Castella to Etna

$1 Shower and Laundry: 

Before I dive into this segment I would like to preface this with letting everyone know that I prefer machine washed clothes. I would gladly pay the usual $5 to run a load of wash through at the local laundry mat. However, in this town stop there is no such option and I must resort to creative measures to wash some of the sweat and grime from my clothes. Here in lies the art of the $1 shower and laundry cycle.

The cycle begins with the shake out and strip down. You want to make sure you have everything in order before you start to maximize your time once you put your quarters in. Once you have all clothes to be laundered in a pile under the shower head and you yourself are ready to jump in, grab your quarters. It's shower time! Plunk your first 2 quarters in the shower machine. You want to start with a quick scrub of the legs to get the major dirt off. Then stomp on your clothes and lather up. The soap suds from your shower wash down to your clothes. Stepping on the clothes pile neads the soap in. After 5 minutes the shower stops. Then you get down to the dirty work. With your bar of soap continue to lather and suds your clothes and make sure you have the extra dirty parts and pieces scrubbed well. Time for round two; the rinse cycle. Plunk your remaining two quarters in the shower. Finish any showering necessary, then dance! Fast feet work best to continue to work the soap through the clothes and rinse. After your second five minutes is up you have a clean body and clean(er) clothes. Wring most of water from clothes then hang dry on food hanging line tied between two trees.

Goodbye Xena:

The morning I left Castella Mom and Dad picked up Xena. I would have felt more sorry for Xena if she didn't look more excited to see Mom & Dad than when she first saw me. Even still I was very sad to see her go. I heard later that once home she didn't do much more than sleep for the next two days. Maybe a good decision to send her home.

Poison Oak:

Unfortunately the most memorable part if this section was my poison oak rash. I must have picked it up on my bare legs on the way into Castella. The night at the state park I had a horrible bug bite on my left thigh that I scratched all night. Turns out it was not a bite, but poison oak. I managed to irritate and spread it all over. I got it on the back of both knees, on my thigh, and for extra discomfort a small patch where the sun don't shine. Itchy! The worst was the large patch on my left thigh which blistered. I put anti-itch cream on it, but it was still a tough mental challenge not to touch my legs.

On trail:

The trail from Castella to Etna takes you through Castle Crags and then through the Russian wilderness. Pretty and hot! It was nice to gain some elevation again so we had cooler nights, but the heat persisted throughout the day. There was one day that I noted beginning to sweat by 8:30am. 

In this stretch we decided to try for our first 30 mile day. We wanted to see what our bodies could do. Also this set us up for a 25, then 9 mile day into Etna. We did it! Although, we were very tired at the end of the day. I fell asleep so fast that night!

With our easy 9 miles out to Etna Summit we were able to get a hitch and be in town by 11am!

Trail Statistics

 Miles:1606

 Days:98

 Days of Poison Oak:5

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Burney Falls to Castella

We tried to sleep in at Burney Falls, but 6am was as late as we could stay in our bags. Chief was already on the trail and other hikers were slowly packing their things and heading off. Cowgirl and I helped Maureen clean up camp then rode with her into the town of Burney.

Burney:
Driving through Burney we looked for a coffee shop or small deli. We settled for a picnic table near a drive through coffee hut. This is were we stayed and had a mid morning lunch with Maureen. Eventually she left us to shop and be on her way to find the next spot she would meet up with Chief.

We found out Gumby and Double-It were in town, so then walked over to their hotel. This is where we waited for my parents to arrive with Xena.

I was so excited to get Xena for the trail. She arrived in style. Apparently the nearest car rental had not updated their fleet since the early 80s. She floated in on an old Murcury boat. When she lept out of the car she was full of tail wags and excited to greet the other hikers. Thank you to Mom and Dad for delivering her!

That night our group grilled brauts and drank beer at the picnic table outside our rooms. I was even able to get Mom and Dad to join in my daily jump photo.

