Granite Chief Wilderness and Desolation Wilderness

Starting Trail Mile 1129.7 hiking south.  Elevation 8388 ft.

Looking ahead to where the trail will take me today.

Starting out on a glorious morning, the hiking is easier, with a only a few shorter climbs today,  although I did go over Barker Pass.  Lots of hikers on the trail, many of which are day hikers, or backpackers doing the Tahoe Rim Trail.  Many of the PCT thru hikers are fresh back on the trail after taking zeros in South Lake Tahoe or Tahoe City.  They've showered, some have shaved, their clothes are clean and they are well fed, having taken advantage of the casino buffets in town.

Another hiker offers to take my pic with Lake Tahoe peeking through in the background.

Partway through the day, I come upon a wonderful waterfall tumbling into a beautiful stream with a perfect spot to sit and soak my feet.  If I'd had more time, I'd put my whole body in because there was a perfect deep spot that would have served the purpose, and the day is fairly warm.  I talk to a hiker from Switzerland.  She tells me her boyfriend joined her for the high Sierras.  Since Marv is planning to do the same, I pick her brain for the best way to work the system in order to get Marv a permit for that part of the trail when I again turn north. 

Nice cool stream to soak my hot feet.

I hiked into the Granite Chief Wilderness yesterday.  Today, I leave it and enter Desolation Wilderness with mostly Jeffery and Lodgepole pines growing in a rocky landscape.  I hike past lovely Richardson Lake, and I long to join a large group of hikers I see swimming and settling in for the evening.  However, I feel I must get a few more miles in, so I wave and hike on.  Once I do decide to camp, just before the sun sets, a young Austrian hiker camps a small distance away, up a bit closer to the trail.  I visit with him when I take a walk past his tent to find a place to put my bear vault containing my food and all other scented things, like toiletries (bear vaults or bear bags hung in trees should be about 200 feet from where I am sleeping).  He has just done a 300 mile section of the PCT, doing research so that he and his girlfriend can hike the entire PCT next year.  At this point, he is not sure he wants to come back to do the whole trail.  He has found it much more challenging than he anticipated.  He gets off the trail to fly home in a couple of days.

Lovely Richardson Lake toward the end of another day in Paradise.