The End of Another Adventure....

A shady, fun alternative? It was tempting....
except that it's not the TRT which is what I was supposed to
be following! =)

Today would be my last day on the trail. I had 9.3 miles to reach the Spooner Summit trailhead, which was where I started my hike nine days earlier. Including side trails, I figured I hiked about 170 miles for my Tahoe Rim Trail thru-hike, and it was wonderful.

My map didn't suggest that anything particularly noteworthy would be in my future for my last day on the trail. Oh, sure, there would be views, but I had no reason to think that these views would be any more special than all the other incredible views along the trail. It almost seemed like an anti-climatic way to end the trail. With a whimper.

But I wouldn't get to the end of my hike by sitting around camp all day! So I went through the motions, a little sadly at that.

The hike out to Spooner Summit was, indeed, uneventful. A few nice views over Marlette Lake and Lake Tahoe. Three different points on the trail were marked with signs saying "Vista" that pointed to rocky outcroppings, and two of the three had absolutely no views at all and I wondered why they even bothered. The third one did, technically, have a small view, but it wasn't at all impressive or expansive. I wouldn't have labeled that a vista either. Mostly, they were disappointments.

I quickly made it out to Spooner Summit where the trailhead was filled with cars but no people. I saw a few people hiking up as I hiked down, but I suspected most people hiked down to Spooner Lake which was a good mile or two of hiking off the TRT. A lot of TRT thru-hikers had to hike down to it for water--Spooner Lake would be the last water for nearly 15 miles. But since I was getting off the trail here, I didn't have to worry about that.

I read the signage at the trailhead, then walked to the shoulder of Highway 50 and stuck out my thumb looking for a ride into town. I had no idea how easy or hard it would be to hitch a ride from this location, but I certainly didn't plan to walk into town! =)

Moonset over the TRT.

I counted each car that passed me by. It was a relatively busy road, so I hoped I'd nab a ride within a half hour or so at worst, but who knows? That's what I hate most about hitchhiking. There's no telling how long it might take to get a ride. It might be seconds. It might be hours.

Twenty-five cars passed me when I noticed an older woman hiking down to the trailhead. So I wandered over to her car to ask if I could get a ride into town if that was the way she was already going.

Ultimately, I was trying to get to South Lake Tahoe where artTrekker lives. I stored a duffel bag with clean clothes, my laptop, and other assorted odds and ends at her place and I'd be able to take a shower and get cleaned up before heading to the airport. But I was willing to grab any ride that took me in that direction, even if it didn't get me all the way to South Lake Tahoe.

The woman said where she was headed, which was a location I wasn't familiar with, so I asked if that was in the direction of Incline Village (to the north) or Stateline (to the south). I wanted to go south. She said it was south (perfect!), but not as far as Stateline. That was fine by me--it was in the right direction. I'd take it. =)

I got in the car and we started off. I introduced myself more formally now, and she introduced herself. I've forgotten her name, though. It was an unusual one. I even asked how it was spelled to help me remember, but by the time I wrote in my journal later that day, I had forgotten it. *sigh*

When she found out I had just completed a thru-hike of the Tahoe Rim Trail, she told me that she would take me all the way to my friend's place in South Lake Tahoe even though it was a bit out of her way! Wow! That was awesome! She felt after walking completely around Lake Tahoe, that I deserved front door service, I guess. I'm not sure I agree, but I wasn't going to complain either. =)

So we chatted the rest of the way to South Lake Tahoe about nothing really important. I told her about my hike, as well as how it compared to when I did the PCT three years earlier. She told me more about herself and that she wished she could do something like I just completed but only does day hikes now.

Another moonset photo.

I offered to take her out for lunch, but she said she didn't really have time for that. I offered a bit of gas money, which I didn't really think she'd take, and she didn't. I really wanted to do something nice for her for going out of her way to give me a ride all the way to artTrekker's house, but she wasn't having none of it, so I just thanked her instead, waved goodbye, and bounded up the steps to knock on artTrekker's door.

I didn't even know if she was home, but she was. =) I took a shower, a wonderful shower that wiped off all the grime and dirt from the past week. Okay, my feet seemed to be stuck with a thin layer of dirt that was permanently embedded into my skin that all the soap in the world wouldn't get off, but no big deal. I'd wear socks over them and nobody could see how ugly they really looked.

The next morning, artTrekker drove me out to the casinos in Stateline where I could catch a bus that would take me direct to the Reno airport from which I'd fly home. My adventure at an end. Well, this adventure was at an end. Undoubtedly, I still have a lot more adventures left in me. =)

In completely unrelated news.... August is once again here, which means it's time for the annual Hike-a-Thon drive! Amanda and I are trying to raise money for the Washington Trails Association which does some great work building and maintaining trails in Washington state, and please, if you can help us out, even if it's just $5 or something, please do so! Sponsor us now!

