We were optimistic that most of the major snow was behind us. We knocked off 11 miles by noon! That's almost as many as we had done all of yesterday.
And we hiked out of the Desolation Wilderness.
Hiked up over Barker Pass, still cruising and then, we hit the north side of Barker. Solid snow pack with no visible trail or swithbacks. One major steep snowfield, and we figured if we could get down that, and amongst the trees, we should be good to go. Brownie and Dizzy were with us too. Made it down the first descent and then looked down to where the trail might be. It was crazy steep and there was still probably 8 feet of snow, so no way to find any trail at all. We decided our best option was to climb back up and hike the two miles out to Barker Pass. It took awhile! We used our gps to find our way back (of course we had just hiked this and tried to follow our own footprints, but they were melting in the afternoon sun. Found our way back to the road, no cell service so we started hiking down the 6 miles to the next road for a hitch to somewhere without death defying snow obstacles :) After we'd hiked about 4 miles a guy came up the closed road, out for a bike ride up the steep incline. Larry. Our hero for the day. We kept walking and Larry finished his climb, then rode back down and got his car. He gave all four of us a ride into Tahoe City. We showered, met for dinner at Blue Agave ( with Larry) and he is giving us a ride tomorrow to Sierra city where....we are hoping for no dangerous snow sections!! We are trying to get some miles done, but I feel like this trail is pushing back!!! Today we did 21 miles, but only 14 PCT miles. We did have a pretty awesome view of Lake Tahoe though!
Met a hiker named Eric from Tazmania yesterday. He was about 6'2". He said his last few creek crossings in the Sierras were terrifying and he had to swim across. Started up stream so that by the time the current shoved him down stream he would be at a spot to climb out. He got pretty banged up. There is more snow in the forecast for there on Saturday night. Come on summer!!! Show yourself.
And as we were driving down to Tahoe City with Larry, we saw a HUGE bear in the road. Tried to get s pic before he took off. Pretty happy I was in a car!
A few random photos from the day...
Made it down this steep slope before we decided to go back. Then had to climb back up 😜
Crossing a few streams early in the day. These were ok!
No snow here. Thanks Ranger Rick :)
Fan out searching for the trail.
And the end of the day . Ah! Dinner with Brownie, Dizzy and trail angel Larry.
Dang! You guys are warriors to slog through all that snow going down and then back up again! I hope you can get to a snow free spot and then enjoy this section later. Your photos are incredible tho. What a shot of Lake Tahoe!
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