PCT Days 90 to 99 - Burnout at Lake Tahoe

Day 90

Anna and I woke up at our usual time and caught the amazing sunrise from on top of Sonora Pass, looking south at the granite of the Sierra Nevada. It was a gorgeous area, but man am I glad to be done with it. We saw a few hikers rush past, eager to catch the Kennedy Meadows North (KMN) shuttle, but we took our time and enjoyed our spot. Around 7am we hit the trail and immediately took the Leavitt Lake side trail instead of the PCT. The way down was very steep over loose rock and gravel, but we were able to get down easily enough and avoid the patches of frozen snow. Leavitt Lake itself was gorgeous with towering cliff walls surrounding it on three sides. We stopped briefly to soak in the views while we had breakfast, and then motored on down a forest road for a few miles until we hit Highway 108, the same road that KMN is off of. We thought we had a prime spot to hitch, but we were wrong. Car after car went by for well over an hour. I tried calling KMN for a paid shuttle, but no dice. Eventually a nice man named Sean pulled over in his camper van and gave us a lift. It had taken nearly 2 hours… 

When we reached KMN, we said goodbye to Sean and his dog and then checked in. We grabbed 2 spots in their giant yurt, knocked out our resupply, had some ice cream, and kicked back with the other hikers there. I put off showering for a while due to the heat, and spent a good chunk of the day reading in their lobby and shooting the breeze with Jeffers. An hour before dinner I finally had my much anticipated timed shower, only to have it end after 6min. I had been able to get mostly cleaned up, but it sucked to still have soap on me and no way to rinse off. After I toweled off, Anna and I started the laundry and then went to dinner with Hopper and The Dude. All three of them had the Thanksgiving dinner special, but I opted for one of their steaks since KMN breeds, ranches, and butchers its own cattle herd. When our food came out, the portions were massive and delicious. Hopper was the only one to totally clear his plate, although we all put in valiant efforts. My steak was the highlight of the table and easily one of the best I’ve ever had. After dinner, I made a root beer float in their general store, and then went back to the lobby to chat with Jeffers until bed time. When I left the lobby, it was freezing out so I made a beeline to the yurt and tucked in for the night. KMN is definitely the superior Kennedy Meadows and I absolutely want to come back here to rent a cabin and fish some time!

Day 91

Despite the cold and a noisy hiker sharing the yurt with us, I slept in, dead asleep until Anna gently woke me up at 7am. To avoid waking the other hiker, we went to the general store and had breakfast with Jeffers and another hiker. My stomach was feeling off so unfortunately I hardly touched my food. After we ate, I packed up and chatted with Ginger Step, a hiker who had lived in Austin for a long time with her husband, Dealer, around the time I had lived there. We traded stories before I excused myself to knock out some last minute chores. Anna and I shipped our ice axes home, which we had been carrying since Paradise Valley Cafe, grabbed some water, and waited for the shuttle. Only 5 of us hopped in surprisingly, and then we were whisked up the road back to trail. We thanked the driver and set off up the climb on the north side of the pass at around 10:30am.

The climb itself was relatively straightforward, but the wind was intense. We made it easily, but the other side proved to be annoying. There were large patches of snow and overgrown trail making it tricky to route-find. We wasted a bit of time on this section, but we were thankful to not post-hole. Once we were finally below treeline, we stopped for water and lunch before continuing. The rest of the trail was quite friendly, and we ended up knocking out a second climb and descent. The whole day we never saw a sign of anyone else until we arrived at our chosen campsite (mile 1031.9) where we met Chuckles, a hiker who had flipped north and was heading southbound. After we all set up camp, we chatted with him for a while about trail conditions until we were interrupted by a local hiker who came by and informed us of a large fire across the way in Nevada. I guess fire season is here and has caught up with us. Once he left, Anna and I made dinner and then promptly got tucked in due to the cold wind and plunging temperatures. Hopefully I don’t end up regretting mailing my puffy jacket home!