This year, I've decided that anyone who sponsors me will be in the running to win an autographed copy of my book, A Tale of Two Trails about my exciting adventures on the West Coast Trail and Juan de Fuca Trail. For anyone that donates at least $40 to the cause, I'll send you a free autographed copy! The catch is.... you have to sponsor my page. Yeah, Amanda and I are a team, and everyone likes her more, but we also have separate accounts and I'll only be looking at those who donate under my account. So if you donate $40+, I'll mail you a free copy of my book. If you donate less than $40, I'll put all of your names into the proverbial hat and choose one at random who will get a free book. =)

That $40 also can give you a membership to the WTA which includes a subscription to the Washington Trails magazine. A book, a magazine subscription and all for a good cause--just $40! =)

That's Marlette Lake in the foreground, and Lake Tahoe in the background.

Oh, look, it's a vista!

Seriously? You call this a vista? *shaking head* Perhaps if we clear-cut
all these trees in our way we might have a view!

I always liked the long shadows early morning and late afternoons cast. =)

I didn't hike down to Spooner Lake, but I could see it (partially)
from my perch on the TRT.

Spooner Summit trailhead.

Only in hindsight did I think I should have gotten a photo of my
thumb sticking out. =) But this is where I tried hitching a ride from.
Twenty-five vehicles passed by before someone from the trailhead
gave me ride back into town. =)

Next up....

Stay tuned for my Grand Adventures on the Wonderland Trail--a nearly 100-mile trail circling Mount Rainer! =)  I'll probably already be done with that hike by the time you read this post!

In related news.... do you have the urge to hike the Tahoe Rim Trail yourself? Because I've added it as a route on http://www.walking4fun.com --  just track how much you walk each day, enter it into the website, and it'll show you where on the trail you'll be if you took your steps on the Tahoe Rim Trail along with photos of the section of trail you would have covered. I took over 2,000 photos along the Tahoe Rim Trail--you haven't even seen half of them on my blog! But there are hundreds of more previously unpublished photos of the trail on the virtual walk of the TRT. =)

Happy trails!

Over the Mountains and Through the Woods....

A caterpillar climbs this flower next to my campsite.

Just before going to sleep, I looked over my maps for the trail ahead. The next water source, obviously, was of critical importance, but that looked to be about 10 miles away. Not a big deal. Especially early in the morning when the air was cooler.

I'd also pass over the highest point on the Tahoe Rim Trail--Relay Peak which tops out at 10,336 feet above sea level. (That's 3,150 meters for you metric people.)

Then the trail would descend towards Tahoe Meadows where I should be able to find water directly on the trail. Water sources that don't require going off trail are always preferable to ones that require an off-trail hike.

Then I'd enter Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park at which point I'd need to set up camp. Except the rules for camping are a little bit different than they are for most of the trail. In Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park, backpackers are only allowed to camp in one of two different established backcountry campsites. Everywhere else is illegal. That limited my options considerably.

So I looked at where the two campsites were. One required hiking about 1.5 miles off trail down a steep hillside. Yeah, I think not. The other campground--the Marlette Peak campground--was on the Tahoe Rim Trail (yes!), so clearly, that had to be my goal.

So I started adding up the miles along my route to see how far away it was located and came up with something close to 24 miles.

That had to be a mistake. Surely it wasn't that far away! So I added up the numbers again, but it still came out to 24 miles. Shoot! That was much longer than I had expected, and much longer than I wanted to do.

But by this time, I had already set up camp, watched the sun set, and there wasn't really much I could do about it. Had I figured this out earlier, however, I totally would have done a few extra miles so I wouldn't have to reach to far this day. I'd be following my shortest day of hiking with my longest day of hiking! I could have definitely planned that out better.

Sunrise over Lake Tahoe

On the other hand, I did have a fantastic little campsite going on the ridge overlooking Lake Tahoe. =) And the sunrise was a stunner! It never did rain on me, and the clouds moved out overnight. The one unexpected problem, very minor, was that condensation had formed on everything during the night. It was the first night out that formed any condensation at all. So everything I had was slightly damp. Not a big problem, but a surprise since I hadn't been expecting it.

I ate breakfast, brushed my teeth, packed up camp and headed out. First stop: the highest point of the TRT at Relay Peak.

I found Recline and his dog camped in a field a mile or two ahead of me and asked him if he found Mud Lake. He wanted to get water from Mud Lake and avoid the trek down to Gray Lake to get water if he could help it, but I hadn't seen Mud Lake. Neither had he, apparently, and said he'd have to go down to Gray Lake as soon as he got up and moving. Bummer.

