Day 69

5 miles to Echo Lakes Chalet

Stayed the night in Carson City with Shuffles’ friends

We awoke bright and early, ready to walk into the Echo lakes area. The chalet/store was tempting us with snacks before Cheery-o, Shuffles, Pebbles, and I met up with Shuffles previous neighbors. We cruised down hill along familiar trail. There was one new burn area right before highway 50 and also around Echo Lake from a fire last fall. The Echo Lake area is national forest and serviced by the USFS but has small family cabins that have been passed down for generations. Most of the cabins survived the fires but not all of them.

After a few snacks, we all met Stu who drove us up to Carson City where we met his wife, Stephanie. They were so kind to open their home to stinky hikers. Seriously, we hadn’t showered in ten days. They gave us showers and laundry, a fresh lunch of fruit and hummus, then a ride to the grocery store! These next couple of days I will be trying out mashed potatoes again and some new “pretend” tuna packets which I am excited for. Pretend, as in they are vegan.

We took over the kitchen table to pack up all our food, we could split large boxes of granola bars so we could all have various flavors and varieties. Then we began the saga of board games! Back home our friend group loves to play games so it was really fun to share that past time with friends out here too.

Dinner was a delectable spread. They made us a delicious dish of lentils, rice, tomato, and carmelized onions as well as a French potato salad which I hadn’t had before! They even grilled some chicken too. Obviously the food was a highlight of our stay.

It was amazing to stay with a family, have some fun playing games, and eat good food for a whole day to prep for hiking more miles!