We got another sleep in day, what luxury! Once packed and sorted Cowgirl and I went to breakfast with Mom and Dad. Back at the hotel we wrote a few more creative postcards, then made or way out of town. Mom and Dad dropped our now group of three off at the state park.

Back on Tail:
First day out we hiked in the heat of the day. Not a good idea with a furry dog. It took us a while to go only a few miles. Once we arrived at Rock Creek and our stopping point, Xena went for a swim. I am not sure she intended to go so far in by the surprised look in her eyes, but she didn't seem to mind as it cooled her off quickly.

The next day we got up at 4:30 to avoid hiking through the hottest part of the day with Xena. The day was fairly warm, but we were able to hike until 1pm. Then hiked again after 4:30pm. Xena was no problem in the tent that night, she slept the  hardest.

The next two days got hotter and we had to take longer breaks in the day to avoid the heat. Xena was still getting her trail legs, but the heat would easily do her in.

We have yet to see any of the wildlife in this stretch. We had heard many tails of bear and mountain lion sightings. We had seen a lot of bear scat on trail ourselves. The scent of dog must have kept them all away.

By the the fourth day we realized that the maximum mileage we could get in one day with Xena was going to be 20 miles. If the days got hotter, this could drop to 15. Our options to remedy this was getting up even earlier and hiking till much later or pushing her through the heat of the day. The forecasts were showing 100 degree highs for Castella and 110 for Seiad Valley. I was beginning to realize I might have a dilemma.

By the 5th day we were breaking by 11:30am. The only reason we made it so late was because we were hiking on a west facing slope. The hill's shadow provided shade for the majority of the morning. We crunched some trail numbers to figure out how we could avoid hiking in the heat, but also avoid super early and super late hiking. We could do it, but we would slip behind schedule. A decision had to be made.

We were okay with a little slip behind the schedule, but with friends and family joining later down trail we were concerned we might find ourselves too far behind. We really want to try to avoid hiking through snow in Washington. The major decion maker was not wanting to push Xena through the heat. It is one thing for us to suffer willingly through it, but I don't feel right making Xena deal with it.  Where we got phone service I began to make plans with Mom and Dad to pick her up.

Of course the morning of our 6th day Xena woke up excited and ready to go. Maybe it was the same excitement of the previous mornings, now I just had a guilt about plans to send her home.

We had a nero day into Castella. I was glad to walk the last 2.8 mile of road in the cool of the morning. Despite my guilt and disappointment in sending Xena home, as the temperatures rose quickly I felt like I was making the right decision.

In Castella Cowgirl and I had late morning breakfast burritos and coffee and picked up our resupply package and another great surprise package from a friend. This was all at a small hiker friendly market next to the PO.

By mid morning we made our way to the hiker/biker camp at the state park for the rest of the day.

Happy Trails!

Trail Stats:
Mile: 1,506.5
Day: 93
Showers: 18

Old Station to Burney Falls

We left Old Station a little later than intended. Maureen lured me in with fresh coffee, then Cowgirl, and before we knew what to do we had a hot stack of blueberry pancakes placed in front of us. Yes, we had another great breakfast before our start out of Old Station.

The plan for the day was to hike the first 7 miles in the morning. Stop for a long mid day break. Then continue on to the Road 22 cache where we hoped there would be water (17 miles in to a potential 34 mile waterless stretch). If there was no water there this could end up being a parched walk for us.

On our hike to an overlook, that would be our rest stop during the heat of the day, we took a detour to the Subway Cave.  This cool subterranean walk is 1/3 mile long through a lava tube. The lava rock  floor is very uneven. Combine this with the narrow cone of light from your headlamp and you sometimes feel like you have vertigo. We turned our lights off in the middle of the cave. This is what "pitch black" really is. Lucky for us there was light at the end of the tunnel despite the disturbing name "rattlesnake collapse" at the end. Climbing out of the cave the temperature rose back up 20 degrees and we headed back to the trail.

