20 miles
Today was nice. I walked the 5 miles to Echo Lake area. There is a kids camp down the road which allows hikers to shower, do laundry and eat. The kids are only at camp during weekdays so it was empty when I got there. The owner of the camp showed me where the shower/laundry room was. Normally they charge hikers, but he allowed me to go for free!
After I was clean, I headed down to Echo Lake where the store and post office is. I picked up my package and bought a big chocolate shake. While I sat outside eating and going through my resupply, I talked to many people. Many ACTIVE people.
The first couple I talked to were vacationing in Tahoe. They were asking about the trail and how I was doing. They were triathletes who did their first and "only" Ironman in Switzerland last year.
Another hiker came by who was doing a section hike from Donner Pass to Echo Lake. He told me about the trail ahead and how many thru-hikers were in front of me (not many). After talking a while, it turns out he is an elite traithlon and cycling coach. He used to be a pro triathlete and raced the Kona Ironman 7 times as a professional with a few top ten finishes. He has coached pro cyclist Christian Vande Velde and a number of other pro athletes. He had also won Ironman Canada.
The third group was a family about to hike up the PCT a little for the weekend. The parents thru-hiked the PCT in 1997. They live near Donner Pass which I will be at in a couple days so they gave me their phone number in case I needed anything when I got there.
After only seeing about 5 people in the last 3 days...I enjoyed talking with these people.
I eventually headed up trail. This is a super popular area in the Desolation Wilderness area. So there were a TON of people camped at the first lake about 6 miles up trail. After that, I saw less people. It is a really great area. I went over Dick's Pass and down to Dick's lake where I am camped now. There are a good amount of people camped out here. It is just me now, Sunshine Ray went down to South Lake Tahoe for the night.
Sounds fun. We hiked a few trails in the Desolation Wilderness back in December when there was snow and ice. We had a good time, and then I bookended the trip withbad case of food poisoning.
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