We had already made arrangements with Malcolm T (I pity the fool who tries to mess up our plans) to get picked up at 10a, so we could have a leisurely final morning in South Lake Tahoe. Unless one of our fabulous readers gifts us a home in the area, this will probably be the last time we visit unless we hike the Tahoe Rim Trail again.
Driftwood for breakfast with a quick stop at Subway to grab a sandwich for lunch followed by leisurely porcelain and packing time. (I suppose both are specialized forms of packing). We did not get our usual table even though this was our second time there. We did get the happiest waitress on the planet. We asked her if she was the owner to which she replied “I’d be the happiest person on earth if I were!” This was too much joy and glee before we had our first 4 cups of coffee.
Our plan was smokin’. We were back at the hostel by 9:07 to begin our final preparations. 4 overstuffed hikers, 1 porcelain throne, and 53 minutes among us. Figuring 4 logs each, that gives 3 minutes 19 seconds per birth. Life doesn’t get any better than this. Bunny usually doesn’t use 4 minutes for the entire experience. Bear and I had already called dibs on partner’s excess Boom Boom time. I was looking at over 6 minutes per launch.
Before the first one of us could enter the star chamber, a hiker walked by asking if we needed a ride to the trail. I said “no thanks, we’ve already made arrangements.” Sassy chimed in “unless you’re Malcolm T.” He wasn’t, but the fool had contacted Mr T and he was downstairs waiting for us. Mr T had tried to call us to go to the trail earlier. We were caught with our pants down. It was crunch time. I offered to forgo my allotted time since I had pulled a partial earlier.
Bear started rushing and lost a contact in his eye. I was mostly packed so I took my pack down to secure our spot. Bunny and Sassy quickly followed. My nerves were shot and my bowels wanted to follow suit. I performed an express mission in the computer room bathroom while Sassy and Bunny sweet talked Malcolm T. The other hiker wasn’t happy, but he was a nobo…dead to us once we get to the trail.
Between Bunny, Bear, and me, we located Bear’s missing contact in the upper right quadrant of his eyeball. Bear performed an extraction, finished packing, and reinstalled his lens. We ultimately hit the road at 9:50. Since there were 5 hikers, I was relegated to the bed of the pickup truck (it’s only fair—I am the youngest of the group). Sassy talked Mr T into stopping at a CVS to see if we could find salt tablets to replace all the electrolytes we are sweating out in the heat. I managed to fall asleep in the back of the truck on the ride up.
We had a modest goal of 8.3 miles today. This seemed reasonable since we weren’t going to start hiking until 11. When Malcolm dropped us off, Bunny still had to tape her toes (blisters on top of both big toes) so we had another 15 minute delay.
This section of trail is one Bunny and I had hiked last fall when we did the TRT. We knew it was one of the steeper climbs we had experienced on the PCT with grades over 800’/ mile. Nothing like the Whites on the AT, but steep by PCT standards. We just told Bear and Sassy to go ahead. We knew we couldn’t keep up with them. We made them a promise a few days ago that if we ever made plans to hike with them again and we’re in this bad of shape, we wouldn’t show up.
I don’t know if I’m getting used to the altitude, or if I’m beginning to develop some cardio, or if it was cooler, or if the new sun shirt made the difference, but I felt pretty damn good today hiking up the 1400’ in about 2 1/2 miles. We didn’t go fast, but we made it. I would walk ahead, find a shady spot, and wait for Bunny. I’d let her catch her breath and have a drink of water before I’d dangle a carrot in front of her and head up again.
We were only a couple miles south of highway 50, but we saw almost no one on the climb. Just a couple days ago, we saw hundreds of hikers just north of here. We felt like we were in a remote wilderness to ourselves. As we neared the top, Bunny checked her phone to see if she had cell signal to try to keep up with what’s happening with her daughter’s pregnancy. Just as she checked, Sarah called and gave her an update on her first Dr visit since finding out she was pregnant. Bunny is about to have her first grandchild and I need lots of help to convince her to name it Sheldon Cooper Swayne if it’s a boy.
We finally caught up with Bear and Sassy at the top as planned, but they had been waiting so long, they had already eaten. Sassy also discovered the sourdough bread we had at supper last night, wasn’t real sourdough. In effect, she had been slipped a gluten Mickey. She headed up the hill with her orange bag which is an indicator of an imminent environmental disaster.
This was bad news for Sassy but good news for us. Our only hope of keeping up with them is if one of them is deathly ill. This could be the break we need to get in the game.
We briefly talked with Bear and he indicated they were thinking of pushing past our goal of Showers Lake for the day. Sassy is not sick enough that we’ll be able to keep up. We said we’d discuss it more later if we can catch up with them at the next water point in 4 miles. They took off while we were eating our subs.
10 minutes is all the more we took after they left, but we didn’t catch a glimpse of them at all. We finally saw a young couple filtering water at an unidentified water source. Bunny and I were down to our final swallow. I was about to ask the young couple if they had seen a really old couple pass by recently when I saw Sassy picking up her pack.
Bear and Sassy waited while we filtered water and had a quick snack. They slowed their pace down so the young kids could keep up the rest of the way. Just before Showers Lake, we ran into a couple of guys riding motorcycles on the trail. Strider had told me to keep my head down and not enter other people’s worlds, but I couldn’t let this pass. I told them this was the PCT and motorcycles are not allowed. If a ranger sees them, they are looking at a fine of a few thousands bucks. We saw a guy riding a bike in a wilderness area in WA get a $500 fine. Surprisingly enough, they didn’t argue and looked like they were going to get off the trail.
Showers Lake was crowded. We saw at least 8 tents. We could have found space, but we decided to push on another couple of miles to find a less crowded space. I think the real goal was to get past the point of where the TRT breaks away from the PCT so I’ll quit pointing out what happened at this spot when Bunny and I hiked it last year.
We found a beautiful spot in the trees large enough for 5 tents. Just as we set up, a nobo thru-hiker showed up. We convinced him to stay sighting “crowds ahead.” By the time we finished supper 2 more showed up. I feel better knowing there are 3 other tents nearby that have food inside of them. I still can’t convince Bear and Sassy to keep food in their tent to confuse the bears. At least now I won’t have to get up in the middle of the night to move our food to their vestibule.
EFG