We arrived at the overlook and our mid day waiting area around 11:30am. The sun was already hot and the only shade was on the backside of the pit toilets. Lucky for us we arrived just behind Chief and he was on the same game plan and... Maureen was there with the camper. So we had an alternate option for shade other than toilets.

About 4:30pm we pulled ourselves away from Maureen's traveling vortex. We made our way across the top of Hat Rim. About half way to Rd. 22 there is an abandoned lookout and weather station with several roads nearby. It was nearing 8:30pm and we knew our sun light was fading fast. By the map it appeared that we could take a road paralleling the PCT. The road would be less overgrown and in the fading light we wouldn't have to worry as much about stumbling over the bulbous lava rock trail.  We happily took off down a well graded wide road hoping to sneak into camp just under the last rays of light. In 5 to 10 minutes there was a feeling of unrest. Something wasn't quite right and upon further thought the terrain wasn't matching up with the topo maps. As it turned out our brilliant idea led us in the wrong direction. We were glad to catch our mistake so early, but still lost 20 minutes of light. Frustrated we trod back to the junction. Near the junction I found the road we had intended to take in the first place. It was very overgrown and looked worse than taking the trail. Mental note; not all red roads marked on the topo maps are equal in width, maintenance, or general appearance.

Yeah! We made it to the Rd 22 cache at 9:15pm and it had lots of water. We took about two liters each and then found a flat spot for the night. There were limited flat and smooth spots large enough for the tent footprint so we ended up camping next to Chief. For the first time on the trail we cowboy camped. With little light pollution and close to a new moon the stars were amazing.

From the Rd 22 cache we slowed down. We only had 25 miles and 2 days to get to Burney Falls State Park. We did still get a decent start to the day in order to avoid hiking through the heat over the more open lava beds. On our leisurely stroll we ran into an asphalt truck driver where the trail comes near a road under construction. He was surprised to see hikers wandering so close to the road. We had a brief conversation, and before he said good bye he offered us two cold drinks. He said his son worked for this small company, Yerba Matte. What a coincidence, my brother was just working with a film crew at our family cabin this winter filming an advertisement for this very drink. Sometimes the world seems so small.

The second exciting event to our day of leisure was seeing Anish (sp?) fly by us. She is trying to beat the PCT record, obtaining the fastest known time. Ironically we were taking a 3 hour nap by a small stream to beat the heat after doing about 10 miles. I would guess that when she waved hello and sped past she already had 25 to 30 miles in for the day.

That night we camped in a not so picturesque, but flat spot within 10 miles of Burney falls state park. This gave us an easy morning hike into the park. We choose to take an alternate route into the park. This alternate follows the main creek and begins at the headwaters spring. The creek starts as a muddy pool then gradually gets larger as the bed elevation drops and more springs and underground streams find their way into the drainage. This is caused by the porous and non-porous layered geology in the area. Eventually the large creek cascades over the side of a rock band creating Burney Falls.

Once in the park we found the general store and got down to business. First up, we got a swirled soft serve ice cream; followed with a chocolate milk, then a package of meat and cheese for lunch. ...maybe we are not losing weight for reasons other than being girls.

While polishing off the rest of our lunch we watched hikers come and go. Most of them where staying at the park and before too long the picnic table we were at was full. Then we got kicked out of the vicinity for drinking beer on the patio of the general store. We all moved to the campground with Chief and Maureen where alcohol was allowed.

That night 10 hikers camped together. We polished off 6 or 7 packages of hot dogs (I think Maverick won eating 10) along with too many beers and some "Redneck Red" wine. Luckily for Cowgirl and I we knew Saturday was a sleep in day because we were meeting my parents in Burney to get my dog Xena.

Happy Trails!

Trail Stats:
Mile: 1,423
Day:86
Showers: 16
Bears: Still 1

Belden to Old Station

Belden:
Belden is a super small town stop on the trail. Crossing over the tracks you literally cross over into a whole new world. The town is known for its weekend raves.  The PCT takes you right through the heart of the festivities. It appears to be a cross between country fair, burning man, and hipster hang out. We looked quite out of place walking through the hordes of bikini and board short clad campers, some carrying around decorated parasols. The quiet of the trail leaves you in a bit of shock when you are all of a sudden around so many people.

