Tahoe Rim Trail September 2019 Day 4

Day 4

We woke this morning from our 16 hours of cocooning to a cold but blue sky day. According to our new schedule we have 10 miles to Echo Lake Chalet, the jumping off point for Desolation Wilderness. 

Today's view of Showers Lake from our campsite

Yesterday view in the same direction when we arrived at Showers

We spent some time marveling at the views around us, having coffee and moving enough to stay warm while packing up. 

Our tent footprint in the snow when we were all packed up. It turned out to be quite a bit of snow

The air was absolutely still, as it often is after a storm. The reflection in Showers made you stop and think, which way is up?

We got water at the outlet of the Lake and then started up the ridge going North.

The walk out of the lake area was fantastic as we climbed up to the ridge looking back

More spectacular views 

Lake Tahoe had an inversion lying over it.

Plenty of wildflowers still blooming but now heavy with the snow from the night before 

More great views, this time looking back to where we had come from the days before

Along the trail the cedar trees are mixed in with the pines and they are enormous 

Today we met the SOBO (Southbound) "Bubble" for the PCT. It seems that all the "real" hikers got off the trail at Echo Chalet the night before having heard about the weather and went into South Lake Tahoe to ride it out in a hotel while we stayed (not that we had a choice) on the trail to ride it out.  We were passed by no less than 18 PCT SOBO hikers today. In order to make it safely to Mexico they need to get up and over Forrester Pass in the High Sierra by the end of the first week of October or risk being blocked by more heavy snow that will keep them from completing the whole trail in one season.

Crossing Hwy 50 we saw the sign that shows trail mileage and also has the warning for the bear activity at Aloha Lake, which was suppose to be our destination for today. The latest information we got a few days ago was this bear had been caught outside the Desolation Wilderness boundary and euthanized. She had two cubs that she might have already taught her "skills" but only time will tell. This bear had evidently been able to open an actual bear canister and also had eaten two Ursacks.... quite remarkable behavior.

A couple of miles before Echo Chalet we encountered a stream which is marked as intermittent on our trail app, but was raging. It turns out this is an outlet for Echo Lake and is only high after Labor Day when they open up the overflow gates to Echo Lake at the end of the season. It was very high today! While we were getting water and figuring out what to do, a group of six engineers from CID came walking up the trail to look over the raging stream. They will be building a bridge over this stream by next year.

About 100 feet up the stream hikers had been using this steep ravine and the fallen log to cross the creek. We didn't particularly like the look of either solution today, so we backtracked the .1 miles and made our way stealthily up the other bank and around some million dollar vacation homes

We walked on past a series of little vacation cabins in the woods to Echo Lake and Echo Chalet. The Chalet is just a Marina/Restaurant/Hotel that sits fortunately at the foot of Echo Lake, known for its high prices and somewhat chilly reception for HikerTrash. It closed for the season on September 5th, so no coffee or hot chocolate for us. 

Today's dilemma for us. We have walked our 10 miles. There is a no camping zone from here to the beginning of Desolation Wilderness boundary in 3.1 miles. This doesn't seem like a lot, but I didn't want to bring up the fact that we should push past the 10 mile limit we had just set. Bobbi was feeling much better. The section up Echo Lake was reported to be very steep and rocky. 
Uber to the rescue. A night in a hotel, with shower and real food seemed like just the pick me up that was needed. So Bobbi had better cell service than I did, so she made reservations at a cheap hotel and I called an Uber and off to the Econolodge we went.

Internet photo

Day 4 Stats: