June 29th, 2022 by Jon
We woke up early to give Missile a hug and send him off. He left around 7:00 and walked to the bus station. We really cannot emphasize enough how much we will miss him. It’s hard to come to terms with the fact that we won’t be hiking with him anymore.
We spent the rest of the morning working on last-minute internet chores, and I updated the blog. Singsong and Biscuit left to grab coffee and pastries from the coffee shop just down the road, and then we began packing our bags. Once they were all ready, we ran over to Jamba Juice for a smoothie, then to the grocery store for a sandwich to eat before heading back to the hostel. We took everything down and waited for our ride out front, before the others waiting for a ride told us the trail angel who was going to pick us up was also going to pick them up! Unfortunately, he had to leave to pick up a hiker whose father had sadly passed away and was taking them to the airport. So instead, we all got an Uber together to get back up to the trail! We got back to the trailhead just before noon and started hiking after a quick snack there.
The trail followed a ridge just above the highway for a little less than a mile before coming down to the highway itself. Everything was burned as a result of the Caldor Fire, which burned last year all around South Lake Tahoe. We ran across the highway together after a long wait for a pause between the cars. This was by far the busiest road we have had to cross. We continued walking through a long burn area past a number of cabins that were somehow still standing among the burned, blackened trees. After crossing the highway, we had a small ridge to hike over before we could drop down into the Echo Lake Basin.
As we climbed, Biscuit, who was about 30 feet in front of us, began to yell, “Bear!” We turned to our left, and there, among the trees about 30 feet away, was a large bear. Definitely the largest I’ve seen in the wild, and it just stared at us from the woods and casually kept walking by as we yelled at it. We’ve heard the bears in this area around Tahoe can be pests, so we’re hoping we get through this section without having to deal with them in our campsites at night. We continued uphill, past more cabins and the burned-out remains of dead trees and stumps that covered the hillside. We worked our way down towards a parking lot, unable to see further due to the line of healthy trees at the bottom of the ridge.
When we stepped onto the pavement, we realized we had arrived at the Echo Lake Chalet, and we were standing at some upper lot, with the chalet down below and the lake right at its doorstep. Apparently, there is a little restaurant there, but we didn’t go inside, having just come from town. We walked past the building and onto a paved stone path that went right along the water; it seemed to be part of a dam to block the water from escaping. Turning the corner, we walked over a 15-foot-wide sluice gate that kept the lake’s water level where it was and could be lowered to allow more water out if needed.
We walked back onto a dirt trail on the other side of the gate and began hiking up a ledge, high above the lake. There were a number of cabins on the banks overlooking the lake; they had their own docks down by the water, and all of them had a small water tank up above them on the cliffside. It was fun to imagine what they looked like on the inside or what it would be like to stay at one. We continued for a long way, going up and down small bumps on the trail before finally coming to the end of the lake. We noticed a few signs nailed to the trees along the trail advertising a water taxi station at the end of the lake.
We took a quick standing break before starting up a long, gentle climb up to the saddle so we could climb down into the next valley. The trees here were thick and had an ancient quality to them. We walked past a few small marshes fed by snowmelt from patches of snow we could see up above us, glowing white in the sunlight. We started slowly hiking downhill and the rocks turned to granite as we got lower and lower. We could see water through small gaps in the trees before finally we exited the tree line and looked out at Lake Aloha, which was absolutely magnificent. The water was a deep blue and steep mountains towered above the lake on the other side. There was tons of snow on those hills, and we were thankful to be sitting on much flatter rocks here on the side we were on. We stopped again for water and to enjoy the lake views. We talked about South Lake Tahoe as well, and although it was super nice, it felt overwhelming after being on trail for such a long time. There were so many people and cars and sounds, it was so different from trail. We also talked about Missile and how much we missed him already.
After sitting in silence for a bit, we decided to head out again. We made our way along the lake, which was fairly challenging because there were many pools of water to navigate, and we had to weave among the rocks to cross. We saw a helicopter come and go 3 times, it flew to the same spot at the end of the lake each time but we couldn’t figure out what it was doing. Before we could get over to that part of the lake, we turned at a junction and began heading downhill into a valley that was northeast of the lake. We traveled past a number of small and large mountain lakes that seem to be connected when there is enough water, but now they aren’t due to the lack of water. We moved through different sections of trail where sometimes it would be green, lush, and full of plants, and then other times it was just pure slate rock which was super annoying to walk on because every rock moved when you stepped on it.
We got to the edge of a cliff and looked down into the basin that held Susie Lake. We planned to camp here tonight since it was getting late and we didn’t want to do the big climb that comes after it today. The trail took us within feet of the water’s edge before we began skirting around its western and southern edge. We were looking for a good campsite and finally found a few good spots on its eastern edge.
We set up camp, and then the 3 of us had dinner and made a game plan for this next section which basically is hike how we feel each day and then whenever we get to Sierra City we have plans for how to get our packages of food we sent to ourselves and where we might stay overnight if we get there and the store is closed for the 4th. It’s kind of nice not to have a ton of pressure because we have the food to take a whole 5 days if we need to, but think we might be able to do it in 4 or 4.5 days if the miles come easy. We will just see how things go. Whatever happens, it’s just nice to be on trail again.
Awesome pictures! What is Jamba juice? Is it good?