Day 85 + 86: South Lake Tahoe

13th+14th July 2013
Mile 1090.5 to 1094.5 : Highway 80 to Echo Lake Chalet
Mileage : 4

I slept terribly last night, infact to use the verb 'to sleep' here misrepresents the facts. After a good dinner and few beers he night before i thought id pass out no problem, but it was not to be. Peter Pan, Hoop Dreams, Mr Green, Aloha and myself were sharing the very tiny shabby motel room so we weren't of to a good start. Mr Green, with  whom ordinarily i have absolutely no problem whatsoever, was snoring loudly enough to wake the dead. If this wasn't enough, a fairly busy road passed close by not helping matters. And to top it all off, at about 3am several groups of drunk Friday nighters began returning to their rooms, conveniently right next to ours, nite helping matters at all. I have grown used to the blissful silence of the outdoors, and now find it difficult to sleep with even the slightest evening distraction. By 8:30am i had had perhaps 2 hours of fitful sleep but it was time to get up. I resolved there and then to head back to the trailhead that night if only to be assured of a better nights sleep. Aloha was leaving early to go and meet his wife Toots Magoots and her hiking companion Tears for Bears who are a few days ahead, and i got a lift with him.toothed local library to do some much needed blogging. I was too early for the opening of library, so had a nap for almost an hour before sitting down for several hours at the computer. I was.there for most of the day it turned out, with an hour break where went across the road to.stuff myself with very good Indian food as the local.Indian restaurant was having a lunchtime buffet. For reasons i don't understand South Lake Tahoe is full of buffets, not usually my cup of tea but a perfect was for a hikers to take on huge amounts of calories. Back at the library to finish blogging, i bumped into two thirds of the The Wolfpack, Rocky and T-Rex who started on the same day as me, and Dr Slosh and Smiles, another couple from the bay area. Dr Slosh had a friend with a cabin in South Lake Tahoe and they were staying there while taking their zeros. Another reason for my initial of heading back to the trail was that i didn't want to pay Saturday night prices for accommodation, food or drink in this Bay Area expensive weekend playground. I sensed an opportunity to yogi a free nights stay and of course they said yes. We all needed to go do resupply and then wait for Chick-Chack and Starfox, the final third of the Wolfpack, and with whom i did the High Route section,to turn up with the van. Initially i had assumed the van would be of the people carrier variety, but i wasn't, it was a u-haul, moving house type van as it was the last vehicule available. With all of us plus shopping crammed in the back trying to be as inconspicuous as possible as technically what we were doin was mildly illegal we set to find the cabin. Upon arrival i knew i had made the right decision. Although all the bedrooms were claimed, i would have a couch and an entire room to myself in this calm residential part of town, i would sleep very well that night.

After many, many hours of sleep, making up for the night before, the house stirred and at about midday the lot of us were back in the van on our way back to the trail. We.didn't quite go.directly back to the trail aw We had to.drop off the van and then wait for rides from trail angels back up to the trailhead. By 3:30 i was doing the short hike from where i had gotten picked up, to Echo Lake where the others had gotten dropped off. The first few miles after a town stop and with a full pack are always difficult, and today was no exception, but soon enough i was there. The Wolfpack was there, along with Puppy, with whom PRT had been bumping into on and off over the last few days on the trail. Puppy told me the rest of PRT had just set off, and that i could probably catch them if hurried. I was in two minds about what to do, on the one hand i wanted to get on trail and makemiles, and on the other i knew i would probably not get reception up there to call Sophie on her birthday the next day. I decided that i wanted to speak to Sophie more than i wanted to catch up with PRT, so went a little way up the the trail to find somewhere to stealth camp. Stealth camping, as the term suggests, is what hikers do when they want to camp incognito. The two main reasons for doing this are : 1 - camping might not be allowed as was the case for me that night as i committed my second illegal act in as many days. A sign that i ignored told me that i was not allowed to camp within 2.5 miles of lake, and i had no intention of hiking out just to come back the next morning to ring Sophie, and 2 - a hikers might not want to spend a lot of money paying for accommodation in a town and so goes to find somewhere to sleep. Had i not met up with the Wolfpack yesterday afternoon my stealth camping would have for both reasons. A little way up a side trail i found a bi of ground just big enough for my sleeping big and settled down for another long nights sleep, but jot before taking in the stunning vista of the southern end of lake Tahoe from my vantage point high on the surrounding mountains. A good end to the day.