7/10/18 – Tahoe Bound

Day 20

Miles: 1,153.38 to 1,140.76

The hard bed in our tiny lodge room is super comfortable. I wish I could take it with me on the trail. There’s not much to it, just a thin board and a foam cushion but somehow it works so beautifully well.

At 7:30 we start preparing our lunch. There is a long table set up for that purpose that has bread, salami, cheese, tomatoes, and other condiments for us to choose from. We also get a bag of chips and fruit.

Breakfast starts at 8:00. Pancakes, sausages, oatmeal, and cantaloupe. It’s a good filling breakfast before a day of hiking.

At 8:30, we are at the road, trying to get a hitch to town. There are 3 of us. Kathy eventually gives up and walks, Dave and I get lucky about 5 minutes afterwards when a white Subaru picks us up. The driver is local, likes to trail angel whenever she can. She has a way to Truckee today and chose to drive the side road instead the highway to see if she could help hikers. We pick up Cathy along the way. Five minutes later we are back in the trail. It would take us an hour to walk that distance.

We have 3,100 feet to climb today. The trail does not waste any time. We cross a parking lot and head straight up the hill.

Many day hikers are out. We stop to chat with some, they assure us there are no rattle snakes in this altitude and we are unlikely to see a bear because they all hang out in the valley by the dumpsters.

Scenery is pretty. We run open ridge, the trail weaves ahead of us, we see the switchback we would climb and hills we would descend. Flowers line the trail. Occasionally we catch a scent of lupine or a mint carried on the wings of the wind. The wind is strong. I’m happy for that. Once in a while we get to a protected area and the heat is scorching.

At the bottom of the last uphill we meet trio of southbound hikers. We spend few minutes chatting with them, they seem like a fun group. Milkshake, the youngest one of them, stays with us for most of the uphill. The uphill goes faster when you chat it away.

Our camp is in a lovely trees area near a meadow. Large granite slabs create a natural border between us and a ski resort nearby. The southbound group shows half an hour later.

“Mind if we camp with you?” they ask.

And for the time being our 4 person bubble turns into a herd.

Tomorrow; however it might be just Dave and I. Both the trio and Swayed with Roller will try to push for higher miles to get to Tahoe on Friday morning.