Way back in July (it seems like ages now) I decided to head up to the higher reaches of the sierra in search of the mythical monsters that lurk in the early season lakes. My co-worker Nick and I made a mad dash Friday after work, got our rods in the car, forgot a few other useless items, and were off. We planned to camp outside the wilderness boundary and day hike in to fish, thus avoiding the fees other chumps would be paying. However, our logic was not totally sound as we found ourselves in the trail head parking lot without permits talking to a park ranger about how dispersal camping was not allowed in Lake Tahoe management area. Also, she warned about the unusually large number of backcountry rangers out patrolling that would surely issue us a hefting fine. Shit. Oh yeah, the wilderness trailer (yes, that office has been delegated to a small portable on the edge of a parking lot) closed 20 minutes ago. With a hopeful tone she suggested we try their new online system.
We drove off in search of cell signal praying we could conjure up some permits for the weekend. At the same time we were also planning several sketchy gorilla-camping alternatives, most of which relied on playing dumb when captured by park officials.
So it goes, the online service does not allow day-of permit purchases, and furthermore, one must appear at the wilderness ranger portable to officiate the permit. Why did you waste your f-ing time with the online system!? It serves me in no way and destroyed all hopes of restoring this perfect trout bum weekend. Except...you can always rely on acting dumb.
If you ignore all the fine print, leave the page loaded on your smart phone that says you've purchased two nights of desolation for said occupants, and seem innocent, than no self respecting back country ranger should be able to fault you for just wanting to catch a few fish right? Flawless plan. Now just avoid the army of rangers in the backcountry on this specific weekend.
Fast forward past exploding cans of Tecate, dressing like Larry the Cable Guy, and smelling strongly of beer while talking to the Sheriff search and rescue guys, and we got away with it! Not only that, but we we managed a few fish despite mostly frozen lakes.
This is Nick ON Lake Aloha
Frozen lake with more of the white stuff surrounding it. July ~8,000'
Nick fishing a sweet hole. It took us a while but we eventually walked onto that ice-float and fished.
And it fell to my new switch rod with a sink tip line. Can't stop loving it.
Douche-beg 1 and 2. They couldn't be happier though. If you look closely in the back ground on Nick's picture you can see a guy on ski's. We left immediately assuming he was a backcountry ranger out to get us, though we actually never saw any rangers anywhere.