In recent years they closed the post office at Belden. If you want to receive a package you have to mail it to The Braatens. These are local trail angels that take hikers in and hold resupply packages. Luckily, they live far enough away we could not hear the rave music through the night.  We picked up not 1, not 2, but 4 packages here. We were lucky enough to receive 2 care packages on top of our normal resupply and new sleeping pads. Thank you to all of those who wrote us such nice notes and words of encouragement. This helps us keep on truckin' even on those rare difficult days. I will note the gift that received the most laughs and questioning looks was the paddle ball and condoms package. "Why..." And "who...". We had to explain our failed badminton conquest. This combined gift could only come from my physical education and heath teacher friend. Keeping us active and safe...

Back on trail:
Once again, what goes down usually climbs straight back up. We got an early start on our day out of Belden. The trail climbed for 5,000 feet out of town through a South facing exposed burn area. We knew if we hit it early enough we could stay in the shade of the hillside until we were through the burn. Luckily the climb only took half the day and the rest was on easy rolling terrain.

Our second day out of Belden we hit a major milestone. The Halfway Marker! It felt so great to reach it, but also to know that we still have 1,325 more miles of great hiking ahead of us. The only downside to the day was that it was one of my worst days. I was happy to make it to the halfway marker, but wanted the day to be over so I could fall asleep and wake up to a whole new day. I am not sure why, but for some reason I woke up exhausted. I felt like I was drugged. I also had rapid movement diarrhea. Crappy! (literally) I went slow and it seemed like all I could do to make it our 21 miles that day.

Luckily my halfway hell day did go away. The third day out proved to be much better hiking for me. I must have slept hard, because I don't remember waking up at all that night. Usually I wake up at least once or twice during the night. Our third day we entered Lassen National Park.

At the recommendation of our guidebook we had intended to stop in at the Drakesbad Ranch for a drink and possibly dinner before finishing our last 2 miles of the day. When we got to the turn off we found two other hikers. It turns out management had changed recently and dirty hikers trash was no longer welcome. Oh well, we had a snack and settled on a new camp spot a little further up trail. However, we got side tracked just a half mile down trail walking through the Warner Valley campground. Chief was camping with his wife near the trail. We greatfully drank an ice cold lemonade and visited before intending to head out. Then Chief said his wife, Maureen, was slack packing him tomorrow and offered us the same option. Hmm, it didn't take long for us to decide that making this our stopping point for the day and getting more miles in tomorrow without a heavy pack was a darn good idea. Then we switched from lemonade to beer.

Slack packing:
Slack packing is when someone takes the majority of what you normally carry in your bag for you and you hike with just what you will need for the day. We were so lucky to have this opportunity. We were also lucky to camp with Maureen. She made us fruit, bread, and eggs for breakfast before we set out at 6am.  I kind of felt guilty passing Lefty with my next to nothing bag.

In addition to our wonderfully light bags we also received a little trail magic. 3 miles out of Old Station we saw a banner on the left side of the trail reading "Hiking Fools". We veered left on a path that lead us out to an open camp area with a ring of camp chairs, coolers, and our hosts, Pocahontas and Legasouras. They hiked the trail previously and have come back to provide trail magic. We enjoyed cold soda, watermelon, and bagels with Chief and Mr. Clean.

Old Station:

We rolled into Old Station around 3pm.  What a luxury to cover 24 miles before 3pm.  We found Maureen at the Hat Creek RV park and campground.  Thank you so much to Maureen for shuttling our extra gear around for us.  What a life of luxury.  At the small hat creek store we got milk shakes and some tacos since it was
Taco Tuesday.  Yeah!  Hat Creek campground also had showers and laundry.  We know it won't last long, but at least when I meet up with Mom and Dad i will only have 3 days of stink instead of 7.

