Day 75 (1090.0) was a Zero day in South Lake Tahoe, and like most Zero days, I didn't take any pictures. South Lake Tahoe is a really nice outdoors/mountain/ski town. Filled with major grocery stores, a variety of restaurants and many tourists, I spent most of the day traveling around on foot to eat food or get food to eat later.

I get a bittersweet feeling every time I leave town. Though the trail is not always fun, generally I'm pretty happy when I'm hiking. That said, when leaving town, there are things that I tend to crave... such as a hot shower, ice cream or a bacon cheese burger. Also, my pack is usually 15-25 pounds heavier when leaving town due to my food resupply. Do I notice? YES, yes I notice and it hurts to think about. But as I think about it, I smile, because it's comical to do that type of thing to yourself time and time again and I know after 2 days of hiking, I will have consumed enough food for my backpack to feel comfortable. That, my friends, is worth smiling over.

After having a fairly lazy morning, I packed up and went to a Starbucks to work on uploading what would be the last of my on trail blog posts, while the group finished packing their gear up. Instead of calling a trail angel early on a weekend, we decided to try our luck hitch-hiking. It didn't take too long before everyone had a ride back to the trail.

The first few miles lead to Echo Lake, a popular recreational lake located 30 minutes (driving) West of South Lake Tahoe. I stopped with Mr. Clean and Backtrack to have a milkshake which I drank too quickly and gave myself brain freeze.

While we enjoyed our cold beverage and soaked up the warm sun, a women was being dropped off by her husband and was getting back on trail (PCT). Her name was Ranger and she had taken some time off to let her body recover. She had also lost her hiking partner so she planned on camping with or near us this night.

The many miles before Dicks Pass are littered with awe inspiring lakes, Aloha Lake being a highlight and where I chose to stop for lunch. For the rest of the afternoon I walked by myself. It was very warm causing the massive melt off to take of the trail.

As the trail climbed to Dicks Pass, the views got better and better. At the top I had cell service where I managed to connect up with Butterfingers, who had just arrived in South Lake Tahoe. Butterfingers, Early Bird and The Worm had gone into the Yosemite Valley from Tuolumne Meadows as many hikers did. It was great knowing they had made it past the dangerous snow bridge (Day 67). I suspected they would catch up with us eventually.

Also at the top of Dicks Pass, Ranger found good use of the last known cell service till who knows when. When all was done, Ranger and I enjoyed the view then started our way down together. The downhill side of Dicks Pass was quite difficult with enough snow that you couldn't avoid it, but it was very lose with lots of gaps between it and the ground. Imagine walking on snow when you foot post-holes through to an awkward rock slightly twisting your ankle. Over and over again. This is what I mean by difficult.

Slowly, we worked our way down to below snow line and I pushed ahead to try and make camp before sundown. The lower I went, the more it became apparent... the mosquitoes had spawned!

Forcing me to run at certain points, I eventually had to stop to refill my water for the night. This was the first real encounter with a swarm of mosquitoes that didn't care about bug spray, or clothes for that matter. They'd bite right through my shirt. So getting water consisted of setting down my pack, spraying 100% Deet on every inch I could, then running back and forth to get the mosquitoes away from my backpack. At this point I've surely been bitten at least 5 times. Then I run back to my pack to get all of my water containers out and start mixing my Aquamura. During the 5 minutes that took, I paced very quickly, constantly swatting at the flying trying to land on my shoulders. It would have been entertaining thing to watch. Fed up with the process, I quickly added the mixture to the 5 liters of water, stuffed it in my backpack and pushed the last mile and half to camp.

At some point I passed the group and where they had setup camp. Unwilling to push any further for the day, I setup camp solo and hid behind the mesh of my tent as the seemingly endless swarm of mosquitoes buzzed from every direction.

Cheers to reaching Mile 1100!

Mileage Breakdown: 7.5 PCT Miles + 1.0 Mile road walk from Northern Kennedy Meadows (NKM) to Highway 108 = 8.5 Total.

The view this morning was just as magnificent as last night. I did not have the greatest night sleep, partly because of the near full moon (bright) as well as the constant roar of the wind which never let up.

I was on trail around 7:30 am, shortly after the rest of the group, and I was feeling very good. Almost as though nothing could bring me down. I was really enjoying the epic ridge walk that leads to Highway 108 at Sonora Pass.

After a couple miles, a snow field became a rather steep slope. I had two choices: one to glissade (slide on my butt) or, two, I could walk around it which would take much longer. I decided to glissade and paid a painful price for it. The snow was soft enough that my micro spikes wouldn't grip the snow, but frozen enough that the lumps didn't give way as I slid very quickly down the short slope.

It felt like the worst rug burn I'd ever had for the next two hours and to make it worse, the affected area was on my upper thigh / lower butt.

As the rawness began to feel better, I arrived at a very steep snow slop that I couldn't imagine sliding down, let alone walk down (I would have surely fallen on my butt and slid down anyways). I figured out a way down via a rock scramble that too nearly 30 minutes to travel 50-100 feet. Covered with jagged and lose rocks, the foot and hand holds were few and far between. There were many moments of feeling stuck (unable to go back up and no way to continue down). But I eventually made it down where I waited for, and watched, the rest of the group work their way down..

Some fell or slipped but everyone made it down safely. The group walked to Sonora Pass together and the feeling of seeing the Highway was a bit of elation. I had just completed the most technical and physically demanding section of the trail. This doesn't mean the rest of the trail is easy, anything but. It means DEATH or SERIOUS INJURY wont loom over every hill or valley I past though.

Hitching into Northern Kennedy Meadows took some time. NKM is a small resort along Highway 108 which is quite popular in the summer time. There is a general store, cafe and a large campground positioned right along the river.

I really enjoyed my time there, which I spent most of it eating and organizing my resupply, I wanted to get back to the trail today. A bunch of us started to look for a hitch around 5:00 pm figuring if we couldn't get one this late, we could find a spot at the campground and try again in the morning.

After a half hour of watching the few cars on road fly by us, a young man pulled over with a smile and gladly stuffed 6 of us in his old Toyota Tacoma. A little ways up the road, we caught a Brazilian Downhill Skateboarder and he road he board while holding onto the back of the truck. It was pretty insane!

At Sonora Pass, a trail angel had a cooler of beer, soda and snacks. It was totally unexpected but greatly appreciated. We sat around and talked with a few other hikers who had just made it to the Highway and planned to go into town tomorrow if they couldn't get a hitch this late in the day.

After hike a little over a mile from the Highway, some of us stopped and setup camp. THis was around 7:00 pm... just in time to make some dinner and watch another breathtaking sunset.

Day 76 - Dicks Pass. 1110.8 (20.8)

Day 70 - Sonora Pass to Northern Kennedy Meadows. 1018.2 (8.5)