Saturday Day 73

June 16, 2018

PCT mile 1090-1101 Karen miles 902

I just recalculated my mileage. I Guess today I officially crossed the 900 mile mark. Whoohooo! For those wondering, I skipped the section from Sonora Pass to Echo Lake (74 miles) and the section from Kearsarge Pass to Angew Meadows (125 miles). The decision to not rejoin the Trail at Sonora was more based on an easy in and out location for the next 200 miles. I don’t plan to skip anything else. Now it’s just more a matter of how many more miles I can cover before September arrives. At this point, I will not complete the trail this year and that certainly okay in my eyes.

Breakfast this morning was included with the stay at the Fireside Lodge. A cute bed and breakfast place for sure! After breakfast, Debbie was kind enough to run me into Big 5 where I could pickup some fuel for my campstove. I also needed a lighter and a water bottle which I was able to find both at a grocery store. After that, we were off to the trailhead. We parked 1 mile south of Hwy 50–which was almost as dangerous as crossing a log. Debbie hiked 3.5 miles with us. We stopped for a snack break on the east side of Lower Echo Lake which is where she headed back to the car. It was really nice to meet her!!! Thank you so much for letting me stay the night with you and Laura and for the quick errands this morning! Hope to see you again soon.

There were so many people out on the trail today. Plenty of reasons; it’s a weekend, the PCT and the Tahoe Rim Trail overlap in the area, and also I learned today that the Desolation Wilderness Area (which we entered at mile 1095@140pm) is the most used wilderness area per acre in the nation. It’s amazing beautiful and I understand why it’s so busy!

The lakes are amazing here. Aloha Lake was stunning. And Heather Lake has some really cool rock islands. Once we passed those lakes though, the wind started up. Huge breezes came at us like bricks. We hoped we’d be able to find a sheltered campsite but to our dismay, good campsites out of the wind seemed like a lot to ask for. We stopped at the southeast side of Susie Lake (1101), just passed the outlet of the lake. So not only to we have raging water sounds we will also have strong winds this evening.

Laura I both felt like we were a bit rusty out here. Setting up the tents alone was a struggle with the wind. Laura has a new tent–which looks stellar. I’m a little gear-jealous of course. Her setup looks great but she may be leaving a stake behind as she managed to get it stuck in the root of a tree. Whoops! I’ve still got the Nemo but it sure has been tested this evening. The wind is so strong, the one tent pole that is taking the brunt of the wind has turned inward and collapsed 3 times. I was able to jimmy-rig some paracord to a rock–cause wouldn’t you know!!! I just took my guylines out of my stuff sack and left them at home. No biggie, I think I’ve got it secure now. There’s also a layer of dirty that has stealthily made its way into my tent with the wind. Every time I dust off, another layer appears thanks to the wind. Ugh! I’m doubtful I’ll get much sleep tonight. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog on that!

Overall, I’m glad to be back out. Laura and I both feel like days off are bad for the body. You’d think it would be great to rest and heal, this time around we both felt like our feet, ankles, knees and hips were starting over again. Like they forgot every step they’d been on. Hopefully they will remember and tomorrow will be better. The views are always amazing and it makes you forget for just a few moments when your body is hurting.

Goodnight for now. We are 4 miles from Dicks Pass tomorrow morning. The forecast had called for Sunday rain so we shall see how that turns out for us.