Day 92

Last night was cold! When I woke up, Anna was in her fleece, puffy, and inside of her quilt! I guess I won’t be swapping to my summer quilt any time soon. Because of the intense cold, we had a slow packup and hit the trail right as the sun was cresting over the ridge. Since I had mailed my puffy back already, I was in my rain pants and jacket with my fleece underneath. The day then proceeded as a series of steep small climbs and descents, with the occasional biting cold wind when we crossed onto exposed tops of ridges or western faces. The miles seemed to pass by quickly, and we made it to the top of our tallest climb, the saddle above Noble Lake, right around 11am. Since we were already hungry, we headed down to Noble Lake for lunch and I promptly ate it on a patch of frozen snow… The spot we picked for lunch was gorgeous, but as we sat there we could feel the temperature tanking. Anna layered up again, but I stayed as I was since I expected our next climb to be warm. It was not. As we wound our way up the trail, the temperature seemed to keep fluctuating between 30s and 50s depending on the valley. Around 2pm, we crossed Highway 4 and we were surprised with trail magic from Valerie! Hopper and The Dude were already there chowing down, and not long after we sat down, they hitched into town for burgers! Anna and I ended up staying to chat with Valerie and drink Yoohoos for well over an hour. We talked about the guy trying to set an FKT on the PCT this year, all of the sick hikers she had seen, and just about the craziness of the world this year. Around 3:30pm, I politely excused us, thanked her profusely, and hit the trail. We had miles to make! Also spurring us on were the darkening clouds overhead accompanied with the plummeting temperature. If I hadn’t checked the time we probably could have spent the whole afternoon there!

After Highway 4, we climbed up a bit and had excellent views of Kinney Reservoir, Upper Kinney Lake, and Lower Kinney Lake. We also had an amazing view of snow to our east and these incredible rock formations to our west that looked like castle spires make of a conglomerate of volcanic rock. Around 5pm we made it to a sheltered campsite at 1054.4 and called it a day. We had wanted to make it further, but with the weather and no other marked campsites for 4.4mi, we chose to call it early. The plan is to make it to Carson Pass tomorrow and hopefully hitch into South Lake Tahoe a bit early. We shall see!

Day 93

We started the day off blissfully cool and dry in the sheltered little campsite. All of the clouds and wind the night before had passed by and left us unscathed. With the cool weather, the first 6 miles flew by since we were able to maintain a quick pace and we once again enjoyed the unexpected beautiful views of mountains and spires of rock around us. Around the 6 mile point we hit a steep traverse along the side of a mountain ridge that was filled in with hard pack frozen snow. Since we already shipped our ice axes home, we donned our microspikes and carefully went up and over the top of it where we had good handholds on bare rock. Once across, we continued, enjoying the gorgeous fields of wildflowers surrounding us in the high alpine environment. Around 11am we passed a trio of trail crew volunteers working to clear blowndowns near Tamarack Lake who we chatted with for a bit. They asked us about trail conditions in the last section, and if we had seen much trail work this year. They then informed us that the local forest service professional crews had all been gutted for the year so they were trying to do what they could. We thanked them profusely for being out there, went on a bit, and then set up at Blue Lakes Road to have lunch in an effort to yogi some trail magic. Unfortunately no such luck, and only a local cyclist came by to tell us about the nearby fire.

Well fed and loaded up with calories, we knocked out the 1500ft climb to the top of the next ridgeline and somewhere along the way it felt like we were teleported to the set of The Sound of Music! Gorgeous alpine meadows full of a larger variety of wildflowers than I had ever seen! It was all highlighted by Blue Lake shining like a sapphire far below. From there, we gently headed back downhill, traversing a few occasional snow fields but none that required microspikes. At the bottom, we entered a valley filled with marmots and grouse which we stopped to watch while we had an afternoon snack. Once again fueled up, we knocked out the steep 800ft climb up to Carson Pass, only passing one stretch of annoying cupped out snow. On top, we were both pretty fried so we took in the amazing view of Lake Tahoe in the distance before gradually easing our way down to Highway 88 and the visitor center. Unfortunately we had missed their hours, but while we were hanging out discussing our plans for the evening, a kind couple pulled up and offered us leftovers from a wedding and a ride to the intersection with State Hwy 89. Despite the nice day, we were worried about the fire and incredibly burnt out, so we gladly took them up on their offer. We cruised down from the pass chatting, and then they dropped us off near a popular fly fishing spot. Again, we had barely been hanging out there long when another woman walked up and offered us a ride into town. Score! We checked into the Paradice (not a typo) Motel at mile 1091.9, grabbed some Applebees since it was right next door, got cleaned up, and hit the hay before the sun had set. We had done about 24 miles, 4400ft up and 4400ft down, and traversed a decent amount of snow. It’s nice to finally start cranking out miles again!

