Looking Back On Backpacking Trips CJ and I Have Done: Tahoe Rim Trail Day 6 and 7

For the first time, we woke and got rolling with pretty decent efficiency. We had been hiking for a couple hours when we came to this sign near Barker Pass west of Lake Tahoe. It clearly proved we had in fact walked a full 20 miles the day before. When I planned this hike, I thought our days would 10 to 12 miles. Not 20 miles! 

When I took this next picture, I didn't know we would have another epic distance day and land in a hotel in Tahoe City before dark.

Late in the afternoon, CHP helicopter came over head and seemed to be following us. They continued to follow us for more than an hour. I concluded they must be using us for training. Then we came upon a group of boy scouts out of the bay area. They had been on the first day of an intended five day backpacking trip out of Tahoe City when one of them stepped wrong and wrecked his ankle. The CHP helicopter was looking for them and followed us right to them. They probably saw CJ and I and thought we might be part of their group because of CJ's age. 

The kid wasn't in danger. He had plenty of supporting people around him. I've been present when helicopter pilots land in dicey situations. The pilots are amazing but sometimes things go crazy, like a sudden sideways gust or something. I didn't want my 13 year old son anywhere near the situation if this pilot made the decision to land in the forest. So we hiked on from there. About a mile or so down the trail, we came upon a firefighter crew heading in the direction of the injured kid. They were pushing a gurney with big lawn tractor tires, crossing a creek with it. Very different from what I am used to seeing in the city. We told them where the kid was and then we decided to take a break and play in the stream. We lingered in the water long enough that the firefighters came back by us on their way out. Their gurney was empty. They said they used the CHP helicopter hoist to lift the kid up to the helicopter. Cool ride for that kid!

At that point, I realized we were getting really close to civilization. CJ said he wanted to try to get all the way to Tahoe City so I let him convince me. 

We did 23+ miles from Lake Richardson to Tahoe City. As we were approaching town, I texted Erin to let her know we were done... about two days earlier than expected. She could not drive all the way to Tahoe on a moments notice that evening to get us, so she went online and found us a hotel room. 

The Rim Trail brings you in to Tahoe City and dumps you almost directly into the Savemart parking lot. Fresh food. Right there. CJ stayed with our packs in the parking lot while I went inside and shopped. Immediately upon entering the store I could smell every single thing in it. I could smell everything all at once. And I could dissect everything individually. I could tell the smell of the soap from the smell of the fresh vegetables. The ready to eat rotisserie chicken pulled me like a bear to a picnic basket. I bought a chicken, some fresh fruit and pasta salad. Then CJ and I walked another mile or so down North Lake Boulevard toward the hotel Erin had quickly booked.

The restaurants and bars along North Tahoe Boulevard were overflowing. We became rock-stars as we walked passed people eating at outdoor tables. A surprising number of people showed sincere intrigue and envy at what we were doing. They saw us and wanted to pick our brains to maybe get closer to actually doing something about going backpacking. If I hadn't been so tired, so focused on the food in the grocery bags and the room with the hot shower, if I had kept the conversations going a little longer, they would have been buying me beer. That's how interested in us they were. 

We arrived at the hotel and found Erin had made reservations to her standard, substantially higher than the dirty hiker standard. Everything in that room was white. The bedspreads, the chair, the pillows, the bathroom towels.... We were expecting maybe an $80 Motel 6 with road construction workers drinking beer on the tailgate of their trucks in the parking lot. These were my feet at the moment we got to our room. I wasn't ready for a room with white bedspreads! 

Most of CJ's body looked about the same as my feet for dirt. I was like the parent of a six year old boy trying to keep CJ from touching anything at all before he got in the shower. We put our packs in the corner and I sat on the floor while CJ showered. He got out of the shower thinking he was done and I said no way, do it again. Three times. It took me just as long to get clean. Complicating matters, long distance backpackers don't carry extra clothes so we had to wear our rain gear while our hiking clothes went through the hotel washing machine. We finally ate our fresh food while the clothes washed. 

We slept way past sunrise the next morning. I think it was nearly time to check out when we woke up. Erin couldn't come get us until she got off work so we would be kicking around Tahoe City until the evening anyway. We went to our favorite place to eat when we are in Tahoe City: Rosies. Then we went to the hardware store, bought beach towels and headed to the beach where we intended to hang out like vagabonds until Erin showed up. We even found electrical outlets with flowing power on the beach at the base of a light pole and used them to charge our phones. We weren't able to be comfortable beach bums for long. About 1:30 in the afternoon a huge thunderstorm hit the lake. Waves got crazy big. Alarms started going off on boats that appeared to be permanently moored on the lake. A guy in a Zodiac zipped around loosening their anchor lines, which appeared to be too tight to deal with the size of the swells causing the boats to take on water as waves crashed over their sides, which I presume was creating the alarms we were hearing. 

Luckily, I have studied the migration patterns of transients and knew what we needed: a building with a good eve! We found one right there on the beach. It must have been a power station or something because it was emitting enough heat from the walls, we really didn't even need to put our jackets on as we stood close by it and watched everything going on around us. It was probably the funnest day of the trip. It caused CJ and I to adopt a philosophy on our backpacking trips of really looking forward to the adventure of going into a city for resupply.

When Erin showed up about 5:30 in the evening, she was hungry. So CJ and I took her to Rosies for dinner. :-) 

Two days later, CJ succeeded in passing his black belt test. And the cat that passed away on day three of this adventure is buried in our yard.