TRT Day 7

Miles: 67.4 - 90.3


Photos: McKinney Bay + Blurry Bear


I am very happy with how this day turned out! I woke up with a much better night’s sleep compared to yesterday and felt much more energetic while hiking. 


Very early on in the day, I decided that I would push myself to make it to Tahoe City. I was running through the logistics in my head, and it just made more sense to make it into town today, as opposed to camping out a few miles before town today and then spending an entire nearo there tomorrow. Calling the hotel to change my reservation back to what it was originally wasn’t a problem.


The hiking was also slightly easier for me. Much cruiser and the miles just flew by. I realized in the middle of the day how much I disliked hiking through the Desolation Wilderness. It was pretty miserable due to the constant scrambling on top of pieces of blasted granite which resulted in a lot of slow walking to make sure I didn’t trip and made my trekking poles nearly useless. Maybe I will have a better time going through it in the future.


I still don’t think I'm 100% adapted to the altitude. I sat down to take a break at a stream, 5 miles before Tahoe City, and after a few minutes started to feel quite nauseous. I also wasn’t able to eat the entirety of my dinner the last two nights so I was worried I might actually be getting sick. I just told myself to stay calm, that I would be in town before I knew it, and I could re-evaluate once I had a good night’s rest with some real food in me.


Since it was getting late, I did have to hike the last 1.5 miles at night. That resulted in me getting lost by taking the wrong path at a junction. I didn't realize it until I ended up at a private rope course (basically an adult jungle gym). I was not going back up the hill to the junction so I just checked my map and realized that the TRT was just a road walk away. During that road walk, I saw a bear’s eyes glimmering from the light of my headlamp. First time seeing a bear that close! At that point, I was so determined to get to town that I didn’t even hesitate to yell at it to go away. It scuttled off to the side near some trees and just looked at me while I walked past. Not bad for my first bear encounter. 


Got into town around 8:30 PM, just before the restaurants were closing. I got some Greek food, a soda (very rare for me), and then checked into my hotel. It was a very very good day. 

 



 

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