Our first contact with nature was in the region of beautiful blue Lake Tahoe, a few hours drive from SF. We chose a camp near Fallen Leaf Lake, in itself a beautiful setting. Our 16 km hike to/from Mt Tallac (and 1 km climb!) rewarded us with spectacular views over the lake and a very enjoyable warm and sunny day. Even though we were only there 2 nights, we also had time to do a few other walks and enjoy a campfire dinner (tortilla soup) with some local Californians who were very kind to invite us over (in exchange for some sugar we gave them in the morning!). A great start to our journey 🙂