Day 94

We were dead tired from the past few days, so we ended up sleeping in fairly late. Once I was up and moving, I snuck out to the hotel lobby to find some coffee for Anna and the kind woman who owns the hotel invited me into her personal apartment and gave me a giant mug of her personal coffee and wristbands to access the local private beach! She also allowed us to use the hotel’s industrial washer and dryer to clean our nasty clothing. So incredibly kind! Once I brought the coffee down, I started our wash and ordered some McDonald’s breakfast via delivery so that we could sit around and watch a movie instead of having to roam around outside in our warm rain layers. Annoyingly, they completely forgot the syrup for our pancakes, but we made do and had a cozy morning nonetheless. Once our clothes were clean, we ventured out to knock out the myriad of chores we had for the day. Unfortunately, all of the chores were spread out and the free buses were infrequent, so it was going to be a long day. At our first stop, a coffee shop for Anna, I chatted with some retired moms who were curious about the trail while Anna ordered a drink and a pastry. The line was moving slowly, so we ended up chatting for a good 20 minutes. When they got up to leave, unprompted, they handed me some cash and said they wanted to support our trip a little bit. I pocketed it, thanked them profusely, but did not look at the amount until after they were gone. Anna and I were shocked to discover that they had given us $100! Coffee and cash in hand, we crossed the street, and I picked up my general delivery package from the post office containing some of summer clothes and goodies from Trader Joe's that my mom had included. From there, we went to a gear store, a second gear store, and then knocked out our resupply. Once we were finally done, it was well past 3pm. I’m still not used to PCT trail towns (if you can even call South Lake Tahoe a trail town) being so spread out that chores take all day. To reward myself for the annoying day, and because I was starving, I ordered one of my all time favorite ice cream treats, a large 1200 calorie “chocolate devotion” sundae from Cold Stone Creamery. Once the ice cream was gone, we headed back to our room to repack our things and to nap for a bit since we were both zapped. We watched a few more episodes of Nathan Fielder’s “The Rehearsal” and then I went for a walk and caught up with my Mom over the phone. Once the sun set and the mosquitoes came out, I made a hasty retreat to our room and ordered some Panda Express delivery for a cheap dinner. In what seems like a PCT trend, despite having had a whole day off here, I still feel completely wiped and not at all like I’ve had a zero to relax. We’ll see how I feel in the morning, but I might pitch staying another day.

Day 95

We slept in until 7:30am, and I very quickly knew that I wanted to stay another day in town. Anna was on board, so we used the $100 the woman at the coffee shop had given me to cover the night, I grabbed us hot drinks from the lobby, and we stayed cozy in bed. I ended up ordering McDonalds for breakfast again and thankfully they remembered the syrup this time. We watched a few more episodes of The Rehearsal, and then set out to knock out some chores and have fun. Anna stopped into a fancy bagel shop while I went and picked up a package I had my mom mail to me. From there we went across the street and played 28 holes of mini-golf. Anna ended up beating me by ten strokes, but we still had fun. Afterwards we stopped into a Safeway for a deli sandwich and a few incidentals and then headed across the street to the Tiki Bar on the beach. The bar was nothing special, but the beach was fantastic. As we were just getting our first drinks, D&D arrived fresh off the trail and joined us! We hung out there for a few hours and even caught a fight between some college kids! Once they got their room keys, we left them to wash up and headed back to our room. We stopped in Whole Foods for some snacks along the way, and then got cozy in bed again until dinner. 

At 7:00pm, we headed over to a sushi place to meet up with D&D, Baby Maple, Dynamite, and her husband. Unfortunately the restaurant had a plumbing issue and had closed, so we pivoted to another sushi place. We hadn’t seen Baby Maple or Dynamite in a very long time, so it was awesome catching up! I also loved meeting Dynamite’s husband and talking about skiing and mountain biking. Likewise, Baby Maple and I chatted about aviation and aerial surveying. After dinner, we got dropped off at Target, said our goodbyes, grabbed a pint of Ben and Jerry's and settled in for the season finale of our show. It was an awesome day and I’m so glad we took that second zero!

Day 96

I woke up to Anna packing up around 7am, and slowly joined as well. I don’t think either of us were enthusiastic about leaving South Lake Tahoe and returning to trail. Still, I got up, enjoyed our scones from Whole Foods, trimmed my neck, showered, and checked out. We ran across the street to grab Anna a headnet and a coffee and then caught the bus to the post office so that I could mail a few things home. We then caught another bus back to the intersection of highway 50 and CA89, grabbed some McDonalds, and tried for a hitch. In the rush to grab buses I had neglected to look for a Thermacell, so hopefully the bugs aren’t too bad in the next stretch. At the intersection, despite heavy traffic, it took us about an hour of sweating in the sun to grab a hitch. A nice dude named Jeremy eventually swung by and offered us a ride. He had just returned from a local Burning Man group so he had his decked out bike in the back. We chatted about the insane state of the world and how jarring it is to go in and out of service right now. We also chatted about the gentrification of South Lake Tahoe. Once we got to Echo Lake, he wished us well, dropped us off, and suddenly we were back on trail.

