6/10 PART 2: Thank God.

...and we drove back into the mountains. 

We pulled onto a nondescript road off of the 50, about a 1/2 mile west of Strawberry, and meandered up to The Secrets - a lesser used (but really amazing) bouldering area only 20 minutes from South Lake Tahoe. 

The tent was set up under threat of a thunderstorm sounding from the north, and rolling closer. We only got a few drops of rain, but from our perch above the Mystics we watched lightning strikes and listened to thunder cracks for the afternoon. 

Mobile home. Thunderstorm backdrop from the Secrets. 

In the evening we wandered down through some of the main areas and did a few easy problems. The rock is incredible. Granite. Knobs. For. Days. I beat my fingers to a pulp. Mattie was an excellent spotter, as always. 

Perfect granite knobs in The Mystics.

 We went to sleep early after a battle for tent space. Mattie is getting pretty feisty about trying to sleep on my bag, which isn't flying (it's new, and nice, and I'm trying to keep it that way for at least a while).

 This morning we woke early and headed down a different trail to The Snags. The problems here are mostly tall and terrifying, but I managed to find a few fun ones that were low and fun and perfect.

Messing around on Mantle Man, in The Snags. No way I can top that one out, but the traverse is fun. There's Mattie spotting me again.

And to top it off, our first sunset back in the mountains looked like this:

Mattie and I can't help but feel that we're welcomed back.

Love from Alpino Cafe,

Allison & Mattie