Mile 1099.2 to 1126.8 (with 1082 to 1099.2 include)

We had a nice short stay in South Lake Tahoe. The trail in and out was mostly snow free and we made good time coming in and out. Unfortunately, the town was spread out, and we did a lot of walking to accomplish all of our chores. I bought Bedazzled a strawberry shake to celebrate finishing the Sierra and we enjoyed a free pizza and salad at Base Camp Pizza thanks to their PCT hiker discount. If you are ever in Tahoe, check it out and try the pear and gorgonzola pizza. It is awesome.

We are starting to do larger miles now that the trail conditions are improving. The style of hiking is very reminiscent of the desert minus the siesta. Which basically means that you wake up early, walk all day, set up camp just before dark, cook, and sleep.

In other news, I am coming up on my 3 month anniversary on trail. So much has happened since I started on April 23, that it seems like a lifetime ago. I am still completely satisfied with my decision to hike the trail, and I am happy to wake up out here under the stars everyday and walk toward the horizon. Speaking of anniversaries, Bedazzled and I figured out that in 60 miles we will have walked 1,000 miles together. Quite the feat.

On to the events of today:

I woke up throughout the night and each time the stars shone a little clearer and twinkled a little brighter. It is nice to be able to cowboy camp so often now that we are out of the Sierra. You feel more connected to the world around you and get the opportunity to see the stars in all their glory. Bedazzled and I have been taking full advantage and cowboy camping every chance we get.

When my alarm went off, I packed up quickly and Bedazzled joined me on a hill overlooking Lake Aloha. We are currently hiking through the Desolation Wilderness and so far it is living up to its name. Lake Aloha, despite its inviting name, sits in a rocky bowl with low windswept mountains surrounding it. Everything is gray rock except for the few wind blasted trees that dot the surrounding area. We were lucky enough to find a wind break and slept relatively well. When Bedazzled and I returned to camp, Vipr and Fun Dip were just waking up so we headed off.
The trail was rocky and not kind to the feet as we made our way along the banks  of Lake Aloha. As we turned toward the east, the sky began to glow and we say two lakes below us. We arrived at the lakes just after the best light, but I still took a few photos of the small islands that dotted the lakes.

The horizon was hazy and the smell of smoke was in the air as we started our 1,600 foot climb up Dick’s Pass.

The climb went by quickly under our Sierra hardened legs, and we were soon on the otherside doing standing glissades down the snowy backside of the pass. Below us was the thawing Dick’s Lake.

Unfortunately, the views weren’t great due to the smoke and haze.

As we dropped elevation, the snow disappeared, we crossed some rivers, and the trail turned into soft dirt, which was a much welcomed change.

We did 10 miles by 10:00 and 15 miles by 12:00. At our lunch spot, we could just barely make out the snow and tree covered mountains across the valley from us. As we headed out after lunch, we passed quite a few hikers headed the opposite way. Some were Tahoe Rim Trail hikers and others were PCTers who had flipped up to Oregon or parts of Northern California to avoid the Sierra. Once they get back to the point they flipped from, they will then have to flip back up again and finish the rest of the trail to Canada. It all sounds logistically complicated and a pain to me. I am happy that we went straight through the Sierra.

Bedazzled and I decided that we are just going to wake up at 5:00 each day and then walk until we don’t feel like it any more. If that gets us 25 miles great, 30 miles cool, 35 miles neat. We are just going to listen to our bodies and not give ourselves unnecessary stress by obsessing over miles. With that attitude, we kept the easy pace we had set all day and carried on into the afternoon.

While I was hiking, I pulled out my headphones and listened to lesson 1 of a German language podcast. While in town, I talked about getting a language podcast to listen to and Bedazzled told me to download a German one. I learned how to say “Hallo, ich heiße Harley. Freut mich Sie kennenzulernen. Ich bin Amerikaner.” Bedazzled corrected my pronunciation with all the patience of a 19-year-old. Just kidding, she was very helpful and taught me some additional phrases. We plan to keep this up throughout the rest of the hike so hopefully I will be able to speak a little German when I go to Germany.

We were hoping to camp at a viewpoint where you can see Lake Tahoe, but the smoke and lack of flat spots prevented that. We went a little further downhill and camped in a spot among huge moss covered trees. It turned out to be a 28 mile day, which was surprising given the leisurely pace we were going. About 40 minutes later, Vipr and Fun Dip showed up saying they couldn’t beleive we stopped short of 30 miles. They had eaten a quick dinner just up the trail and were rushing to hit the 30 mile mark before the end of the day. Bedazzled and I were happy to continue eating our dinner and wished them luck.

Bis Bald (“see you later” in German)