PCT 57 – Carson Pass

Daily Miles: 17
Total Miles: 1087

It has felt like quite a luxury to wake up without an alarm the last few days.  When we are off-trail, we never wear a watch or wake up with an alarm…it is a bit strange that those things only come into use for us when we hike.  SweetPea is usually up a half hour or so before Beardoh, but it works out well, because that gives her time to stretch and roll her hip.  It also gives her more time to pack up, as it always seems to take her longer.

This morning, we chatted with MountainMan and Gazelle while eating our breakfast bars.  The relaxed atmosphere has been a nice change on this stretch.  We were the last ones out of camp and got going just after 7:00.

Everyone seemed to be in a hurry to get to Carson Pass this morning (about 6.5 miles in for the day), because we had heard that the rangers at the pass had trail magic.  We started to see lots of day hikers as we got closer to the pass.  Situations like this always remind us of the fact that we haven’t showered or done laundry in awhile (10 days for us today).

When we got to the pass, the rangers  were kind enough to give us a soda, a piece of watermelon and a Reese’s peanut butter cup.  We supplemented the trail magic by buying a few small bags of chips.  It was a nice break and there were a lot of other hikers hanging out in front of the ranger cabin.

As we kept hiking, we continued to see quite a few day hikers.  There were green meadows and many kinds of wild flowers to see.  We even saw some irises, which we didn’t know even grew in the wild.  After several miles, we came to the junction where the Tahoe Rim Trail joins the PCT.  It was nice to be back in this area that we had hiked together two years ago.

We ate lunch at a lovely lake where a bunch of other hikers were hanging out.  It was such a nice spot that we stayed there relaxing for an hour and a half.  Eventually we decided we better get moving before we lost all motivation to hike.

We made it to camp by 4:30, which is probably the earliest arrival time so far on the trail.  We had plenty of time for camp chores and relaxing.  Our campsite is a bit buggy tonight, so most everyone was in their tents by 7:00.  We’re all excited to get into South Lake Tahoe tomorrow morning.  We have been talking about eating breakfast at Denny’s for days now.  Everyone has given a lot of thought to what they want to order…when you’re walking for hours each day, these thoughts can take up a lot of your time.