That night we got two meals.  We made our Knorr rice meal and Maureen treated us to homemade chili and fresh bread.  What are we going to do when she leaves Chief?

Happy Trails!

Trail Statistics
Mile: 1,378
Days: 82
Showers: Averaging 1 per 5 days!

Sierra City to Belden

Sierra City:
Sierra City is a small town 1.4 miles off the trail with a population around 225. We stayed at a hiker-friendly place called the Red Moose Inn. You get a free shower, free laundry, and free camping in the back yard. During the day they are pretty much only open for hikers. They serve an all you can eat rib dinner that was delicious.  They open to the public for breakfast and we were sure not to miss out on that too.

In the corner of the bar reserved for the hikers there is a scale. All of the guys have lost from 10 to 30 lbs, the most lost at the weigh in was 50. All of the girls, 0 lbs lost. Wonderful to be so efficient at conserving our energy, storing and converting fats.

Like most places in Sierra City the grocery store closed early and opened late. We didn't have enough time to count calories and resupply after chores so we had to wait until they opened the next morning. Then due to the heat we chose to wait until later in the day to begin our hike.

Back on trail:
Our hike out of Sierra City starts with a 3,500 ft climb. Seems like we hadn't had a good long climb in awhile. The wind must be blowing smoke from another fire as our views to the south were blotted out by a thick haze.

We didn't make it as far as we were hoping in our half day, but found a flat spot. We still didn't have a reprieve from the bugs. On the first night there were so many flies under the tent at the end it sounded like rain. Thank goodness we have netting in the tent.

The highlight of the second day out of town was the thunderstorm. Mid day some dark menacing looking clouds appeared in the sky. Naturally the rolling thunder started just as we were to start a long climb over an exposed ridge. Before we got above tree line we decided to stop and cook and watch what the weather might do. It rumbled for an hour or so, then appeared to be clearing. So we made our way to the top of the ridge.

When we flipped to the other side of the ridge we could see that the storm had not cleared. It was in the distance, but not far enough away to make us comfortable staying on the ridge for too long. After watching a couple lightning strikes stretch to the distant ground we hustled our butts along. The ridge was exposed for a good three miles. I cannot say we were in the smartest place, but it was really cool to watch the storm from our vantage point.

Not long after descending from the exposed portion of the ridge we found our camp on a broad saddle in the trees. For the night we were across the trail neighbors with Gumby and Double-It.

Third day out was hot hot hot!  The humidity made it seem even warmer. At least in the desert you could dry out. The motivation for the day was knowing that a fork of the Feather River was at the end of our day. The camp site was supposed to have a good swimming hole. We beelined it down our 3,000 ft decent into the drainage and found it.

When we got to camp we dropped our bags and headed straight for the water. It felt so good. Refreshing, but not so cold your limbs went numb like the high Sierra streams. After washing off we ate our big meal of the day. Chili with a package of Ramen. Other hikers arrived and we went back down to the river to join. I was still hot just sitting around and I was looking forward to another cooling dip. When I got back to the river I saw a snake on a rock, then saw it swim into the water. Brownie said they were water snakes. Gumby said she saw several swimming on the other side, but they were small. I was glad to have swam in ignorant bliss of their presence on my arrival. No matter how small they were there was no way in hell I was getting in that water now.

Fourth day out and Fourth of July. The heat wave did not relent. Law of the trail dictates that what goes down must come back up. We had an early morning to get a cool start on our 4,000 foot climb out of the Feather River. The climb actually didn't end up being nearly as bad as everyone was making it seem like it might be the night before. Even so, the day was hot and being it was the 4th of July, this gave us all the excuse we needed to hitch out for a beer and pizza at Lakeside Resort.

Kiddo, Brownie, Cowgirl, and I got an easy hitch into the resort. Brownie said he wishes he could hitchhike with three girls all the time. To our delight the Lakeside bar was really a bar. We had plenty of beers to choose from and a great place to sit away from the bugs.

