Journeys›Photograph

Dock Day on Donner Lake

·Truckee, California·#hiking#summer#tahoe#lake-day
Three people on a large inflatable raft float next to a wooden dock in clear water on a sunny day.

Dock day on Donner Lake. The big inflatable island went in early and stayed tied off at the dock most of the afternoon — the girls sprawled across it, one of them draped over the edge with her legs in the water, somebody's drink parked in a cup holder. I took a camp chair on the deck boards with my feet up and mostly stayed put.

Everyone drives the extra half hour for Tahoe — largest alpine lake in North America, twenty-two miles long, 1,640 feet deep — but Donner does the same job at a size where you can see both ends from one dock. Plenty of company out on the water anyway: a ski boat pulling laps, a jet ski cutting across its wake, and down toward the west end a little sailboat with a rainbow sail.

The oldest handled the rope work when the float drifted, cinching the line to the cleat with the rest of it coiled in a blue tangle on the dock behind her.

Late in the day we traded the water for a walk through the pines, masks on the whole way. August 2020 — you wear one even under the trees.

A sparkling blue lake with a small boat, surrounded by pine-covered mountains under a bright blue sky with a sunburst.A wide blue lake with sparkling water, a forest-covered hill on the far shore, and mountains under a bright blue sky.A wide lake with forested mountains, a boat with people, a person on a jet ski, and a faint rainbow.A wide panoramic view of a blue lake surrounded by forested mountains under a clear sky, with docks and boats.A child on a water float near a wooden dock, holding a blue rope, with a lake and forested mountains in the background.A person's legs in swim trunks rest in a green chair on a dock overlooking a sunny lake and mountains.A blue lake with a colorful sailboat against dense green forested mountains under a clear blue sky.Two masked people, an adult and a child, stand for a selfie on a dirt path in a sunny forest.

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