Scott went for a bike ride this morning at 7.  He was supposed to go a little earlier, but it was a wee bit cold and he waited for the sun to warm the Earth just a little more.  I am not complaining.  Especially since the Valley of Fire was a just a few days ago, but this was the first time on the trip I woke up with frozen toes during the night.  Lucky for me I am sandwiched between two adorable sleeping space heaters.

The kids played in the steam and their “clubhouse” a little longer before we left the campground.  The kids were a little sad to see our camp neighbors go.  They really enjoyed their clubhouse and new friends.

The above picture on the left is of a rare moment when the kids are comforting each other because their friends left.  I snuck the picture in before they could object.  The middle picture illustrates how bears pull logs apart in search of insects.  The picture to the right is of the wooded area across the stream and straight across from our campsite.  This is where I saw a brown colored black bear this morning while I was still in my tent.  I saw the bear running through the woods.  The camera was two feet from me, but I didn’t move fast enough to get a picture.  The bears in California are all called black bears despite their color.  “Brown” bears are considered Grizzly bears.

We drove for a bit and stopped at Sunset Campground in Kings Canyon.  We wanted to secure a spot before they were all taken.  The campground we were at last night was completely full for tonight, which didn’t really affect us, but our neighbors were sad to have to move on, as they planned to stay another night.  I suppose that is one bonus to not always having specific plans. Wherever we wind up is where we were meant to be.

Panoramic Point Hike – Round Trip 1/2 mile Elevation: 7,520 feet – A view of the Sierra Nevadas

Lake Hume

While we were on our short hike up to Panoramic Point Scott spotted a lake. That planted the seed for seeking out the lake. He followed the signs, took a chance that we could canoe on it, and in true Scott style we wound up having a really incredible spontaneous family adventure.

After we drove all the way around the lake to where the dam was we finally found a parking space and some quiet. We canoed over to where the bulk of the people were and watched some people jump off a giant rock. Scott and Brooke attempted to jump out of the canoe into the lake at the same time and capsized the canoe. We think it is the first time we have capsized the boat as a family. The good news was that we were so close to shore everyone could stand except Cody. Cody was in such shock he just kept crying and wouldn’t let go of his paddle. He has been trained well, “Don’t let go of the paddle.” Since we were out of the boat anyway we decided to join the fun on the rock.

The picture on the right is of a Christian youth retreat center.  These people are so lucky to have such a gorgeous retreat location in their backyard.  Scott was laughing earlier in the day when we picnicked at the trailhead to the Panoramic Point Trail.  We chatted with a family from Fresno.  They had a two year old boy who saw Cody and just started chatting up a storm.  He was not excited about having to hike.  We explained that he had to be the tough guy and show us how to do it since he had already done it a few weeks ago.  Scott said, “When we go for a picnic we go to VA.  These people get the Sequoias and Kings Canyon.”  He doesn’t have anything against Veteran’s Acres.  It just doesn’t have quite the same scenery. The little boy’s mom took our family photo at the top of the hike.

Scott was the first to jump off of the rock.  Brooke jumped off a shorter portion of the rock a few times and then I finally decided to jump off the big rock.  I took longer to think about it than I should have.  I like to think things out to avoid making any big mistakes, but there were life guards floating by in a sit-on-top kayak and plenty of people jumping in with no concerns.  The second jump was much easier than the first.  There was a teenager named Cyrus who was up on the rock the entire time we were there just thinking about jumping.  We never saw him jump, but we cheered him on for a while.