I didn't walk for more than a mile before I rounded a turn and there was Mud Lake, about a hundred feet below the trail. I didn't see any foot trails that led down to it, and the lake was clearly very low with stagnant water, but it had a heck of a lot more water than I would have guessed. Recline, I knew, would be pleased. I created an arrow made out of rocks on the trail pointing down to the lake and wrote "Mud" in the trail with my trekking pole. Just in case he might overlook the lake through all the trees. Probably an unnecessary precaution, but just in case....

Soon, the trail started heading uphill along a series of switchbacks. Up and up and up, eventually cresting on Relay Peak. The views were spectacular in all directions, but the views had been spectacular all morning so that wasn't even something to get excited about. =)

Sunrise over Lake Tahoe

Coming down the other side of Relay Peak, I passed a TRT section hiker going in the opposite direction who wanted to know if there was water in Mud Lake, so I was happy to tell him yes, he didn't have to go off trail to Gray Lake. Although admittedly, the water in Gray Lake looked a lot better than the water in Mud Lake. (What would you expect with a name like Mud Lake?)

Minutes later, I passed a couple of women day-hiking up towards Relay Peak. One of them asked if I was thru-hiking the TRT, and I said yes, then she said she's done it twice. The other girl hadn't thru-hiked the trail, but has done every bit of it as day hikes over the years.

After them, I didn't see anyone else for quite a while. There are two routes to Relay Peak from the Mt. Rose Trailhead--a longer, windy trail, or a road. I suspect these people had arrived from the road. I could have taken the road down--both options were officially marked as the Tahoe Rim Trail, but I opted for the trail which I figured had less people, mountain bikes weren't allowed, and might be more scenic. I suspect I would have crossed paths with a lot more people had I followed the road down.

Then the TRT reached a small stream that cascaded down into a waterfall. The stream and the waterfall weren't on my maps at all--a pleasant surprise! I replaced my water with it. There was nothing wrong with the water I still carried from Gray Lake, but this water was still ice cold which was refreshing. The water I carried had warmed to the ambient air temperature during the night and wasn't as cold and refreshing.

The TRT intersected another trail which was labeled the Rim to Reno Trail. I felt a tug pulling me in that direction. In could just hike to the Reno airport! How awesome would that be? Except that I still needed to finish the TRT first. *sigh* I had heard of the Rim to Reno Trail, but I didn't really know much about it. Apparently, it's about 30 miles long, and I wasn't even sure if it had been completed.

But I still needed to finish the TRT, so onward I trekked. At this point, the number of people coming up the trail multiplied like fruit flies. A couple here, a couple of more people there. Then a group of five people. Then a group of 10 people. I must have passed 50 people those last couple of miles before reaching the Mount Rose trailhead.

Mount Relay, the highest point of the TRT.

When I arrived at the trailhead, I wasn't sure where to go. My map showed a thick, dashed line that marked the TRT, but it dead-ended at highway 431--the Mount Rose Highway. Then it restarted about half a mile down the highway at Tahoe Meadows. I wasn't sure exactly how the two ends were supposed to connect and the signage at the trailhead wasn't particularly helpful.

So I did what I always do in a situation like this: I made up my own route. =)

I followed a connector trail to the dirt road (the same one that leads up to Mount Relay and is actually part of the TRT), then followed the dirt road to the highway. I could have walked the entire distance along the highway, but who wants to walk along a busy highway if you don't have to? Exactly.

At that point, I would have to walk about a quarter mile on the shoulder of the highway--it didn't look like there was any way around that--until I reached the trailhead for Tahoe Meadow and was firmly back on the TRT.

The trailhead was packed with people. Seemed like there were hundreds of them. (And it wasn't even a weekend!) I didn't stop to talk to any of them, though. I just pushed through to Ophir Creek where I filled up with water for the rest of the day. It would be my last known water source for the rest of the day, so I made good use of it. Then I took a short rest in the shade of the trees at the edge of the meadow. I'd already hiked 11 miles and it wasn't even noon yet. I was making good time, but I didn't want to burn myself out either. I still hadn't even reached my halfway point for the day!

My hike continued. As I got further away from the trailhead, the number of people thinned considerably and I felt more in my element.

A self-portrait of me on Mount Relay. But the more
interesting thing about this photo is that "nose thing"
I'm wearing. Not a day went by when I didn't have people
asking me about it and where they could buy their own! =)

The TRT has a few points along it where there's a side trail that goes off to a viewpoint, and I had decided that I would try to hit every one of them that I could. I didn't know when I'd be back, and if it was only a quarter-mile off the trail, why not?

