Danielle: Friday, June 14, 2002 This is the first day of Tad's surprise B-day trip to Lake Tahoe. We arrived at approximately 11:00pm last night and camped at the Lovers Leap Campground, located at the base of Lovers Leap. It's approximately a thirty minute drive from Lake Tahoe. You wake up in the morning, to huge cliffs looming over you.

Friday, I planned an all day hike for us, a 12 mile round trip, destination summit of Mt. Tallac. As you read on, you'll find that we hiked many more miles than that.

Here we had hiked maybe a half-mile at this point, along a dirt road with the occasional house. We hadn't even reached the trailhead yet! At this rate we'll never make it to the summit.

Tad: So begins an absolutely amazing birthday weekend that Danielle planned for me. It all starts with a long drive Thursday evening, June 13th. All I know is that our destination is within seven or eight hours from home. All along the way, I'm trying to guess where we might be going. Yosemite? Tahoe? We left my work at about 7:30 PM, with Danielle driving. As time passed, I'm narrowing down the destinations that I know how to reach from the roads we have been driving on. Nope, not Yosemite, we should have taken that exit. Hmm. Could be the Tahoe area, because we're still heading in the right direction. After dark, Danielle passed the car over to me, and we've been getting closer and closer to Tahoe. Danielle is adamant that we're not going there though, so I still don't know where we're going to end up.

About 20 miles from Lake Tahoe, we pull off the main road, onto a back road, and end up at a campground. Hmmmm.... Now, I find out what my birthday sup rise is! A day of hiking, two days of climbing, and three nights of camping. Whoo!

We arrived around midnight and set up camp. The next day, lo and behold, there is an absolutely huge (300-500 foot high) cliff named Lovers Leap towering above the campground. You'll hear much more about this cliff in the climbing slideshow.