Despite it being a Wednesday, Echo Lake and the PCT/TRT were packed with people. We tried to yogi a ride across the lake on a boat but no luck. Defeated, we started hiking in the heat of the day. The section was honestly really pretty, we just weren’t in the mood. Around 3 miles in, we had an 800ft climb that was honestly very gentle, but that combined with the heat and McDonalds was enough to make me nauseous. So when we rolled up to Aloha Lake at mile 1099.8 and saw how nice the campsites and lake were, we stopped and called it a day at 4:30pm. When we stopped, the mosquitoes were annoying but nothing like Yosemite. Still, I wish I had bought the Thermacell. Something else important to note is that Anna and I have both been in low spirits regarding the trail. The lack of social interaction between towns and the 100s of miles of snow, blowdowns, and mosquitoes are starting to get to us and we truthfully aren’t having a ton of fun while hiking (which is our whole reason for being here). Neither of us ever considered quitting on the AT, but we’ve brought the subject up for the PCT. Needless to say, we need to make a change.

Day 97

As per usual, we woke up nice and early at 5am and promptly got packed up. We had a few overnighters camping nearby so we were careful to be especially quiet. Once we hit the trail, the bugs were pretty dang bad. I had to immediately coat up with picaridin lotion and swat them away from my face. The trail was also a bit blown out from Lake Aloha overflowing its banks and a few stubborn fields of snow ice that didn’t want to melt. As a result, it was slow going for a bit. Around mile 4, we hit our largest climb for this section, a 1700ft incline. We both put in our headphones and made our way up to the top without too much fuss. Unfortunately, the other side still had a ton of snow on it, so at the top we took a break to soak in the views and to throw our microspikes on. The downhill was annoying and took a bit of time, but there were thankfully no sketchy sections. At the bottom, we took the spikes off and noticed that we were once again in bug land. It was around this time that Anna started flagging a bit. We both have really not been enjoying the hiking for a bit now, and I think the bugs and crummy conditions just added to it. We briefly contemplated two bailout options but decided in the end to stay the course and stick it out. The rest of day was a series of rolling hills, locals out for overnight hikes, blowdowns, and copious mosquitoes. Eventually we decided we didn’t feel like hopping over any more downed trees and called it a day at mile 1119.6, right next to Richardson Lake. Hopefully we can find more ways to socialize and have fun, because we are no longer enjoying the trail.

Day 98

When we exited the bus, I was alarmed to find out that it was 100 degrees and expected to be hot as hell the next few days. I briefly proposed going to San Francisco but Anna wasn’t interested in the extra travel, so we stayed put. We grabbed a cheap room just up the road, dropped our stuff off, and headed to what will probably be our last Raising Cane's for a long time. After not eating much all day, we both easily killed our Caniac meals (about 2000 calories of sweet tea, fried chicken, toast, and fries). Satiated, we went back to our room, showered, watched the latest Taskmaster, and called it a night. It feels great to be off trail doing something else. Anna misses our old apartment in Seattle quite a bit, but hopefully, a few days off can suffice for the time being. I’m hoping that getting back up north to familiar territory and some of our planned side quests will reignite my interest in the hike.

Day 99

When we finally woke up and headed down to breakfast at the hotel, we were shocked to find that nearly every parking space had filled in and that the breakfast area was packed! I guess everyone decided to stay here this week. After feasting on waffles and mediocre sausage accompanied by some truly world-class people watching (I saw a couple blatantly empty the whole syrup dispenser into a water bottle before they left), we grabbed our water bottles and headed out. We had to cross an on-ramp that went over the highway and walk on a few berms due to the lack of walking infrastructure, but we otherwise made it unscathed to the local Costco. Purely out of entertainment, we wandered the aisles for a bit to see if they carried anything interesting. Once we had walked through the store, we were hungry again, so we took advantage of the famous cheap food court before heading over to REI. We needed fuel, and I was on the hunt for a Thermacell and some picaridin lotion to help with the hellacious mosquitoes in this section. Once we wrapped up at REI, we again swung through the Costco food court for dessert before heading back to our hotel, only now it was significantly warmer outside. We then laid low for a few hours before grabbing an uber to downtown Sacramento to see The Phoenician Scheme at the historic Tower Theatre. Anna and I had both been really wanting to see this movie, but none of the theaters along the trail were showing it, so it was extra special to see it in such a beautiful old venue. After dinner, we switched things up a bit and went out to dinner at a hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant where Anna had sushi and I had Kyoto Katsugyu. It was so nice to eat out and, for once, have something that wasn’t fast food! After we wrapped up dinner, we forced ourselves to grocery shop for our resupply, before ubering back to our hotel. It’s a shame that public transit is lacking so much here because the ubers and high heat have kept us from really exploring the city more. Still, it was wonderful going out on a normal date night and taking a break from hiking for a bit! As a funny aside, every single uber or lyft we’ve taken here has been a Tesla! So strange!