Some bug got me last night because I got an itchy bump on my right wrist, which does not feel like a mosquito-bite. We’ll see how it develops. As promised though, the mosquito’s in this section are significantly less, and they basically only come out in the evenings. This is great, because now I get to hike in shorts again. If we keep an average of hiking 18 miles a day for the next 3 days we’ll arrive in South Lake Tahoe in the early morning, meaning we can roll straight into a diner and grab breakfast. This is also better than pushing hard and arriving earlier the day before; there’s a famous country singer performing in town that night, and so all the hostels, hotels, bungalows etc. are either booked to full capacity or crazy expensive.
We hiked out around 0830 and started out with the biggest climb of the day. Always nice to get that out of the way early on. The majority of the early morning miles were through open meadow areas alternated with bits of pine forest. To be honest it did not make for the most exciting hiking, but after the first big climb, the terrain was only sloping gently both up and down and we could make for a good pace. When checking my phone I saw I had service, and phoned with mum, who I was unable to reach yesterday, and was now delighted to talk to me. The feeling was mutual. We caught up and then I sped out again to catch Jukebox and Pops, who now had distanced themselves from me during my 20 minute phone conversation.
We decided to get lunch at a large campsite in the middle of the woods, with a small lake tucked away between the trees. Looking ahead our maps, we knew we’d be camping at a lake tonight, so none of us went in for a swim. After having hiked almost 11 miles, with a little over 7 to go, we felt at ease, and took our time to have a chilled out lunch.
After lunch I was the last one to head out (I got real comfortable for a second, almost falling asleep, and thus was not really in a rush to pack up my stuff again). I ran into 3 day hikers and stopped to have a little chat. They were super friendly and showered me with kind words. One of the women said several times that it was “great to have you here”. The man told me that his daughter had hiked the PCT 3 years ago, which I thought real cool, knowing that he could probably relate. When I decided to hike on, they wished me a great hike and one of the women said: ” may you have the wind at your heels “. Lifted by their kind words I felt real strong hiking out the next couple of miles. It was pretty hot on the exposed sections, there was hardly any wind, so I was sweating like crazy and drank lots of water today.
The second half of the afternoon, we dropped into a wide valley, only to climb up again on the other side. The terrain changed and there were several impressive trees rising up above the ridges, making for great additions to the beautiful views of the valley.
I listened to podcasts and music and was visualizing all the nice things we would do/see/eat in Lake Tahoe. Approximately 1.5 before the designated camp-site Jukebox and I waited for Pops, who ran a little behind. That’s when 2 other hikers emerged from the woods. It were Turtle and Coach, who I’d spend time hiking with before and in Yosemite! Five minutes later Birdman arrived too, and they told me that the rest of them were not far behind. Photo-op and Rocket had taken a little more time in Kennedy Meadows North, and would probably not catch up today; however they too are pretty close behind us now. That was good news, we’re looking forward to catch up and hike together again! We hiked the final miles towards the lake, took a quick dip to wash off the past couple days and then set up camp at a beautiful campsite, nicely sheltered by a small wall of granite. On the other side was a gently sloping slab of granite too, from which we had great views of the lake and the setting sun.
We had dinner, did a small food-inventory for the days ahead and shared stories of our childhood. It was a nice and relaxed evening, and after chasing away another bold mouse, we got into our tents. The next two days we should be keeping a similar (and enjoyable) pace, to keep making steady progress towards SLT.
She’s over it, she cannot take no more yeah
Don’t wanna quit but that’s a pretty nice door yeah
I got a bed, it really cost a fortune
I go away and it’s to big without you
We got it good, you know how good we’ve got it,
We got it bad, you know how bad we’ve got it,
I wouldn’t swap you for a job at Starbucks
I wouldn’t swap you for a job at Starbucks…
Come on, you can have your own way
Come on, you can have your own say
So long, listen when it’s gone
You don’t know what it is,
You don’t know what it is, yeah!
Starbucks – A