There was a viewpoint coming up, which looked like it went about a half-mile off the trail to a place my map called "Christopher's Loop." Normally, I would have done it, but today was already turning into my longest day on the trail of the entire hike at 24 miles. I'd have to skip it. I wasn't about to push myself another mile or two for another spectacular view. Frankly, they're all over the place, and I doubted this one was anymore special than all the others I'd seen.

Then I read the highlights of this section on my map, which read, "Christopher's Loop (most photographed spot on the TRT)."

That parenthetical note gave me pause. Really? The most photographed spot on the TRT? Yeah, sure.... I somehow doubted that a point half a mile off trail was going to be the most photographed point of the trail. And how would anyone ever know that? Who keeps track of how many pictures people take at every viewpoint along the trail? I just knew that if there was a most photographed spot on the TRT, it would be somewhere on the TRT and didn't require a detour off the trail.

I was highly skeptical, but also curious why anyone would claim it was the most photographed place on the TRT. And the curiosity got the best of me.

I turned on my iPod. At this point, I was already exhausted, and I needed a pick-me-up. So I popped in my iPod and started climbing the steep hill to Christopher's Loop, cursing that stupid parenthetical note the entire way.

They call it Christopher's Loop, but it's more of a Christopher's Lollipop. The trail goes up about a half mile, then a small hooks up with a small loop that couldn't be more than 1/10th of a mile before returning back down the same way it came up.

This is looking north from near Mount Relay. I suspect Reno
is out there somewhere, but I couldn't identify any obvious
landmarks either.

I reached the junction of the loop, decided to follow it counter-clockwise around, and minutes later came out to a viewpoint that made me gasp and my jaw drop. WOW!!!!

I looked around. Oh, WOW!!!!! OH MY GOD!!!!!

The view was too big to soak in. WOW!!!! This might very well be the most incredible view I'd ever seen in my entire life, and I've seen a lot of incredible views over the years.

I dropped my pack and started taking pictures. I probably took a hundred pictures before I was done. It was certainly the most photographed point of my thru-hike! I tried self portraits. I tried panoramic photos. I tried multiple different exposure settings. In the camera screen, none of the photos seemed to capture the moment. Not even close. But that didn't stop me from trying.

The viewpoint comes out to the edge of a steep cliff that overlooks Sand Harbor. You can see the entire Lake Tahoe Basin, but you can see that from a lot of viewpoints. It's this cliff over Sand Harbor that brings a dramatic depth to the view that none of the other viewpoints had. It seemed like I could throw a rock and hit the cars parked along the shore. I could see the people with their umbrellas on the beach. The view seemed like it could have been from a helicopter, hovering over Sand Harbor. There are a lot of incredible views along the TRT, but this one was incredible and dramatic! And it hits you unexpectedly fast. A lot of views, you get a hint of what's coming. A peak through the trees here or there. This one is completely hidden until you walk right up onto it and it makes your head explode.

I ended up spending about a half hour here, admiring the view and taking photos, so glad I didn't skip this particular side detour. All because I didn't believe that this could possibly be the most photographed point of the TRT. I admit it, I was wrong. Well, maybe I wasn't, but I can definitely believe that that viewpoint is the single-most photographed one from the TRT. I didn't really want to leave, but dusk was fast approaching and I still needed to reach the Marlette Peak campground before sunset. It was with great reluctance that I turned my back and headed back down the trail.

That's Mount Rose in the background, but the TRT doesn't
go over Mount Rose, so I won't be taking you up there.
Not this time, at least. I do believe the Rim to Reno Trail
goes over Mount Rose, though....

I did arrive at the Marlette Peak campground shorter before sunset. The campground was nicer than I expected with picnic tables, bear lockers and even grills at each site. (Posted notes, however, warned that fire restrictions meant that the grills could not currently be used.) The campground had no surface water, so they also installed a water pump. I didn't want to mess with an unfamiliar pump in the dark, so that was the first thing I did--fill up with water.

A sign by the pump said that the water had been tested and is safe for consumption, although it had "slightly elevated" levels of aluminum. Is that all? =) It took several pumps before the water started flowing--seems like most water pumps are like that--then I filled up my water bottles.

There were a few other hikers in some of the other campsites, but they largely ignored me so I largely ignored them. One woman camped across from me said hi, but she later talked on the phone then went into her tent so I didn't bother to get her story.

Instead, I made dinner, brushed my teeth, then went to sleep. I was exhausted after hiking over 25 miles that day!

In completely unrelated news.... August is once again here, which means it's time for the annual Hike-a-Thon drive! Amanda and I are trying to raise money for the Washington Trails Association which does some great work building and maintaining trails in Washington state, and please, if you can help us out, even if it's just $5 or something, please do so! Sponsor us now!

