South Lake Tahoe, Dicks Pass & Frozen Lakes – PCT 2017: A Hiking Story [27]
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Part 26 ‘Truly Alone in the Wild (near Ebbetts Peak)’
Day 84 (21/06) – Getting to South Lake Tahoe
I woke up staring at the stars several times at night from my cowboy campsite at Showers Lake. It was quite serene, and I always drifted back to sleep.
It was nice cowboy camping again now that it’s warm enough. The only concern now was the insects that come with the snow melt and heat, but they generally go away after sunset. My campsite at Showers Lake was actually much nicer than I remembered, as I prepared my coffee and oats whilst taking it all in. As an extra, I am now also eating an oatmeal cream pie, which is basically a soft creamy biscuit.
I packed up, with my microspikes straight on, ice axe in one hand and trekking pole in the other. I was getting attached to this combination, and finding more uses for the ice axe, even if not technical terrain. For example, it was great to use on small snow drifts as just a way to pull me up after a run-up.
There was a stretch where I made an alternate route around the left of the PCT, following the creek, thinking it would be snowed over like my correct guesses in previous sections. Turns out I was wrong – there was certainly snow, but no continuous bridges, and the creek was either full of rose bushes, or giant boulders. It took forever to push through, and I shed a sigh of relief when rejoined the trail. Oh well, not all decisions work out for the best!
I made it to Highway 50 (or the El Dorado Fwy), where the PCT crosses near South Lake Tahoe. Here. I began thumbing for hitches into town. Within five minutes I get one – a local, who was used to seeing PCT hikers. We talked about the idea of travelling and living your life. He has a home he’s trying to sell, so he can also get away on his own journey, like me.
He dropped me off at an intersection on the lower outskirts of town. I thanked him and proceeded to the bus stop to then get a bus. I intended to get to Mellow Mountain Hostel, apparently a good hostel for PCT hikers. Whilst waiting I met some guy, and we talked about the PCT-he was interested to know how much snow there was, as he was a skier. During this conversation, Florian (the Swiss bikepacker I met in the campground at Yosemite) rode past me mid-conversation! I messaged him to come back, and we agreed to meet up for lunch later (with the friend he met up with – Janick).
When I arrived at the hostel, another PCT hiker was there – ‘Moonshine Pete’ from Bulgaria. He was apparently tracing my steps behind me in the last section, so was not far behind at all. We caught up over the last section and who we’d met along the way. The only person we both knew well was Frosty (the girl I started with at Scout and Frodo’s).
Moonshine joined the three of us for lunch, and we had some good hiker and biker trash conversation before I said goodbye to the biker guys. They would be fun to stick with had they have been hikers.
Moonshine Pete and I both did our laundry, and chilled in our room for the rest of the evening. Two other PCT hikers were there, but they had skipped most of the Sierras – the big trend of the year it seems, and why I’ve been hiking alone recently.
Distance hiked: 9 miles (14.48 km)
Total PCT hiked: 1091 miles (1,755 km)
Day 85 (22/06) – Zero Day at Lake Tahoe
It was a day of chilling and relaxing. I was still fairly sore from hiking from the days before, and the zero-day was most welcome. Moonshine and I took a bus ride out to the shopping area to buy new pants and a gas canister, but came out empty-handed. We found a Chinese buffet for $12 though, and ate there for lunch.
A few beers later back at the hostel, and we were playing a card game with some girls. Another PCT hiker joined us called Clayton, who had skipped ahead. We all went out for some dinner later on. I was exhausted and had an early sleep afterwards.
Day 86 (23/06) – Reaching Echo Lake
The big job of the morning was finishing up sorting out the photos from my camera, as I needed to sync my phone to it via Wi-Fi. Then I’d save the pics off of the camera, which I intend to use in my blogs. Finally, I need to edit the photos to ensure they are straight, not too dark, etc. I made some drip coffee, having about 3 cups as I did this job.
Moonshine and I visited a couple of shops to find new socks and gas canisters. Sports Ltd was the only one, and the two ladies behind the counter were very welcoming and helpful. I was able to trade in my old hole-ridden Darn Tough socks for a new pair for free. Darn Tough socks have a policy for lasting a lifetime – but my feet destroyed anything, so their replacement policy was amazing for me.
We went to Pizza Base where my app told me PCT hikers receive a free 9″ pizza if they buy a beer, as long as we showed our permit. I had a BBQ ranch chicken one, which was the best pizza I’ve had in ages!
Moonshine and I then rang trail angels to get a ride back to the trailhead. A guy called Mike gave us one – we gave him $5 each for the effort. It was back to hiking – this time, with someone else for a change!
We hiked towards Echo Lake where we intended to camp. It was 8pm, and we had to camp at a fairly average area compared to my previous stunning campsites. I cowboy camped again, whilst Moonshine set up his tent. Ramen it was for dinner, followed by a hot chocolate, and then… bed.
Distance hiked: 4 miles (6.44 km)
Total PCT hiked: 1095 miles (1,762 km)
Day 87 (24/06) – Middle Velma Lake
It was convenient because Moonshine has also been getting up at the same time as me, 4:30am. We set off an hour later. We passed Echo Lake and after, Lake Aloha. The trail was snow ridden, at least 90% covered. We were close to the end of the major mountains, and the average altitude of the area was only 8000 feet (2.44 km – still higher than Mount Kosciusko in Australia haha).
We began to ascend Dicks Pass (unfortunately named not for the shape – which would have been funny!), which was 9400 feet (2.87 km) at the highest point. This was actually a really high climb from the ground level, and we totally underestimated it. We rock scrambled over a lot of the higher section to climb straight up when at the top to avoid the slippery snow on the side.
When at the top of Dicks Pass, we had an overseeing view of the whole area. It wasn’t the highest peak around, but higher than most. The mountains to the south (where we came from) were still snow ridden, whereas the mountains toothed north (where we were headed) were largely snowless.
We descended the pass, mostly jump-sliding down as the snow was super soft. We went around several lakes before finally arriving at Middle Velma Lake – our destination. There were a few random hikers camping around in other areas, but we found a spot alone by the water’s edge and chilled out. I was spent, and Moonshine too.
We both cowboy camped that night, and as soon as the sun eased away behind some clouds, we went to bed. I was awoken by Moonshine at 9pm when he noticed the amazing sunset. It looked incredible over the lake.
Distance hiked: 15 miles (24.14 km)
Total PCT hiked: 1109.5 miles (1,785.57 km)
Next Post:
Part 28 ‘Desolation Wilderness & Truckin’ to Truckee’
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