Baden Powell is awesome—I loved the 38 switchbacks.  Tell me about the view from the top.

We reported in to the Tahoe Rim Trail Association and received certification for our hike completion.  Dave is #1134, and I am #1133.  Since we had 2 marathon hiking days, we finished 2 days early.  One has to have something to do. . . we decided to hike Baden Powell Monument in the Sierra Madre Range.

The final push.  Dave and I finally hit our stride—we now wished the remainder of the trail was longer.  15, 20, even 25 miles seemed like the norm. I was very happy to be hiking once again with my friend.  We arrived at Grey Lake—it was another arduous, long hike UP, followed by OVER, then DOWN—to Rose Summit (11,250 feet)—coldest damned night I’ve spent in a long time.  It was only 20 degrees; we were in a bowl—the frigid air settled in over us.  Only time we had to don tights and balaclavas.  Rose Summit was the coolest place I’ve seen in a long time.  One side was a knife edge—if you moved much from one side to the other, you’d fall about 2000 feet and the other side was even worse.

We hiked to Richardson Lake, and set up camp.  We met a thirty-something woman we nicknamed “weird girl,” because she refused to hang out with us, come into our camp for supper, or even tell us her trail name.  Maybe she didn’t have one, or maybe she was a local.  At any rate she wasn’t like any other hiker I’ve met.  We hiked from Richardson Lake, with a plan to camp about 18 miles out, but when we got there—the water source sucked and we were trying to decide what to do.  Dave volunteered to call Jane and have her bring Cokes to the trailhead 7 more miles ahead at Tahoe City—that’s all it took for me.  I’d do almost anything for a Coke.  How about you?  We ended up doing a marathon that day.  Damn. . . that hurt.

We walked by Echo Lake, and then turned the corner to Desolation Wilderness.  Dave described the scene as Mars with oxygen—no trees, just desolation—nothing.  OMG—it was 16 miles of stepping on the sharpest rocks on the planet—like shards of glass.  We thanked God when we got to Gilmore Lake, because the rocks evened out a bit.  But, when we left there—the rocks were back—for about 8 or 9 more miles.  Thought it would never end.

Sadly, Jane’s feet didn’t improve—she decided to get off trail.  I don’t know how she did it: she hiked another 6 miles down a Blue Blaze trail that I don’t know if I could have done. Kudos to her.  Dave and I had a decision to make: we had 80 more miles, and we were conflicted as to whether we should continue without her—she insisted we go on.  It was really sad—neither of us wanted to leave Jane– she appeared convinced that we should go on—but I know it’ll haunt her until she finishes the Tahoe trail someday.

Star Lake is about 3000 feet up from Heavenly base camp (about 10,000 feet).  It was amazing—a caldera surrounded by boulders the size of apartment buildings—and a hell of an uphill climb to get there.  We headed on to Big Meadows—another uphill climb to get there (about 12,400 feet).  Shitty campsite. There was a construction crew dumping junk into our water supply.  Thank God for Katadyn—we had water that day, thanks to you guys—we purified the worst water possible.

We had a great breakfast at the bar.  I had an omelette with everything, including avocado—you’ve got to have them in CA because they are delicious & CHEAP.  We then cruised over to the convenience to get our mail drop—food for the next 5 days.  Dave & I were really concerned about Jane’s feet. So we each got rid of some of our food so we could carry some of her gear.  We continued our hike—after a mile and a half road hike, we got back on the trail, a Black Diamond slope at Heavenly, CA.  Unlike in the past, when I skied Heavenly, we were hiking UP—a 35 degree Black Diamond slope.  We got to the top—the only thing we could say was WOW in between gasping for breath.

One of my best hiking days ever.  The trail was beautiful, well maintained—my thanks to everyone who had anything to do with its planning and maintenance—it was pure joy.  We rolled into Kingsbury Crossing in the middle of the afternoon, after a great day of hiking.  When Jane followed us into camp (across from a bar and a convenience store) — her feet were blistered and bleeding.  I was utterly amazed.  I knew how bad she was hurting—but she came in like a trooper- I don’t know if I could have gone through what she did and kept going.

The weather was perfect this morning—another beautiful day in the back country.  The cool thing about where we were, we had pumped water—the only place on the trail, so morning chores were easy.  The only bad thing was that we found bear scat around the pumping station. . . doom on us.  Regardless, today was going to be cool.. After a hard first day, we only had to go to Spooner Lake—8 miles and a long uphill.  For Dave & me, it was a good warm-up; we were already back in the zone.  For Jane, however, not so much.  Spooner Lake is beautiful—but we found out that camping was not allowed!  We had to hike up on a ridge and found a flat spot overlooking the lake, and spent the evening.  I’ve been told that the sunset there rivals any anywhere on the planet.