This year, I've decided that anyone who sponsors me will be in the running to win an autographed copy of my book, A Tale of Two Trails about my exciting adventures on the West Coast Trail and Juan de Fuca Trail. For anyone that donates at least $40 to the cause, I'll send you a free autographed copy! The catch is.... you have to sponsor my page. Yeah, Amanda and I are a team, and everyone likes her more, but we also have separate accounts and I'll only be looking at those who donate under my account. So if you donate $40+, I'll mail you a free copy of my book. If you donate less than $40, I'll put all of your names into the proverbial hat and choose one at random who will get a free book. =)

That $40 also can give you a membership to the WTA which includes a subscription to the Washington Trails magazine. A book, a magazine subscription and all for a good cause--just $40! =)

This small waterfall didn't show on any of my maps. Not even the stream
showed up anywhere! So it was a pleasant little surprise. =)

The Mount Rose Highway, passing by Tahoe Meadows.

The Mount Rose Highway, and my short little road walk.

Tahoe Meadows

Ophir Creek, and my last known water source
until I reach camp at the end of the day.

This section of trail also had incredible views eastwards over the Carson Valley.
This large lake surprised me, though--I didn't realize that it existed until
I saw it! Later I would learn that it's Washoe Lake, part of
Washoe Lake State Park in Nevada.

Passing by another ski resort....

Another view towards Washoe Lake.

This viewpoint over Sand Harbor may very well be the most
incredible view I've ever seen in my entire life! No picture can do it justice....

Don't let your jaw break when it hits the ground! =)

Even this panoramic photo doesn't do the view justice. Everything looks so SMALL!

Water hand pump directions.

And here's the pump!

Home, sweet, home at the Marlette Peak campground.

Bald is Beautiful!

Sunrise over Lake Watson--or at least what
passed for sunrise on this gray, overcast day.

During the night, I saw flashes of light in the sky. Lightening. It was a little eerie since I could still see some stars out and never heard any thunder. Just the distant flash of lightening. Somewhere.

By morning, I woke up at Watson Lake with grey, ugly clouds. My first morning without sunshine. On the other hand, it was also a lot cooler outside! The heat wave had passed!

When I left Watson Lake, I filled up with all the water I could because I had absolutely no idea where my next water source was located. Each trailhead had a nice little map of the next section, including where to find water, but as I neared the end of section 1 and approached section 2, I didn't have the section 2 map. I had no idea where the next water would be, so I filled up with all the water I could. Better safe than sorry!

The trail crossed Highway 267 at the Brockway Summit trailhead, a busy but otherwise uninteresting road. I sipped sparingly from my water, not knowing how far it would be to the next source, but I found a small water cache at the trailhead left by previous TRT thru-hikers. A note on it said we could help ourselves, so I drank up a lot of water then refilled my supplies. I also picked up the section 2 map which described the following water sources: "Limited supplies. Water sources include Gray Lake, Mud Lake (seasonal), and Frog Lake."

I looked at the map to find where they were all located. Gray Lake and Frog Lake weren't even on the TRT so I didn't want to use either of them, but Mud Lake was seasonal and it had been a very dry year. Not an ideal situation, but I'd have to get water from at least one of those sources no matter what. That much was required.

Mud Lake, even on the map, didn't look like it would be good water. The topo map looked like it was in a small dip in the ground and even if there was water in it, it would likely be a stale, stagnant pond. Which left Gray Lake and Frog Pond. Gray Lake would be a nice, moderate 17-mile hike for the day, though. I could do that. Frog Lake would have required over 20 miles of hiking. I set Gray Lake as a goal.

The trail steadily climbed upwards from Brockway Summit--not surprising since I was now headed towards the highest point on the entire Tahoe Rim Trail. I wouldn't reach it today, but I'd be getting close.

I know what you're thinking. "I don't see any clouds in that last photo." That's
because the sky was overexposed so the lake showed up well. So for
this photo, I underexposed the foreground and let the sky get
the right exposure--and pop! There are all the clouds! =) That last
photo and this one were taken just a couple of minutes apart.

Most of the trail was in the trees and not particularly interesting, until Mount Baldy. At Mount Baldy, the trees melted away and the views of Lake Tahoe exploded onto the scene. Incredible views, as far as the eye could see. I stood there, amazed and immediately stopped for a very long lunch break.

I set up near a tree off the side of the trail. It still looked like it could rain at any moment. In fact, I felt a couple of spits of water hit me and could see a major rainstorm going on just to the north. There was rain out there all right, although it hadn't caught up with me just yet. So I set up my snack break under the tree. If it started raining, I wanted protection from the tree.

Of course, if lightening started--and a chance of thunderstorms was in the forecast!--I'd have packed up in an even bigger rush and got the hell out of there! =)

The rain stayed away, however, and I just admired the view. Incredible, stunning views that spanned the entire length of Lake Tahoe.