When we were waiting in the lounge area before we left a lady came up to us and asked if we were hiking. When we said yes she asked if she could shake our hand. I thought, there are a couple hundred of us who do this each year and even after washing my hands they are not the cleanest, but sure, if you want to shake my hand go for it. She said she read the book, Wild, and told herself if she saw any of us she would shake our hand. Ah, Ms. Strayed has put hikers in the celebrity category again.

The rest of our hike into Belden was fairly uneventful and marked mostly by the 4,000 ft decent into town. If I had to choose between a steep descent or ascent; I would climb all day. ...unless the descent was covered in snow. This one was not, instead it was covered in poison oak.

We had heard some interesting stories about Belden. We crossed the railroad tracks and into "Belden Town". We hoped finding the Braaten's where we mailed ourselves a package would not be too difficult.

Happy Trails!

Trail Statistics
Mile: 1,290
Days: 79

Echo Lake to Sierra City

South Lake Tahoe:
Due too the extended forecast we decided to take a zero day in South Lake Tahoe. Not only did this allow for us to sleep in, we also got a lot of town chores completed.

First on the list was to get to the outfitter where we bought new stuff bags for hanging our food. We are finally past the point where we don't have to use the bear vaults. They are heavy and a pain in the ass to pack into the backpack. That means second on the list was a stop at the Post Office to mail our bulky BV 500's home.

Then shopping! One of the stops was a K Mart where we purchased a 6 pack of cheap socks. We are going through socks so fast there doesn't seem any point to buying more expensive wool ones. I still carry 1 pair to sleep in and 1 wool pair to hike in if the weather turns really cold. Otherwise I would rather put the wear and tear on socks I don't feel bad about throwing away in 4 weeks.

Note, as the rain came down throughout our day of chores we felt better and better about our decision to zero in South Lake Tahoe.

We already had 3 days of food that we mailed ourselves to Echo Lake when we originally intended to hike through. Instead of stopping in Soda Springs off of Donner Pass we decided we would add two days of food to our load. The grocery store was great here and I ended up with more like six days of food. That is why you should not shop hungry! Hiking I have grown accustom to always having a snack on hand and continually feeding myself thought the day. I did not have a snack with me on our hike through town running chores.

That evening we spent re-packing food, eating in the room, and catching up on unimportant, but very entertaining TV shows. We turned in at hikers midnight (9pm).

Back on trail:
This stretch of trail has been marked with mosquitos and flies. We pass through so many boggy Meadows and green hillsides. You cannot complain about the veiws, but the bugs are horrible! We are both happy to have head nets. They look ridiculous, but provide a slice of sanity when you can no longer take the constant high pitched buzz by your ear.

Our first night we found it hard to find a good camp spot near where we wanted to stop. We were hoping to gain some elevation and put ourselves out of mosquito range. No luck. We camped with Papa Joe and Postholer, but everyone was in their tents to avoid the mosquitos.

The next morning we walked 2 minutes out of camp and found Brownie packing up his camp. Funny how you can be so close to other hikers and not even know it. We hiked off and on with Brownie and Team Siesta throughout the day. I didn't get the whole story, but as far as I understand Team Siesta is a group of 5 that has been hiking together since near the beginning. As their name suggests, they enjoy long breaks in the middle of the day. We have not seen them since their break at Barker Pass.

On our second night out we camped with Brownie and the three of us discussed what we were hoping to order tomorrow at Donner Ranch. According to the guide book and trail rumors Donner Ranch is a .2 mile walk off trail to a restaurant. They were supposedly giving hikers a free beer. Free beer or not, we all wanted a sandwich.

We planned it so that we would have 16 miles to Donner Pass. This should be late enough that we would be ready for some food. The day was hot! We had about 2,500 ft of climbing. By the time we made our way down the switchbacks through the ski area to Donner Pass we were all ready for something cold. Ice cold! We could almost taste it. Then we saw it. A sign was posted at the trail head listing services in the area. Under "Food and Beer" they had a description of our restaurant. However it also had a disappointing hand written note across the food and beer, CLOSED. We were heart broken. No ice cold soda or ice cream or beer or ravioli with meat sauce or Ruben sandwiches with extra dressing. We had to settle for our sun heated water and a thin strip of shade under a corrugated steel building beside Hwy 40.

