Day 67

21.7 miles

We woke up in a better mood today. The terrain we walked through today was absolutely beautiful! We saw giant rock outcroppings of some sedimentary or possible sand stone type rocks. It was neat to watch how the rocks changed shape and view as the trail circled around the bases and through the canyons. Parts of today were through some shady forests which felt much cooler than the exposed hill slopes. But the hill slopes were covered in flowers. There were Woolly Common Sunflower, Nettle leaf fist hyssop, and wavy checker bloom. I love the mix of colors in the flower patches but a camera just can’t seem to pick up all the beauty!

Early in our hike we randomly got some cell service. Kevin discovered that Desolation wilderness which we will walk through in two days has a new bear can requirement. This is super great since it is a high use area with day hikers and weekenders and people aren’t always reliable to store food properly. However, since we are two days out, we couldn’t plan to keep our rented bear cans that we returned two days ago. We have our Ur sacks which are certified by the same grizzly bear foundation as bear cans but not accepted for some reason. So when we had service again this afternoon we took a break with our tramily to figure out our plans and get a hotel reservation in South Lake Tahoe. We finally did get everything worked out and continued on to camp. We camped at a cute pond with a breeze so the mosquitos aren’t too bad.

We managed to get the tent door shut that was stuck open all last night. So we will just use one door now and have to be gracious with each other even more in a small tent with one side door! When we get to town we will have to order a new tent.