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.