Saturday, September 5th, 2020
I felt even worse than I had before. I haven’t had a drop of alcohol in years, but I felt like I was on a multi-day hangover. I was really surprised that I was still suffering from heat exhaustion from days ago. The plan was to hike further, but the guys were nice enough to cut our morning short. We hiked a short half mile to Big Meadow trailhead to catch a hitch into South Lake Tahoe. I consumed 2 liters of Pedialyte while I was there and I’d be able to stomach some food from McDonald’s. The bulk of the day involved resting in a parking lot. We wandered around Goodwill and resupplied at the grocery store, but it was mostly a restful morning. We moved to a small park by the bus station before catching a hitch back with a local woman who lived right off of the TRT.
When we returned, the color of the sky would slowly become tinted in yellow. The wildfires were close. We weren’t going much further today, but I still felt like death. I took many breaks to rest and to chug Pedialyte as I walked through a meadow and along Round Lake. It was the weekend, so a lot of people were out and about, hiking, swimming, and camping. I took a break every mile, but I’d get to our meeting place eventually. Frisbee waited for me where the TRT merged with the Pacific Crest Trail, then we hiked five more miles to the Upper Truckee River to meet with Thunder. I was grateful that this stretch was so flat. I didn’t cover much distance on the day, but I was spent.
When we ran back into Thunder, we noticed there was ash falling from the sky. We were closer to the wildfires than we thought! We weren’t in harms way, so we hiked a little further before settling in at mile 110.6.
7.1 miles (11.4 km)
Jump Ahead to The Tahoe Rim Trail: Part 7
Jump Back to The Tahoe Rim Trail: Part 5
or
Start from the Beginning: The Tahoe Rim Trail: Part 1
Stubbs Rambles On 