2.3 to 21.4 for 19.1 trail miles plus 1.5 miles for Spooner Lake.
I had a headache last night and didn't sleep the best. I finally started sleeping better near the morning. I felt good when I got up and was on the trail at seven.
I wasn't making good time today and only covered eight miles in the first four hours. I think I stopped to find too many geocaches. One may not take much time but they all add up.
Another thing that slowed me down was all the mountain bikers. There was a charity ride and there were maybe 200 cyclists out. I really didn't mind much. Most all were polite and conscientious to me. The only issue was the dust that all the bikes would kick up, especially when they were moving at a good clip on the downhills.
I met up with another thru-hiker. He was finishing up today and seemed pretty happy about it. He was ready to get cleaned up and have a good meal. I also saw another thru-hiker that had started in Tahoe City. He was planning on going into South Lake Tahoe for a zero.
There's a bench along the trail on South Camp Peak that I stopped at to get a snack. There were several mountain bikers there that I talked to. I didn't stay as long as I would have liked because there were a lot of yellow jackets hanging out. It was also fairly windy and cold.
I was fairly tired by the time I reached the Spooner Summit trailhead. From there I crossed highway 50 and made my way to Spooner Lake where I filled up on water. I had to take my shoes and socks off and wade into the lake to get water. The water was pretty clear but had a bit of taste to it. I wasn't sure if I'd make it to the Marlette Lake campground, the next water source, so I filled up enough for a dry camp. While there, I cleaned my feet and had some food.
 |
| Spooner Lake |
Shortly after I was back on the trail, above Spooner Lake, I met three backpackers resting where they had cached some water. We talked for a few minutes before I continued on up the trail.
I realized I wasn't going to make it all the way to the Marlette Lake campground so I stopped a bit earlier than I wanted to since it looked like there wouldn't be any places to camp further along the trail for several miles.
There was a geocache not too far up the trail, so I went and found it before setting up camp so I wouldn't have to bother with it in the morning. It turns out I probably could have camped up by the cache, but my pack was below and I didn't feel like bothering moving camp once I got back as I did have a pretty nice location.
 |
| Camp |
The trail is very dusty, especially because of all the mountain bikes. That makes for some very dirty feet and legs and socks and shoes. I don't remember my feet every getting so dirty on a trail.
No comments:
Post a Comment