The long distance / lightweight backpacking community really is a small world. Today we were sitting at Echo Lake with 5 other hikers when one pulls out a few odd trinkets to be delivered to another of the five from "Root Canal" who is a girl, Caitlin, that I went to college with. Not long after it comes up that another guy (Don Wilson) in the group lives in Tuscon, AZ and teaches Backpacking Light courses and low and behold he had co-lead with Andy Skurka the wilderness trekking course my friend Margaret from college had taken and lives 3 blocks from her in Tuscon. Pretty wild to discover these coincidences back to back.
Another great coincidence is that Anna's sister in-law to be, Kate, happened to be in Tahoe City for business and had a morning off to drive around the lake and meet us. It was so nice to see her familiar face and to have some company from real life (non-hiker world).
The other big news is that we spent last night, this morning and afternoon with Monologue and her cousin Michael in South Lake Tahoe. It was great to meet up with Monologue again after over a month. She is about 20 trail miles behind us, so we are going to take a couple short days so she can catch up. Her cousin Michael had come to town to visit her and had rented a car so we had the good fortune to not have to buy another bus day pass and got a ride back to the trail today without having to hitch-hike. That was a luxurious change of pace.
We are camped tonight on the only patch of dirt we have seen for the last 4 miles or so and really glad to be out of town and back on the trail. Going into town for more than one night a week sort of depresses me anymore. It is much more peaceful, simple, and enjoyable to be making progress on the hike and away from speeding cars, loud towns, and pricey convenient services. All you have to worry about on the trail is meeting basic needs of food,water, shelter, rest and health care.
We are lucky to be out here walking through the Desolation Wilderness. Now officially into Northern California, the hiking only seems to be getting better as we go North.
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