Day 10, Monday, October 5. TM 51.3—(8.0 miles)

It was cold last night. It didn’t freeze, but this was the coldest I’ve gotten this year. Who’d have thought sleeping in a lake bed at 8200’ in October would be cold. The snow above the lake was even melting yesterday when we arrived. Bunny was worried that the lake might rise up and engulf us in the night. I had to remind her that mountain lakes don’t normally have tides. 

There’s a phenomenon that happens when you’re out hiking for long periods of time. Not all hikers mention it, but it is pretty common. After a couple of months, you lose so much fat in your legs that it hurts your knees to sleep on your side. The knees have no cushion between them so it’s bone on bone. I normally use my puffy jacket as a cushion between my knees, but last night, I had to put it on to stay warm. This caused me to sleep on my back. My breathing becomes a bit “heavier” on my back which infuriates Bunny. She hates any outward sign that I am peacefully resting. 

I did set the alarm for 6 so I could make coffee. We wanted to be on the trail by 8 today because it’s a town day. When we get to the highway, we’ll try hitching but we are worried about catching rides in the land of Mercedes and Covid. It’s a dangerous combination for hikers. Throw in 5 days of hiking smells and our odds of getting a ride drop pretty dramatically. 

I still hadn’t warmed up by the time we started hiking, so I was going fast (by our standards) to try to get warm. This didn’t work well because every time I lost sight of Bunny, I’d stop, wait, and get cold again by the time she caught up. We should have just slept until it got warm outside. Bunny doesn’t move well in the cold going uphill. 

It was a easy walk except for the loose rocks in long sections of trail (way worse than anything the average AT whiner faces in PA). It wasn’t until we got to Echo Lake that we started encountering day hikers. It was also at Echo Lake that we noticed nice cabins surrounding the lake. The only way in was walking or by boat. I’m sure these are affordable domiciles for us. Rich people don’t like to ruff-it. 

The Chalet was closed due to Covid. I would have called it a convenience store, but “Chalet” triples the cost. There were plenty of people hanging around the marina, but none of them looked like they were heading out any time soon. We decided to push on another couple of miles to the highway in hopes of an easy hitch. 

We made it to Highway 50 before noon. We figured that, worst case, we’d walk into town if we couldn’t get lucky. As soon as we put our thumbs up, a truck pulled over. False alarm, he was just turning. But the next vehicle was the real deal. Not even 5 minutes and we had a ride. It was good thing, too, because the road into South Lake Tahoe turned out to be steep, narrow, busy, and very frightening looking over Christmas Valley. There is a lot of undeveloped land still available in South Lake Tahoe. 

Sohrab and Noshin were just out for a day trip to see Emerald Bay on Lake Tahoe. Sohrab is originally from Afghanistan and feels it his duty to be helpful to strangers whenever an opportunity presents itself. We shared a bit of our story with them and Sohrab told us of a saying…”If you have a home, you have one home. If you don’t have a home, you have many homes.” We have found this to be very true. I do feel we have missed out in the US, by never having had nomadic lifestyles. Nomads tend to be more flexible and open to new ways of doing things. As a people, we tend to be rigid in our thinking and customs. 

Sohrab and Noshin dropped us off at our hotel. We had hiked 8 miles, hitched 9 miles, and checked into our hotel by 12:30. Once again, the trail provides. The hotel manager grabbed a bunch of keys and walked us up to see several options she had for us. Since the hotel is for sale, there aren’t any other guests (other than those paying weekly.” She ended up giving us a room with our own bath, 2 queen beds, a kitchenette, and a living room with a 60” big screen TV. All for the same price as a dorm room. Covid killed the hiking community in Tahoe this year. 

Since it was such a good deal, we decided to stay a minimum of 2 nights, and maybe 3, if the Vice Presidential debate is still on. We went out for pizza then stopped by the grocery store to get food for us to eat in tonight. There isn’t laundry nearby, so the manger did our laundry for us. She’s a very sweet woman from the Philippines that we met about 2 weeks ago when we raided our shipment from Digit Alice. Her dog remembered us, so we are golden. 

EFG