Fannette Island
MVP
I had lost my phone and could not find it on the island or where we launched the boat. I was dismayed at losing such a valuable device and worried about the rest of the plans I had made for this weekend. Cassie, though, never gave up and was able to find it even though it was underwater. She’s the best! Stephanie, Sergio, and Andrea (strangers we met where we launched the boat) were so nice in searching for the phone with us and then lending us their snorkel goggles (which proved to be key for Cassie to find the phone).
Raft Review
I visited the island two years ago, and my review has not changed since then.
What I Learned
I don't mean to stereotype, but when I've needed help, strangers with Latin descent have always come through for me. I've helped plenty of strangers too—I hope they think people of Asian descent are nice.
Cassie's leg is improving to the point where she was able to hike about a mile and a half and did not have any issues with her knee! It's a huge win as her recovery had been slow thus far.
What Happened?
~1.3 miles, ~40 mins, 5-15 mph W wind
I wanted to show Cassie the beautiful Fannette Island after seeing it when we camped at Eagle Lake back in March of this year. We arrived at the Vikingholm trailhead a little before 9 a.m. to grab one of the few remaining parking spots. We changed into our swimming gear, as well as grabbing our packraft, paddles, and lifevests. Then we hiked down to Emerald Bay.
I led us to the same spot where I launched the boat two years ago, inflated the raft, and we were on our way. During the launch, I pushed my iPhone into the lifevest pocket, but did not zip it up, as I got distracted with something else. The ride over to the lake was much easier than what I remembered, and it felt like we were at the island in no time. However, as we got off the boat and moved the boat onto the island, I saw that my watch was telling me that it had lost its connection to the phone. I immediately put my left hand onto the pocket where I had put it, and realized that it was no longer there.
We did a cursory look around where we landed, but we did not see anything. I didn't want to ruin this little adventure due to my error, so we hiked up to the tea house in the middle of the lake and took a quick look around. Around this time, the wind (especially the gusts) was really picking up, so we did not stay to enjoy the tea house (it was too cold anyways). Instead, we hiked back to the boat, searched a bit more, then paddled back to the shore.
We saw that a group of people were settling into where we had launched from, so we paddled over and asked if they had seen an iPhone. They did not, but they took 5 minutes scouring the area looking for my phone as Cassie tried calling my phone and I searched the water where we launched from. I then started to put our stuff away as Cassie did a deeper search in the water. My watch (which connects to the phone) did not connect to the phone on the island or on the landing area, so I told Cassie that the phone was probably under water and that we could not find it. Cassie talked to the other people a bit more and Andrea asked for Cassie's number so that if they were to find it later, they could call us. Cassie and I then started to head back to the car defeated. We talked about what we needed to do to find the phone and what we would do the rest of the day. When Cassie asked what additional equipment we needed, I stated that we would need goggles as without it, it was super hard to find the phone in the cold water. She then exclaimed that the folks at the launch area told her that we could borrow their goggles if we needed. Cassie also found a selfie video on her phone that showed that I had my phone with me during the paddle over to the island, which meant that I had probably lost my phone getting out of the boat on the island. We hiked back, borrowed the goggles, and launched towards Fannette Island for the second time this morning.
We made our way to the island and landed at the same location as before. We put on the borrowed goggles and started putting our faces in the water. I searched for about 5 minutes just from the top of the water, but did not see my phone. As I got closer to the shore, I noticed that the rocks were spherical and that there was a lot of space underneath the rocks that could not be seen from above. As I was reaching my hand deep under a rock, I heard an underwater scream from Cassie nearby. I was scared that a rock had rolled onto her hand and that she was now stuck, but it was good news—she had found the phone!
We paddled back to shore in a happiest of moods. Sergio and Stephenie celebrated with us when we told them the good news (Andrea had gone on a hike so she was not there) but refused our offer to send them money so that they could get drinks on us. Instead, they told us to have a nice celebratory meal since we had found our phone. We packed up (and didn't lose anything this time), thanked our new friends again, and hiked back to the car. From there, we headed off to Geoff's favorite Mexican restaurant in Tahoe (though when we got there, we found out that it had closed).