After an hours rest we continued on. We were now aiming for another spot 7 miles from the highway. There are very few huts and shelters on the PCT, but we were supposed to be passing one we could stay at called the Peter Grub hut.  We thought it would be fun and a break from hiding from the mosquitos in the tent. Luck did not favor us this day. When we got to the hut we found that it was closed for repairs. Strike two. We continued on and found a mosquito infested camp next to the meadow.

The next two days into Sierra City were hot hot hot and filled with flies and mosquitos. Before we crawled into our tents we went through the entertaining process of hanging our food. It usually takes a couple throws, some untangling of rope and branches, then balancing our food bags (see Tiffany's blog for a picture). Brownie finds it especially funny to watch.

We made a huge decent into Sierra City which is at 4,200 ft. Switchbacking down we heard familiar voices. We soon happened upon Gumby and Double-It. Yeah! Part of the six pack. We finished the rest of the decent to the hwy with the group. Near the trail head we found some trail magic. We took a break in the shade drinking some not so cold beer.

While lounging Gumby was able to hitch all five of us a ride in a huge van. How lucky are we!  Soon we were in town headed to the hike friendly Red Moose Inn. We were ready for an all you can eat ribs dinner.

Happy Trails!

Trail Statistics
Mile: 1,197
Days: 74
Showers: 13

Sonora Pass to Echo Lake

Sonora Pass is the location that is used to determine the earliest entry date to hike into the Sierras. Many use this to determine their start dates for the PCT or the John Muir Trail. Other than that there is not much to say about Sonora Pass. It is simply a high mountain pass you can drive over. Just another beautiful place flanked by towering peaks, with snowfields, and streams.

Carson Pass:
The one pass to note on this stretch was Carson Pass. Not so much that the trail was any nore or less spectacular, another beautiful place. The visitor center and the volunteers inside made our day.  Half way through our hike the weather rolled in and it started to rain, then rain and hail, then back to rain. When we got to the visitor center the rain had cleared, but we were still quite damp. We were pleasantly surprised to find a warm stove, other hikers, and a few spare seats in the visitor center. The two volunteers sign up to work in the summer when the PCT hikers roll through.

That evening we hiked 7 miles further to a camp that was one of the only spots we could find sheltered from the wind. We were happy to be out of the wind, but we could still hear it ripping through the tree tops. I didn't sleep well, waking up to large gusts.

Our hike into Echo Lake was only 8 miles, but it rained the whole time. By the time we got to Echo Lake we were cold and soaked. Neither of us had brought rain pants. It wasn't supposed to rain like this... So we thought. Oh well. We had planned to spend the night at a nearby youth camp, but we found out they stopped taking hikers in last year. Tiffany loaded the forecast for the next few days. The storm was to continue. Between the closed camp and poor weather outlook we decided to find a ride into South Lake Tahoe.

To get into South Lake Tahoe we connected with a local trail angel. It turns out she had read the book Wild and when the local outfitter put out an ad in the paper for those who wanted to be on their trail angel list, she signed up. This was just 3 days ago and we were her first hikers. As much criticism as I have for Sheryl Strayed's book, I do owe the ride in and out of South Lake Tahoe to her.

In South Lake Tahoe we stayed at the Apex Inn with Spoons and Whistler. It was a cheap hotel, but had everything we needed inside and was in proximity to all that we needed. As always, the first order of business was a shower, then laundry, then food and beer. We found out there were several other hikers in the motel as well. One of which was Papa Joe. For those who might remember from earlier posts; Papa Joe is Joe Anderson of Casa De Luna or The Anderson's one of the infamous trail angels of the desert.

As the rain poured down outside I think we were all glad to be in a solid structure.

Happy Trails!

Trail Statistics
Mile: 1,094
Days: 68
Showers: 12