South Lake Tahoe!!! Mile 1112

Written 7/24/14

Posted 7/27/14

So much foooooood!!!! Ok, we eat a lot when we get to a town stop but this one takes the cake. We have gorged ourselves on cheap Chinese, pizza, local breakfast, and a fancy casino buffet. The belly hurts just thinking about it all! I was actually looking forward to eating my healthy hiking snacks today on the trail because my tummy felt like it might explode after that buffet!!!

After the rainy afternoon that we spent 3 hours in the cave (which we later learned that the area had a tornado warning that day), we ended up hiking 9 more miles before dark to make up for lost time. We had a very wet evening, it rained in the middle of the night. We woke up at sunrise, took out our earplugs, and heard a dripping sound. We quickly realized that the ceiling of our tent was essentially raining on our sleeping bags! That was an extremely unpleasant morning because everything was so wet and it was too early for the sun to shine through the trees so we couldn't dry anything out. Mike ended up stuffing the wet tent into his backpack and hauling and extra 3 pounds of rain water up our morning climb.

There was a group of volunteers working on trail maintenance for the PCTA and they gave us some fresh apples! That was a nice surprise and they all seemed so excited and happy to talk to us about our trip. Mike and I definitely plan to give back to the PCTA and do some trail maintenance work next summer. 

We topped out our climb, dried our things, and then continued on north. There was another 1,300 foot climb later on in the day and my legs were so tired and my pace was slowing. In order to keep me motivated, Mike decided to lead  and set pace for the steep hill that was completely exposed to the sunshine. Usually I lead and Mike follows because he's a much faster hiker than I am but he slowed down and set a good pace for me. It's fun having a partner help you and push you! 

At this point we started running into a lot of day hikers from South Lake Tahoe since we were getting so close. We got our second trail angle surprise of the day when we got to the highway and the forest service volunteers gave us a bounty of fruit and sweets! The station where they were working has been very kind to PCT hikers over the last few years. In addition to the food, they also had a scale to weigh ourselves on. Mike has lost a whopping 25 pounds since the start of our hike! I've lost about 8 pounds which is exciting! It feels so good to be fit and in shape! (of course we probably gained all that weight back in town)

That night we finished only 9 miles from the highway into South Lake Tahoe (SLT). It's only a 10 mile hitch so we got to the road and stuck out our thumbs while holding a "SLT" sign. We were getting weird looks and gestures, until we figured out that we were hitching on the wrong side of the road! Once we started hitching from the eastbound side of the highway then we got a ride within 5 minutes. SLT is easily the biggest town that we'll encounter on the trail so we decided to splurge. We got ourselves a two-night stay at a swanky motel (Motel 6) and started feasting! 

SLT is a cool little mountain town and the lake is huge! The casinos are just across the border in Nevada and we couldn't pass up the chance to play a little slot machine poker! There's $2 I'll never see again...

Both Mike and I had new toys waiting for us at the SLT post office. Mike got new shoes from REI because his original pair had already blown out. Luckily REI was cool about it and gave them to him for free! I love that store! I had a new hip belt for my pack sent to SLT because my other one was too big for me now and one of the straps pulled out of its seem. Plus we got to finally mail out our bear cans. They're no longer required so we mailed them back to Mike's dad. Good riddance! Now we're each hiking with 2 pounds less!!!

We did also get to see the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and it was pretty entertaining. We spend a lot of time on the trail talking about movies so when we get to a town with a theater it's hard to resist! Needless to say, our time in Tahoe was relaxing, entertaining, and fabulous!

This morning we said goodbye to town luxuries and got a ride back to the trail. We got dropped off at the Echo Lake Resort at 8am and hiked by several gorgeous, turquoise lakes. We're officially in the Desolation Wilderness Area now which we've heard a lot of hype about and so far it hasn't disappointed! It was a really pretty day of hiking and we're happy to be back on the trail again.