Ice House

Ice House Campground, our home for 6 nights, borders Ice House Reservoir in the Eldorado NF about 25 miles west of Lake Tahoe.  The elevation is 5500’.  Before refrigeration was widely available, they cut blocks of ice here and stored them in a shed, buried in sawdust, hence the name.  There are several other reservoirs nearby.

The area is heavily forested with cedars and huge Sugar and Ponderosa Pines.  A thick layer of pine needles covers the ground - makes for very springy walking.  Sugar Pine cones get up to 18" long; the one above is slightly over 1'.

Would you believe a string trio concert mid afternoon in our campground?  Yup, 3 cellists did a free concert under the trees yesterday.  They  played tunes by The Eagles, The Ventures and The Beatles and others, no classical.  These folks are in their 60s and have played with various symphonies around the country.  What a delightful surprise!

I put the picture in sideways for a change of pace.  Yeah, you're right: that's BS.  The truth: took picture with my smart phone, sent it to myself by email, turned the picture upright in my computer but the silly bugger insists on going sideways when I download it to the blog.  Tried to turn it upright 6 times, finally said 'piss on it'.  I'm guessing I have to do the up righting edit on my cell phone before I email it.   

This tree is just under 5' in diameter and about 250 years old!