Beautiful night last night. We could see the big dipper in perfect vision as we lay in our hammocks. The moon went across the sky through the night and there was so much light shining in our lake cove. We woke up early to a beautiful blue sky and views of Star Lake surrounded by cliffs. We managed to pack up a bit quicker this morning and left camp around 6:30. We expected water about a mile down the trail, but there was nothing there, so we had to walk another four miles before we came to a nice stream. Beardoh was totally our of water, so it came just in time.
The trail was pretty easy this morning, either following the contour or going downhill. My knee was hurting again on the downhills today which was a bummer. We started to see some day hikers as we got closer to Heavenly ski resort…we even ran into three trail maintainers of the TRT. We thanked them for all their work as the trail has been great. They asked us about down trees and were headed up to take care of the one tree on the trail. They gave us directions to Tramway Market where we were picking up a resupply box. We left the trail and took side trails and roads to get to the market. We had to ask people along the way and people were very helpful…even the road construction crews were friendly as we walked by them working.
We picked up our mail drop and bought a ice cream bar from the market. Once we had sorted out our food, we went to the restaurant next door (Fox and Hound) for a late breakfast. There was a large group of very boisterous guys in the restaurant when we got there…not sure we can remember such a loud place. Kind of annoying, but other than the noise they were not being jerks. We definitely felt like we were on noise overload. The food was a bit pricey for its quality and the portions were pretty light. A bicyclist near us ordered a salad for $10 and that was probably the best portion of food that we saw. We weren’t hugely hungry yet, so it was not too irksome, but in general we decided we will get salads more in townstops unless we are super famished. But the bright note was that we could charge up our phone/iPod and get on their free wifi.
After we finished up lunch, we headed back to the trail. Luckily we found it pretty quickly. We probably lost about a mile of trail miles, but we’re not purists so we were fine with that. We headed out with the goal of loading up with water about a mile in so that we would have enough water for dry camping tonight (we are currently in a stretch of probably about 16 miles without water). Unfortunately, the stream we had planned on was non-existent, and we knew there was no other chance for water for a quite a while. So Beardoh was the man of the hour and jogged down a half mile to some houses we had seen near the trail and knocked on some doors for water. At the houses he knocked on the door of an old hippie that was very friendly and let Beardoh have some water off his kitchen tap. The guy had moved up here 30 years ago and was here for the skiing and the biking. He was as tall as Beardoh and probably another 50lbs and had a big grey beard. Thanks to this kind soul, Beardoh made it back up to Sweetpea in less than a half hour.
Once we had the water, our packs were super heavy with 3+ liters of water and almost four full days of food. Luckily it was a bit overcast, so we didn’t feel the additional energy drain of the hot sun. The trail was quite good with a mix of uphill, downhill, and following the contours. We had some awesome views of the lake at the very end of the day…very low scrub gave us clear views for a mile or two of walking. It was pretty quiet on the trail this afternoon and are camped now just on the side of a trail. Sweetpea got two blisters today…hopefully they’ll feel better by morning.
Daily Miles: 24 miles
Total Miles: 53.9 miles
Questions or thoughts on this article? Please leave them below: