July 19 - South Lake Tahoe again

End: Near Middle Velma Lake
Daily: 19.7
Total: 1112.6

Yesterday we got into Hwy 50 early and found a sign that said go down the road to Mike's house if you need a place to stay. We did and Mike was awesome! He's a really nice guy who lets hikers spend the night in the cabin he's renting and take showers and do laundry. He works for the California Conservation Corps leading trail work crews too.

Anyway, we left our stuff at Mike's and hitched into town for groceries and the all you can eat buffet at Montbleu ($13!).

Then back to Mike's for some hottubbing before bed. My favorite part of the day was the people watching in Tahoe. It's a good place for that.

Both rides into town were awesome. The first was from a student/chef at Squaw, the second was from Brad, a theology student wanting to be a pastor, who was only going to take us to the major intersection in town, but ended up taking us all the way back to Mike's. Thanks, Brad!

Today we hiked to Echo Lake where we got a delicious milkshake and coffee. Then we followed the snow-free trail around the lake, past awesome boat-access-only cabins. I want one so much!

Then into Desolation Wilderness - as Lonely Turtle called it today, "High Sierra Redux." Really redux. Tons of lakes and snow and even a tiny pass. All at a much lower elevation, and we were almost out of it in a day. It was still really pretty.

So, the Sierra is gorgeous and I will always remember how amazed we were at its beauty - but I'm really excited about the new topography we will be getting soon. Volcanos, here we come!

Later in the day, we were trying to find a campsite and the place we hoped to camp was a pond. Hopping over part of the pond, I fell in the water. Not too bad, just annoying. Now my clothes are wet. Oh well, nothing we haven't dealt with before.

One thing I haven't dealt with is somehow my sleeping bad got wet as well, although not from falling in the pond. Nothing else in my bag is wet, just my bag, which I put on the bottom of my pack. I think it's from falling on snow. I held it near our cooking fire and I think that helped.

Chris's pants ripped a little today. He's sewing them right now. The trail is rough on our stuff!