements can be found separately. (https://shawnpheneghan.wordpress.com/2023/09/22/shay-creek-the-cabin-in-the-woods/)

Alpine county CA (pop. 1200) has no golf course (there was a frisbee course), laundry, supermarket, dogcatcher, dentist, doctor/hospital, jail, high school, dump, TV, radio, etc. All of our shopping (grocery, hardware, drugs) and laundry were done in Gardnerville NV (or occasionally in South Lake Tahoe CA). Trader Joe’s is about half an hour away – obviously a regular stop (beats the heck out of Joe’s market in Panguitch Utah).

Alpine County does have a library and there was a bar in town. It has since closed (for a couple years) and reopened. It has an airport (nice for friends that fly to visit). It brags that it has more campsites than people – it probably does.

We moved my old dining table, bench and chairs in. We furnished the kitchen at Walker thrift shop and purchased additional necessary furniture at a thrift shop in Placerville. As there is no TV or Radio reception, we set up a VCR and installed a Sirius Radio (thanks Brother Tom). We also began the task of moving years of junk/garbage and dirt out of the basement.

Adventure Highlights

Hiking at GHSSP and to Markleeville Falls.

Tandem Bike Rides at Lake Tahoe

Hiking at Carson Pass to Phrog Lake

Hiking and Biking near Monitor Pass

Visiting South Lake Tahoe

Wine in the Park (for the Library)

Traveling to Placerville for wine tasting

2017 NPFT2

I started leading walks around the meadow for GHSSP. I had spent the first year learning about the trees, the flowers, the history and the geology of the area so I could be reasonably knowledgeable about the area. See https://shawnpheneghan.wordpress.com/2022/07/14/grover-hot-springs-meadow-walk/ for details of the walk. Kathy and I continued to do a tandem bike ride nearly every week. And I, usually took a walk (about 3 miles) around the park most mornings before breakfast.

Adventure Highlights

Hike around Curtz Lake

Hike around Heenan Lake (and the trout Hatchery)

Tandem Rides in Meyer to SLT High School

Hikes at Carson Pass

Hike up Spratt Creek (really nice on holiday weekends – no one there)

Flew with Michael Geddes to Oregon to see the eclipse.

Hike to Jeff Davis Peak (now known as Da-ek Dow Go-et Mountain)

Mountain Biking up Leviathan Peak, Heenan Lake, and to/through Markleeville.

Wine in the park

2018 NPFT3

I continued to lead hikes for the park and I continued to walk around the park most mornings. SLT charged me for parking to buy a burger and beer so I stopped going. Instead we rode the tandem nearly every week on the Blue Lakes Road.

Wine in the Park

Tandem rides on Blue Lakes Road

Hike in Faith Valley

Hike to Jeff Davis Peak

Hikes at Monitor Pass

2019 NPFT4 – Year of the Stroke

We started the year as normal. I hiked and biked and took Kathy on the tandem nearly every week. Until Early August when I had a stroke (https://shawnpheneghan.wordpress.com/2021/06/04/i-had-a-stroke/). We returned to the mountain after my hospital stay but departed just after Labor Day – living at the Woods with the residual symptoms of a stroke was just too difficult.

Tandem Ride to Markleeville Falls and on the Blue Lakes Road

Hike with Alpine Hiking group the entire charity valley trail

Hodes Visit – They also helped tremendously with transportation after my stroke.

Wine in the Park

2020 NPFT5 – Year of Covid

Year of Covid and the smoke. The forest closed (due to fire danger) and we departed just after Labor Day. Library was closed due to covid. No guided walks for GHSSP. The government did give me nearly $9K unemployment for having “lost” my volunteer job – go figger.

We only enjoyed beers downtown outside in the garden at Sandy’s. Didn’t hike at Carson Pass as I was trying to avoid crowds.

Bike rides and long hikes became a thing of the past due to residual stroke symptoms. Gave the Tandem to the President of Sacramento Wheelmen, my Cannondale road bike to the Mammoth Lakes thrift shop, and my mountain bike to Joe Turner as payment for some work. Such ended my bicycling career.

2021 NPFT6 -Year of the Fire

Year of the fire. We were evacuated in mid July (https://shawnpheneghan.wordpress.com/2021/08/01/fires-and-evacuations/).

We had just begun to lead walks again for the park when the fire broke out. The Hodes had stored their camp stuff in my basement – and might have been lost with the cabin but… the forest service built a fire line about 40 feet behind the cabin, back-burned and saved basically everything.

Interestingly, while we were in Hawthorne, having been evacuated from Markleeville, a block fire froke out and … I was once again evacuated. So, I owned two homes and was under evacuation from both. Once again, Pete to the rescue. We vacationed for a while in Mammoth at his condo rental. The home in Hawthorne also survived.

We returned to M-ville after the fire. Cleaned out the mess that was in the fridge and reclaimed Pete’s camp stuff. We returned later that fall and closed up for the winter.

Hodes Visit

Fire evacuations

2022 NPFT7

Full summer – for a change. We arrived the week before Memorial Day and did not depart until the end of September. We joined the Jamarillos (Ron and Heidi) for weekly hikes and once again led walks around the meadow of GHSSP. Hikes tended to be not so adventurous.

Pizzas were cooked nearly every week – and shared with friends and park personnel. We did not have many visitors. Colleen visited – briefly – as did Michael Geddes. The Hodes did not visit as Pete was in the hospital all summer fighting Leukemia. He won.

Mr.Bear visited – regularly. He broke into my truck (first major bear incidence in thirty years in the mountains), and destroyed my smoker. He also caused a bit of havoc at other cabins.

Hikes

Faith Valley

Markleeville Falls (both sides of the creek)

Monitor Pass

Wolf Creek

Spratt Creek

2023 NPFT8

As Summer 2023 approached, the snows kept falling. In April (when the snows have typically disappeared) “the Woods” was still blanketed in several feet of snow. Still, we hoped, and planned, to be at Shay by Memorial Day – and actually arrived on 19 May.

The park, still recovering from the fire opened the first week in June. The hot springs did not open until July.

Hiking continued, but the ability deteriorated. Still leading “Meadow Walks” for the park – but due to the flooding of Buck Creek, we no longer make the big meadow loop through the hot springs meadow. Rather, we return across the handicapped access trail through a different meadow.

Sandy’s (The Marklee Toll House) is closed so there were no beers in town. But the library is back to normal.

Kathy got lost along the Carson river. The sheriff and Search and Rescue found her – alive and well, but tired.

On Labor day weekend I led my final walk for the park. while I can still walk around the meadow, I am not always “up” for the walk on Saturday morning at 9AM. In addition, leading the walk is a great effort – it basically tires me out for the entire day.

Generally, all new adventures have basically ended. Kathy and I plan to continue going to the cabin every summer but new adventures are something that has gone the way of the wind.