Miles hiked: 19.4.
We all got up in he 5-o'clock hour, intent on getting as many of the miles to Echo Pass done before the weather turned on us again. I left first, climbing up over the side of Elephant's Back (Elephant's Shoulder?), with the sun peaking through under gray clouds and Hope Valley below filled with fog.
Then dropping gradually down past Frog Lake to Carson Pass, with views north and west. We hung out at he Carson Pass visitor center long enough for the volunteers who run it to show up and pamper us a bit with hot chocolate, cookies, fruit, and a wood stove heating up the little building filled with books and informative signs on regional history and hats and carved walking sticks for sale. There was a note pinned to the sign board outside about a lost phone, and this turned out to be Fix It's! The people who gave him the ride found the phone, drove all the way up here to leave the note, then agreed to do the drive again to deliver the phone. Awesome people!
Around 8:30 Hufflepuff, Phil (I think it's actually changing to Fill) and I set out again for the next 15 or so miles to Echo Pass. The trail climbed gradually up and over a gentle saddle with views of big Lake Tahoe off to the north, then down in to Meiss Meadows all full of flowers and green grass. Some rain started and we got our waterproofs on and I got into mile-covering mode while Hufflepuff and Fill checked out the Meiss Cabin.
I climbed up past Showers Lake with while hillsides covered with paintbrush and lupine. This area is where I took some of my first backpacking trips, and it remains a special place to me. Up past the lake the clouds darkened and some lightning started up and the rain eased in to hail. I was crossing an open bowl, climbing slightly up to a forested ridge for the last 8 miles to Echo. The hail got heavier and the lightning was just about right on top of me so I ran the last couple hundred yards up into the trees then stood huffing and puffing in the lee of a Lodgepole.
When things calmed down I redoubled my efforts to get to Echo quickly. I cruised along the gently rolling forested ridge walk, splashing through puddles and catching quick glimpses now and then of Lake Tahoe.
Crossing Hwy 50 could be the most dangerous part of this whole hike, with San Francisco area folks racing to the mountains for the weekend. I ran across with a big pick-up coming on quickly, and jumped back in to the safety of the woods. I got to the Echo Lake Chalet just after 2, which was when the post office supposedly closes, but ended up having no problem getting my food box. Next I got a turkey sandwich and big milkshake and of course a beer for dessert.
I had called my parents from Carson Pass and made plans to get picked up this afternoon at Echo, but there were a couple other hikers who had a car and I ended up getting a ride down to South Lake Tahoe with them. I hung out at Lake of the Sky Outfitters, a hiker-friendly outdoor store that has a back room set up as a hiker lounge, for a couple hours then got picked up by my parents.
We settled in to our hotel and caught up over brandy then went to a casino buffet and I did the good American thing and ate so much that it hurt for a couple hours.
Birds:
Rufous Hummingbird
Green-tailed Towhee - fledgling
Cassin's Finch
Olive-sided Flycatcher
White-crowned Sparrow
Black-headed Grosbeak
Clark's Nutcracker
Pika
Fox Sparrow
Brewer's Sparrow
Mountain Chickadee
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Hermit Thrush
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Lazuli Bunting
Cliff Swallow
Mountain Bluebird
Northern Flicker
Brewer's Blackbird
Townsend's Solitaire
Stellar's Jay
Brown Creeper
American Robin
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