While snacking, another backpacker with his dog came by who introduced himself as Recline, a former PCT thru-hiker like myself who was now thru-hiking the TRT. He looked a bit heavy for a thru-hiker, and explained that he picked up his trailname because he didn't move very fast. On the Tahoe Rim Trail, for instance, he wasn't even making 10 miles per day.

I must have passed him at some point because I'd been doing a lot more than 10 miles per day, but I had no idea where. I didn't remember seeing him at all before this moment, but it was still exciting for me. This was the first TRT thru-hiker I'd seen on the trail! And he's going my direction! Although, apparently, he's doing about half the miles I was each day.

You sometimes see strange things on the trail, but this
was a first for me. A sawhorse, just sitting there right off
the side of the trail. What the heck did someone bring
a sawhorse out here for?!

Eventually I got up and continued walking. The trail followed a long, exposed ridge, every inch of it with spectacular views. The dark clouds added to the dramatic views.

When I hit the junction for Gray Lake, I was torn. I liked it up here on the ridge. I wanted to camp up here on the ridge. But the water down there, down at Gray Lake. It was probably an ugly lake too, I thought. And filled with mosquitoes.

So I decided that I'd hike down to Gray Lake, fill up with all the water I could carry, then bring it back up to the ridge where I'd camp with the best view ever!

And that's exactly what I did. Gray Lake was an adorable little lake, surrounded with lush meadows and overflowing with nice, clean water. It wouldn't have been a bad place to camp at all (although it was still too early in the day to know how bad the mosquitoes might become). Except I saw the views from the top of the ridge. They were even better. Yes, I would definitely camp on the ridge.

I retraced my route back to the top and set up camp. I worried a bit that the rain might start up, but there were still trees around to set up my tarp with. I also worried that a lightening storm might still strike, but I'd be very well screwed if it did. Under a tree at the top of a ridge isn't a good place to be, and out in the open on the top of a ridge isn't a big improvement. I might have to hike back down the Gray Lake trail a bit unexpectedly.

But the weather didn't seem to be getting worse, so I risked it and camped right there on the ridge, and it was totally awesome.... =)

In completely unrelated news.... August is once again here, which means it's time for the annual Hike-a-Thon drive! Amanda and I are trying to raise money for the Washington Trails Association which does some great work building and maintaining trails in Washington state, and please, if you can help us out, even if it's just $5 or something, please do so! Sponsor us now!

This year, I've decided that anyone who sponsors me will be in the running to win an autographed copy of my book, A Tale of Two Trails about my exciting adventures on the West Coast Trail and Juan de Fuca Trail. For anyone that donates at least $40 to the cause, I'll send you a free autographed copy! The catch is.... you have to sponsor my page. Yeah, Amanda and I are a team, and everyone likes her more, but we also have separate accounts and I'll only be looking at those who donate under my account. So if you donate $40+, I'll mail you a free copy of my book. If you donate less than $40, I'll put all of your names into the proverbial hat and choose one at random who will get a free book. =)

That $40 also can give you a membership to the WTA which includes a subscription to the Washington Trails magazine. A book, a magazine subscription and all for a good cause--just $40! =)

A panoramic view of Lake Tahoe. This photo really sucks, though. Lake Tahoe
looks so small in the photo but it looked so huge when I stood here!

Water cache at Brockway Summit.

Brockway Summit

This self portrait of me at Mount Baldy might be my favorite self portrait
of the entire hike. =) Even in the photo, Lake Tahoe looks huge! I do
wish that the structure of the clouds showed up better, though.

Miles and miles of these spectacular views....

Gray Lake

And back on the ridge to set up camp! The dark clouds even seem
to be fading.... There sunlight out there!

My view from camp! Terrific!

And I took this one last photo shortly after sunset.

Adventures in Tahoe City!

Sunrise from camp over Page Meadow.

I slept in late this morning. The sunrise over Page Meadow was stunning, and I spent much of my time simply enjoying it. Then I read from my books for another hour or two. I had time to kill. I planned to go into Tahoe City, but I didn't want to arrive too early in the morning when nothing was open yet. So I lingered in camp, only three or four miles outside of Tahoe City. I could be in town in an hour, but I needed stores to be open. I wanted to eat a big lunch, not a big breakfast. (I already ate breakfast--that's the first thing I usually do in the morning when I wake up!)

Waiting until 9:00 to leave, though, kept me in camp until the mosquitoes had reached their peak. Which wasn't as bad as the Richardson Lake campsite, but had I left at 7:00 in the morning, I'd have thought there weren't any bugs at all near this campsite. =)

The trail soon arrived in Tahoe City where my first view was along the Truckee River which was packed with rafters. Raft after raft after raft. I took a few photos of them as they went by.

