Day 83

Day 83, 21 miles, endpoint PCT mile 1153

Today is our fifth wedding anniversary! First, Josh surprised me with roses this morning. In the evening we went out to a nice dinner and split a bottle of Oregon Cabernet. Just kidding, we hiked 21 miles, ate dehydrated food for dinner and slept in a tent! And I wouldn't have it any other way.

We left our ridgeline campsite and traded it for ridgeline hiking. The views were great; once again, the sprawling giant of a lake, Lake Tahoe, could be seen shining in the distance. It is literally taking us days to walk from one end of it to another.

Ridges were the theme of the day, and we were slow moving but only because we stopped to take so many photos. After several impressive ridgeline views, where the trail seemed to balance almost perilously on a thin mountain cutout, we dropped down in elevation to a forested area.

I learned a long time ago that going down just means you will soon be going up, and sure enough, it wasn't long before starting a 1,500 foot climb back towards the clouds. We emerged at the top of the uphill with views of nearby Squaw Valley, a ski resort area that sits atop a mountain. Josh and I were in Squaw last year, as it is the starting point for the Western States 100 mile trail run that Josh did. It was fun seeing a familiar sight, and brought back memories from our trip last year.

From Squaw is was another long descent and another long uphill to yet another ridgeline view. This time we couldn't see Lake Tahoe, so we may have finally traveled north past it. We went past Sugar Bowl ski resort and hiked under motionless chairlifts. Finally we camped out on a ridge called Roller Pass, three miles from a highway crossing.

Today we had to deal with our first longish stretch without water since the desert. Before the last climb we hopped over a creek, where we filled up on seven liters of water between us. We carried the water up the hill to our campsite. I think this is something we will have to deal with more frequently as we enter the drier, hotter, less mountainous area of Northern California.

At the highway tomorrow morning we plan to hitch into the town of Truckee for a visit to a photo gallery and a quick grocery store run. Hopefully we will be back on the trail by early afternoon.

Trail views

Trail views

Trail views

Trail views

Trail views

Camp views

Sunset from camp

Carla enjoying the sunset.