Miles 1093.5-1100.5 (7 miles)
Elevation 8,310'
Last night I had reception, so I was looking up Donner Pass on Wikipedia, since I was going to go over that pass soon. I read about the Donner Party. Wow, that just about made me feel like a pansy. Lol. Many of you might know of them for their infamy of resorting to cannibalism to stay alive while they were trapped in the sierras for months. But the story is more detailed than that. Most of the pioneer party were women and children, and reading about what they had to endure just made me feel like such a sissy. Lol. Anyhow, read up on them, if you feel inclined, it's a fascinating/tragic story.
Yeah, I only did 7 miles. Don't judge me. :D Today was practically a zero; a "Nero" is basically short for near-zero, ie almost no miles hikes. Lol. We stopped at Echo lake and ran into about 8 other hikers just coming off trail and on their way to Tahoe. I got cell service there so I called Black Diamond because one of my poles fell apart the other day. They're sending me a replacement pair. Whoo hoo! I have the ultra distance z poles (same ones Kyle had), and getting another pair would have sucked because they're expensive. Thanks Black Diamond!! We also called Martin Guitar. Kyle has been wanting to get a travel guitar for a while. Two other guys I know on trail got sponsored by some other guitar companies so we hoped Martin Guitar would do the same. Denied. Bummer. Ah well, it was worth a shot. :)
The pic of Kyle standing on the trail next to the lake is Echo Lake. The other pic I have of the 2 lakes in the distance is also Echo and Upper Echo Lake. Both lakes are surrounded by cabins that are accessible only by foot or boat. Its a pretty popular vacation destination. The hike out of there was really mellow but TONS of people. It's ironic that the area we're in is called "desolation wilderness"; thus far it is anything but. O.o lol
Anyhow, there's a lake next to the trail called Lake Aloha. I saw it on the map and immediately thought, oooooo!! :). When we got there, it pretty much blew my mind. Oh my gosh it was soooooo epic!! Thus far it is my favorite lake on trail. Other than the name of the lake, the reason why I love it is because it is surrounded by rocks, and has tons of little rock islands in it. I took a pic of the lake. <3 usually lakes are surrounded by grass or other foilage. And that equals lots of mosquitos and bugs. Bleh. But this lake was just surrounded by rocks. It was amazing and beautiful. :) I went into lizard beach mode. Ooo the rocks were so warm. Kyle went swimming. It was cold so there was no way I was jumping in. Lol
Somehow I passed out on the rock for 2 hours. Lol. Oooo it was sooooo glorious!! :) by then it was around 4pm. Withing the next half hour we both decided to camp there cuz it was just so freaking epic. It wasn't really a hard decision. It's funny but Kyle and I think exactly the same, so it's not like I had to ask him what he wanted to do, I already knew. It was just a matter of which one of us said it aloud first. Lol.
Anyhow, it was a productive day regardless. I repaired Kyle's belt, fixed a hole in my shirt, and cut off all the margins on my maps. (saves weight). I was really stoked to camp here. The lake is soooo epic. And Kyle was kind of having an off day. I think getting used to those 5 finger shoes had something to do with it. And I was super tired myself. I dunno why. But oh well. It's so nice here :) I'll probably do a 25 mile day tomorrow, at least. Terrain for this section seems pretty mellow so it should be pretty easy to haul ass and make up miles.
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