Tahoe Rim Trail September 2019 Day 6

Day 6
Oh, day six, I did not expected this kind of weather yet, or that we would have to make decisions like these!
As we sat in the gale last night at Susie Lake I used my inReach to view the weather forecast for the next day, the reason was wet clothes and low temperatures. Even if the weather clears, if we don't have some sun and the temperature doesn't rise enough to dry wet clothes sometime during the day, the next three days are going to not only be miserable for us but also potentially dangerous. 
The inReach did not have good news. A heavy wintry mix starting at around 2 pm. Given how accurate the weather forecasts have been on the inReach so far, there was nothing to make me believe this would not be correct. Decision made we needed to retrace our steps back to Echo Chalet and get into town again to dry clothes and wait out this early season weather.  With no cell service how do we coordinate getting out from Echo Chalet again. I can call Uber but that has become very expensive transportation (and will be again shortly). Doug Sherburne to the rescue. Doug is a member of the Tahoe Rim Trail Thru Hikers Facebook page and I had remembered him commenting he had a list of trail angels for the TRT and Bobbi had his cell phone number. We used the inReach (which has paid for itself on this trip already) to message Doug and ask if he could arrange a trail angel to pick us up tomorrow from Echo Chalet and take us to South Lake Tahoe. It worked perfectly and Doug (bless him) arranged everything for us in just a few minutes of responding to what was probably a very unusual text message coming across his phone. 
This throws are Desolation Wilderness permit and our resupply nero in Tahoe City off again, but at least we now have a safe plan and all we will have to do is get out before the storm starts again.

Good morning from Susie Lake. You might infer from this photo that everything is right with the world and from the sky you would be right. In fact it is 28 degrees and even while having dry clothes to wear, Bobbi had a miserably cold night. 

The storm clouds were still rolling through around us as the sun was coming up. 

Our Tent set up survived. Kudos to the Gossamer Gear "The Two"  it performed perfectly in the strong winds and rain.

The morning light on the clouds and the water does make for some gorgeous photos

Looking back behind the lake you could not even see these hills when we arrived yesterday.

Leaving Susie Lake behind

Back up the way we came, Heather Lake looks much less threatening than yesterday 

Twisted cedar along Heather Lake 

A fantastic no name pond between Aloha and Heather that we hurried by yesterday 

Another view that was hidden in the rain yesterday 

Aloha Lake looks quite different today, not as much wind but very cold temperatures. High of maybe 38 today.

Passing Lucille Lake you can begin to see the next storm clouds forming. 

Just as we were almost out of Desolation Wilderness we met the back country Ranger coming up the trail, She checked our permit and thankfully we were existing DS on our permitted date, not in the right direction or location, but we were going out, so she signed off and away we went.  We also saw about 20 people in various groups heading up to Aloha Lake to camp, some prepared but mostly not for the weather that was coming. 

Just past Desolation Wilderness boundary it started to sprinkle on us again, but the photo shenanigans continued. Bobbi dressed in all my (her) sleep clothes from last night and anything else that would fit to stay warm. She always has a smile on her face! 

We made it down and got picked up by trail angel Susan, who was delightful and took us back to the Econolodge where both Andrew and Amy did go out of there way to accommodate us with our bizarre schedule. I can highly recommend them for customer service. 
Thanks again to Doug for being a great long distance trail angel 

As a side note we heard the following day that someone made a campfire up at Aloha Lake and the high wind spread the fire that needed to be called out to the fire department. I suspect that some of the groups that passed up were not prepared and got wet and cold, lit a fire to try and stay warm. Open fires have been banned in the area for 3 years and fire danger was extremely high due to the wind and dry conditions.

Day 6 Stats