September 17

Distance: 26.1 miles | Ascent: 5470′ | Descent: 4210′

Mile marker: 1525

Lunch; J&A – chicken salad (A, ?)

Dinner: J&A – jambalaya (A-, ?)

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Starting at sunrise is pleasant. The cool air feels crisp. Or maybe that’s just an ominous sign of the impending autumn season.

We hit 1500 miles early in the morning. We forgot to look at our map, so by the time we realized we had gained an extra two miles. We like to make our milestone signs honest.

The weather was great! It was sunny but not blistering. We crossed over Donner Pass and read about the events on plaques. If you don’t know about the Donner Party, it’s worth a Google, although it is not a pleasant story. A group of rock climbers (? Or intense construction workers of some specialized sort) cheered us on as we crossed the road.

Then, the real hiking began. We went up and over three ridges today. None were particularly hard and the views kept us motivated.

We ran into some friends we had hiked with before. They were heading north! It wasn’t an accident. They just flipped a section and were hiking with one of their parents. It was good to see them again. They told us they had seen ten other southbound hikers today, and a lot of them skipped most of NorCal to make sure they could get through the Sierras. We’re confident with our timing and might even have a few days to spare. I hope we are not over-confident.

Throughout the afternoon we passed huge juniper trees, thousands of years old. Many look large enough to have been here well before the reign of the Roman Empire! Wild. We also came across some carpenter ant handiwork, pretty streams, and a ski lift.

The last ridge we walked gave us glances at Lake Tahoe. The fading sunlight, the oranges and pinks in the sky over the lake were spectacular. We will soon be in South Lake Tahoe, our next resupply stop!