The Truckee River is an interesting one. One information sign I read said that 63 streams flow into Lake Tahoe, but only one runs out: the Truckee River. Even more interesting, the river never makes it to the ocean. It eventually flows into Pyramid Lake about 40 miles northeast of Reno and vanishes. Okay, maybe it doesn't vanish, but Pyramid Lake has no outlet. All of the water that flows into it is removed either through evaporation or sub-surface seepage.

Page Meadow

Which is pretty amazing when you think about. Lakes that don't have a drain are fairly uncommon to begin with, but Lake Tahoe is absolutely enormous. It's the second deepest lake in the United States and holds enough water to fill the entire state of California with nearly 14 inches of water. And not one drop of it will ever flow into the ocean.

The informational signs about Lake Tahoe had all sorts of other interesting trivia as well. For instance, the average period of time for a molecule of water in Lake Tahoe to recycle itself is nearly 700 years. More than half the water that is currently in Lake Tahoe was there when the United States was founded. Any pollutants that get into the water won't necessarily be flowing out on the Truckee River anytime soon.

The trail crosses a pedestrian bridge over the Truckee River at the edge of town, but I continued further into town where all of main facilities were located to resupply. I followed a bike path into town which led me to the Tahoe City dam.

The dam had all sorts of more interesting information about Lake Tahoe and, of course, about the dam itself. The dam only controls the water level for the top six feet of Lake Tahoe. If Tahoe's surface level fell lower than that, the Truckee River would cease to flow. Given the size of Lake Tahoe, though, just six feet of water is still an enormous volume of water.

Tahoe City is the lowest point on the Tahoe Rim Trail, and the only place where you can actually walk right up to Lake Tahoe.

My first stop in Tahoe City was the visitor's center. I didn't aim for the visitor's center first--it was just the first place I happened to see that held some interest for me. I could buy more postcards. =) And they could give me directions for where everything else of interest in town was located.

Rafters on the Truckee River.

I picked out a few postcards, then went up to the counter to pay for them. The lady at the desk turned to me.

"Guess what!" she exclaimed.

"What?" I asked, wondering where this could possibly be going.

"A trip to Greece is just $2,836!"

Okay.... that wouldn't have even been in my top 1,000 list of guesses had I actually tried to guess. =) I guess she was pricing tickets to Greece and was quite excited to find out that she could actually afford it. Since I've been to Greece before, I said it's a nice place to visit. It's true--it is a nice place to visit. I don't think I'd want to live there--despite the billboards with topless women--but it was a fun place to visit.

I paid for the postcards and asked if it was possible to see a weather report for the upcoming days. She ran a quick search on her computer and pulled up the forecast--a chance of afternoon thunderstorms every afternoon for the rest of my trip. A 30% chance each afternoon to be precise. It's a low chance, but definitely a real chance.

I also asked if there was somewhere nearby I could get on the Internet to check email and my websites, and she directed me to Vicky's Internet Cafe. (The library, unfortunately, was closed, but it was further away than I would have liked to walk anyhow.)

I walked over to the Internet cafe and spent about 45 minutes there doing my thing. I saw that it cost about $5 for every 15 minutes, so at the end I expected to pay about $15, but the woman (Vicky?) only charged me $5.

"Thank you," I told her. It was an unexpected moment of kindness. Perhaps she felt sympathy for my for thru-hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail. When I first walked in, she asked if I was hiking the PCT or the TRT, so I told her the TRT. I was a little surprised she asked about the PCT, though. I didn't know of any PCT thru-hikers who'd walk into Tahoe City--it wasn't on the PCT. They all either resupplied at Echo Lake or in South Lake Tahoe. I guess some of them must make it to Tahoe City if she asked about it, though.

Then I shuffled over to the large grocery store nearby--Save Mart. They had a pay phone which I used to make a few phone calls to fill everyone in on my progress. At least until my phone card ran out of money, then I started using the quarters I had in my pocket. Then those ran out and I stopped making phone calls. =)

Have you ever seen so many rafts in one place before?!
And this photo was only wide enough to capture about
half of them in the image. There are a lot more that spread
out on both sides of the photo!

Then I shopped. Oh, how I shopped! I bought cereal, and candy, and Wheat Thins, and salami, and cheese, and all sorts of other good things. One thing I did not buy was dinner--turns out, I already had enough dinners to last me for the rest of the trip. But everything I needed for breakfast and lunch for the next few days I needed to purchase, and I did so.

I also ordered a sandwich from their deli. A young girl from Romania was working the counter, and she asked if I wanted "pea cals" on my sandwich. Huh? What the heck is a pea cal? She saw the confused look on my face. "Pea cals?" she said again, louder, as if that would settle the matter.

