Meanwhile, back in the states, a couple of Heroes scoured the Sierra Nevada for rustic high altitude Hero headquarters. While it is true that we already have a rustic high altitude Hero headquarters in the Sierra Nevada, it never hurts to have a backup. With our pockets full of Kodak 160 NC 120 film, we loaded ourselves, the Rolleiflex and a small dog named Diego into the boat and headed to (not so) distant shores in search of small feats of architecture. Did we mention this all happened at a high altitude Sierra Nevada Lake?
Some of what we look for in a rustic HQ:
A lake: Yes
Electricity: No
Running water: Yes
Beds: Yes
Telephone: not as relevant a question as it used to be what with the recent proliferation of cellular phones, but the answer is no.
Access to good (high altitude) cycling: Yes
Access to good (high altitude) hiking: Yes
Most of the cabins we found were authentically rustic and between 75 and 100 years old. One notable exception was a cabin a few hundred footsteps uphill from where we left the Tenspeed Hero boat. This cabin was one year old. The owners had torn down the original structure and built a new one from lodge pole pines harvested and milled on sight. The next best thing to the patina of time on a handmade structure is freshly milled wood from dead trees on your land.
All of these cabins were above 7000 feet elevation and most would be buried in snow in a normal winter. They would not make great year around residences except for the truly rugged and adventurous; one would have to cross country ski several miles to the nearest road and then hitchhike to the nearest town to buy groceries.
Please enjoy a sampling of what we found and fell in love with in the mountains of California:
