TRT Mile 69 to 81.5

As feared, the cool breeze dies, and the ravenous mosquitoes reappear. I burrow deeper into my down quilt than the miserable temperature demands. I wake at midnight to a howling wind. Relief. When I get up to relieve my bladder, I can see not only blazing stars, but a circle of city lights around the lake. The wind has swept the smoke away, creating our clearest view. Unfortunately, it is pitch black. I fall back asleep, dreaming the view lasts until daylight.

We scramble out of our cowboy beds in the dawning light. It is our last day, and we can pack up messy. Our water is so skanky that even doubling up the Via cannot hide the taste. Normally I chase my cinnamon Pop-Tart with delicious coffee. This morning I am chasing the liquid mud with a dry Pop-Tart.

Morning view of Lake Tahoe

The views of the lake hold. They are by far the best we have seen. I proclaim to Daniel that the lake is blessing us with one grand vista. He counter claims it as one giant mocking of the other 11 days.

Our pace is quick. We make 5 miles before our first break. The water in our bottles is motivating us to move. We are pretty sure we can take off our socks, put them in our water bottles, and improve the taste. It just doesn’t seem fair to the socks.

State Line

We press on. There is one last creek right before our final up. We dump our garbage water, and filter fresh. It is far from our best, but amazing by comparison. Every time we stop, Brian points out that at this pace we will never make it. I think he is ready to be done.

We push up and on to the Kingsbury South trail split. We have completed the 170 mile loop. The only thing left is to race down to our car, and return to civilization.

TRT Mile 54.5 to 69

Because yesterday was such a long hike, we treat ourselves by sleeping in until 5:00am. Perhaps we should treat ourselves a bit better. This morning is Via coffee and granola, but not together. The Yosemite fire smoke seems thicker and closer to the ground. We load up on awesome well water and return to our march around the famous lake we cannot see.

Our first 3 miles are up, but not unbearable. The top opens up in to a sea of purple flowers. If we were in the Land of Oz, we would surely all fall fast asleep. The rest of the way to the Spooner Lake trail split is a pleasant but rolling downhill.

The trail down for water is about a mile. To travel around to the picnic area with a water faucet will add another mile each way. We leave Kevin at the trailhead to guard our gear. Daniel, Brian and I take Daniel’s pack, the filters, and all the water bottles we have to check out the lake. If the water is fine we will filter, if not we will trek the extra miles to the faucet.

Spooner Lake

Brian filters some water, tastes it, and declares if fine. We filter about 16 litters and hike back to Kevin. After spending time more thoroughly tasting the water, we fire Brian as our official taster. Daniel makes sure everyone knows he voted in favor of hiking the extra miles for better flavor. Alas, the damage is done, and we will spend the rest of today and tomorrow being reminded every time we take a sip.

South Camp

The last 5 miles up to camp are a grind. We are weighted down with skanky water, and our energy is leaking. We take way more breaks than normal. At camp we find flat spots in the trees, and pretend the view is as spectacular as advertised. When the sun reflects just right, you can almost tell there is water… water clearly better than in our bottles.

Lake Tahoe in smoke

We make bean and cheese burritos for dinner. Rather than pitching tents we all decide to cowboy camp. We want to be able to pack up extra quickly and race towards our car, now just 12 miles away. We hope the now howling wind will keep the mosquitoes at bay. Otherwise we may seriously regret this cowboy thing.