Finally, she held up a few sliced pickles. "Oh! Pickles! Why didn't you say so! Yes, please, pickles." =) I could tell she didn't much like me and probably thought I was dumb as an ox. (Ox really are dumb, you know.) My haggard thru-hiking appearance wasn't impressing anyone--that's for sure.

I took my winnings outside where they had a bench at which, at this time of day, was actually in the shade. I ate my sandwich, drank the 1-liter bottle of Coke I bought, and ate a bag of Skittles. I only planned to hike as far as Watson Lake--the next water source on the TRT--making for a short 16-mile day of walking. Well, walking around Tahoe City might add another mile to it, but basically, it was going to be a very short day of hiking. So then I just sat around and read my book for another hour or so.

Eventually, though, the trail called, and I hefted on my pack and walked back out of town.

I picked up the trail again, on the opposite side of the bridge that crossed the Truckee River. It followed a road around the edge of town a short ways before reaching a trailhead and finally ducking back into the trees.

The Tahoe City dam only controls the water level for
the top 6 feet of Lake Tahoe.

The trail climbed steadily until it reached Thunder Cliffs and some absolutely wonderful views over the Truckee River. I counted over 50 rafts floating down it, including one large group that had about 20 boats apparently tied together floating down as one. The view was awesome. I took large quantities of photos, including more self-portraits with the help of my camera tripod.

My map suggested that Burton Creek had year-round water, but it also looked like Burton Creek didn't quite touch the TRT either. Most likely, I'd have to go off trail a bit if I wanted water from there. So I planned to get water there if I could do so without getting off the trail, but otherwise I carried enough water to get me the whole way to Watson Lake which was on the trail.

I never did see the creek, but I did arrive into Watson Lake at about 7:00 that afternoon. I was a little disappointed to see a vehicle parked at the other side of the lake and a dog swimming around in the water. I had to drink this water, people! And the rest of the night, the barking dog just grated on my nerves. At least they were at the other end of the lake, though. Not that I don't like dogs, but I really didn't want to hear it barking all the time, and I really didn't want it swimming around in my water supply.

I set up camp under a few trees. I wanted to camp out in the open, the better to see the stars, but this area had a large number of trees and the most open patch of terrain was the lake itself. But I couldn't exactly set up camp on the lake. On the trail right next to the lake might have worked, but I didn't really want to be so exposed to any of those car-campers that might decide to take a walk around the lake either. So I camped on the top of a small hill nearby, under a few trees, and largely out of view to anyone walking along the trail.

In completely unrelated news.... August is once again here, which means it's time for the annual Hike-a-Thon drive! Amanda and I are trying to raise money for the Washington Trails Association which does some great work building and maintaining trails in Washington state, and please, if you can help us out, even if it's just $5 or something, please do so! Sponsor us now!

This year, I've decided that anyone who sponsors me will be in the running to win an autographed copy of my book, A Tale of Two Trails about my exciting adventures on the West Coast Trail and Juan de Fuca Trail. For anyone that donates at least $40 to the cause, I'll send you a free autographed copy! The catch is.... you have to sponsor my page. Yeah, Amanda and I are a team, and everyone likes her more, but we also have separate accounts and I'll only be looking at those who donate under my account. So if you donate $40+, I'll mail you a free copy of my book. If you donate less than $40, I'll put all of your names into the proverbial hat and choose one at random who will get a free book. =)

That $40 also can give you a membership to the WTA which includes a subscription to the Washington Trails magazine. A book, a magazine subscription and all for a good cause--just $40! =)

Lake Tahoe, as seen from the dam.

These people were filling up rafts and other inflatable water toys
with air at the local gas station.

The TRT passes this fire station, which lets us know that the
fire danger is currently "very high." (Which is why campfires aren't
allowed anywhere.)

The note on this memorial reads: This rock is in memory of  all the
dogs and cats we miss in Tahoe. Please don't take these rocks. Feel free to add...
namaste... (I'm not sure what that last word is supposed to mean?)

I do a self-portrait on Thunder Cliff.

Gotta be careful not to fall backwards, though....

Ah, darn it....

View from Thunder Cliff. That's the Truckee River far below.

Can you see all the rafts in the river? From this vantage point, I counted about
50 rafts, but I couldn't get the entire length of the river into a single photo.
Each of those white dots is a raft. (Most of them are actually blue, but in the
photo, they look like white rapids.)

Skittish little thing....

View of Lake Tahoe.

And a panoramic view of Lake Tahoe!

Can you say "Suspicious Pile Of Rocks"? Yeah, so can I. So I took out
all of the rocks and found.... absolutely nothing. =)

Watson Lake

After sunset at Watson Lake. The clouds aren't looking too friendly anymore!