Back to the trail today to tackle Northern California. As always, it was tough to drag ourselves from our creature comforts but we are ready to be away from the traffic and crowds. We had a great rest in town, including a day that consisted mostly of eating and napping – sleep for a few hours, wake up and eat until full, then repeat. We really must have needed the rest. Re-energized, we’re ready to tackle Tahoe’s west rim and the Desolation Wilderness.
We caught the bus to the outfitter to drop off some extra food and gear. The Lake of the Sky Outfitters here is super hiker friendly. They have a very nice “hikers’ lounge” with wifi and coffee, an extensive hiker box (where we dumped our food), and lots of essential gear. They also hold hiker packages and this is where we sent our resupply we picked up our first day in town. We left our packs here for a bit and ran up to the nearby Keys Cafe for a bite. It can’t rival the MN chain we love so much, but the sandwiches and enormous smoothies we ordered were delicious.
Back at the outfitter, I was finishing up on some journaling when a customer offered any needy hikers rides up to the Echo Summit where we jumped off. We leapt on the offer and were on our way up in no time. Our driver Suzanne is less than a week away from starting her thru-hike of the John Muir Trail, her first “long” backpacking trip. We wished her luck and hope she has a great time!
Back on the trail, we hoisted heavy packs (but not too heavy!) and started along the three miles to Echo Lake Resort, the more common jump-off point for hikers bound for town. Our packs were much more comfortable without the bulky bear cans in them. We’re also carrying less food at the start of this section than we have in a long time – only 4 days instead of 7. This made it easy to climb the slight rise between the highway and the resort. My thoughts zoned out for a while, happy to be back in the woods, and almost before we knew it we were at the lake. We took a quick break to finish up some food and drinks we had brought along so we could toss them in the last trash between here and Donner Pass 60 miles away.
The trail brushed the corner of Lower Echo Lake before ascending to a ridge above the lake and heading west along the north shore. Below us, cabins (reachable only by water?) lined the water’s edge. The trail was very rocky. We were entering another glacier-carved area, which tended to go hand in hand with lots of scattered rocks and boulders. Signs warned us that we were not allowed to camp between the resort and the border of the Desolation Wilderness a few miles away. We hiked the length of the lower lake, then the upper, passing through sparse pine forest.
A few miles more brought us to the rocky shores of Lake Aloha. It reminded us of Thousand Island Lake back on the JMT, studded with lots of tiny granite shallows poking above the surface of the water. The trail took a hard right at the western end of the lake. Thankfully, this was away from the path that led to Mosquito Pass. We dropped down to the smaller, calmer Heather Lake before descending further to the still-smaller Susie Lake. We started to look for campsites here but a lot of tents were already occupying the likely flat spots. What a novelty to have trouble finding a spot! It wasn’t too tough, though. We rounded the bottom of the lake and crossed its outflow stream, headed past another group of tents, and found a nice dirt patch a few rises away. Not having to camp on rocks makes it much easier to put in tent stakes, and we’ll probably need our net tent tonight. It’s good to be back out here, hearing the wind in the trees instead of road noise.
– Posted from the PCT
Location:Pct mile 1104