In case I forgot, Bunny woke up at 4a, stuck her face in mine, and sang “Happy Birthday” to me. It was sweet, but scary. I was in the middle of a dream where I was being chased when a clown jumped in front of me. Had it been in key, it might have been less jarring.
When the alarm went off at 7, chainsaws started. These were real ones and not a continuation of my killer clown dream. Since we had not climbed all the way up to Granite Peak Wilderness yesterday, we were camped less than 2 miles from the logging area. I was tired enough that I was able to fall back asleep until the coffee cooled to the perfect drinking temperature for ShelBunny.
A big reason we stopped yesterday was because we remembered how steep it was the final 2.7 miles to the top. Had we pushed on yesterday, we would have had to carry extra water because it would have been a dry camp. Today, we were able to tackle the steep section with fresh legs and less weight than we’d have had last night. It wasn’t nearly as bad as we remembered.
When we got to the top, we checked for phone signal. We were shocked to hear that both Trump and Pence are Covid positive. Maybe now he’ll quit belittling face masks and acknowledge it’s real and not another Democratic hoax. I’m very concerned with both of them getting the virus. They are both in the high risk categories, Trump especially with his age, obesity, and high cholesterol. I think he should dump Pence and name a new Covid-free Vice President. Think about it, if both Trump and Pence go down, Nancy Pelosi would be president. All the Trump supporters I know call me a Nancy supporter, but the prospect of her as president frightens me almost as much as Trump. I fear extremes in both parties.
No matter what happens, I hope Trump recovers. He has access to the best care possible. I hope a few positive things come from this: 1) his followers accept that this virus is real and put on the f#&$ing masks, and 2) maybe Trump will have second thoughts about trying to pull the insurance of 20 million Americans in the middle of a pandemic.
Once we got back on the PCT, we started seeing day hikers. We met one couple, Rod and Lori from Sacramento. They were our age and were out day hiking the TRT trying to complete it in 14 days. We talked with them for quite a while about our hiking experiences and blog. Their son handles social media for a few clients and they gave us some ideas about improving our blog and vlog. It got our creative juices churning for the rest of the day.
The nice thing about having so much time to complete the TRT is that we can screw off one day and then make up the mileage the next. It wasn’t a big deal for us to go an extra 3 miles to get back on schedule today. We probably will stick with the original plan to South Lake Tahoe now that we know Pence is positive. We’re guessing the VP debate will be cancelled or postponed.
Early in the morning, our views of Lake Tahoe were obstructed by 🎶 Smoke of the water 🎶, but by early afternoon, the winds had cleared away the smoke giving us a great view of McKinney Bay. I’m very shocked that three of my friends have connections to Lake Tahoe and have never invited us out here. Watson Cabin is right on the shore in Tahoe City (thanks Shannon). We walked by the Voss Family House on the detour yesterday (thanks Terry). Today we got several views of McKinney Bay (thanks Kevin).
Guthook has several comments about bears around Richardson Lake. That gave us extra incentive to get here. When we arrived, Bunny saw movement in the water and automatically though “bear bathing.” It was less exotic, more like ducks paddling. We went down to the lake to wash off and get water and we did see new life. There were huge crawfish hanging out where we wanted to soak our feet. I thought I’d get a stick and shoe them away, but they were very defensively aggressive. They actually made eye contact with us and wouldn’t back off. I told Bunny they can move so fast in the water that they can sail up to 6’ above it when they exit. Our bathing got over in a hurry.
As we were getting ready to turn in, we went down to the lake for one more “look around” for bears. We did meet a fellow hiker that just moved up to the area here from the Bay Area. He’s out trying to get familiar with the basin trails. When we told him about our hiking experiences of the last 3 years, he said he wants that to be the next phase of his life.
Richardson Lake is accessible by road. Even so, we thought we might get the lake to ourselves tonight. Right at dark, an SUV with a canoe on top pulled up. We were just hoping they weren’t partiers. They saw us and moved further away. That bothered us a bit because they had a dog. Anyone with a dog is always welcome in our camp or home.
EFG