Week 6: Big Meadow to Echo Lake
This run started out on a Thursday and ended on a Monday. Thursday morning, we're all ready to go and just as Katie, Katie and our ride from Ann Linnett was about to walk out the door, we decide to check the weather just in case these clouds over my house were going to turn into something. Yep, there it is, a lightning strike advisory for South Lake Tahoe. After much debate we decided it was the best decision to call it off till Monday. High elevations and lightning are a dangerous mix.
Fast forward to Monday morning, our driver has graciously agreed to our new time and off we go at 7am.
At this point, the time in the car is about equal to the time spent on the trail. 9:30am and we're finally at the Big Meadow trailhead ready to make our way back to Echo Lake where we dropped a car. Just as Ann was pulling out, Katie C. realized that she is missing her extra water bottle. With a quick warm up sprint to catch her… phew! Got the much needed extra water. We head out of the parking lot, across HWY 50 and into a beautiful wide open, green meadow where we pass hikers, bikers and backpackers. Then back into the woods for good climb in the shade of giant trees to Round Lake. On the way we keep seeing crazy looking rocks that look like piles of loose pebbles that have been bonded together with concrete, small ones that you can sit on and big ones that you can fit your whole body under. They must have come from the towering cliffs we see as we look up from Round Lake.
3 miles in and we made it to Round Lake! So beautiful, so refreshing. Around the lake we go and off we to find ourself in another meadow scattered with wildflowers looking back on those big towering cliffs above Round Lake and ahead at the ridge line we will follow.
Stopping to see the Lewis Monkeyflower, Wild Onion, Lupine, Great Red Paintbrush, wandering daisy and so many more wildflowers! But not for too long because the mosquitoes and flies are going crazy!
From there we are heading down where we hit a trail junction. We stop to decide what direction we need take. As we decide, we are talking to a day hiker who is staying at Echo Lake. He suggested that we turn right because it's a much shorter way to the lake. We decide that we must stay on the Tahoe Rim Trail as so not leave any part out of our adventure. As we head uphill on our 'long' way to Echo Lake, we start to think about Jonathan Sivao who we are running for. He inspires us to not cut corners and stay strong.
On we go through forests and meadows till we get to another trail junction where we merge with the Pacific Crest Trail which we will continue on for the duration of this run into next weeks run.
The flowers really start to pop and double in size at this point. I felt like I was in a cartoon drawing and we were the fairy tale characters prancing through the meadow, light footed with butterflies trailing behind.
We come to a small creek and our crossing just perfect for our fairy tale, there are 5 rock pads for us to hop, skip and jump across. The flowers just kept getting taller and more lush as we head up to Showers Lake (like up to our shoulders). As we arrive, everything is perfectly still and silent except for one man fly fishing on the south end of the small mountain lake.
Again, like something you would see in a storybook. We vowed that we would come back to this lake and camp one night in the future.
Down very steep switchbacks and another climb back up and into another meadow where we get a peek of Lake Tahoe far out in the distance – what a sight! We also start to see dark clouds moving in and decide that we should keep up the pace and stay clear of the storm (and lightning).
At this point we are heading down and down and down on a trail through fallen granite. A beautiful sight but not a good spot to be considering the nearby thunder that we heard. We're also getting a bit low on water and wondering where we are and where this trail is taking us.
That's when it's always a good feeling to see the blue arrow indicating that we are indeed on the Tahoe Rim Trail. Finally we made it to the Echo Summit trailhead. From here we only had 2 miles. 2 miles? No problem… except that we were out of water and feeling the last 18 miles in our legs. Oh, and it had been about 91 degrees for the duration of our run. And humid!
Okay, one mile till we cross HWY 50 and another on the other side of the Highway. This was a very long mile to say the least, and then we had another mile to conquer. As the trail inclined our pace slowed to a half walk, half trot and sometimes all out crouch to the ground, head between the legs to get to the end.
The flowers continued not to disappoint and kept us going till finally we see it `- Echo Lake! We made it to the end of this weeks adventure with a 20 mile day behind us.
With a total of 98 miles so far in our adventure, including the ins and outs of getting to the TRT, we have turned a corner and we are now heading north after so many miles south, it's a good feeling!
We will so proudly be sending a celebrartion check to the Sivao Family for their son Jonathan who has been so strong with his fight with cancer and continues to fight and turn his corner to recovery. Thank you Jonathan for your strength and inspiration.
Next week we will be entering Desolation Wilderness and running high along the peaks ending at Lake Tahoe's iconic Emerald Bay.
Greg Tiller, former colleague and dear friend, will be our inspiration for this coming run, one of our toughest sections. Greg lost his brave and long fight with cancer this past January. He was one of the most authentic people we have ever met. His free spirit, kind nature, gentle soul, and absolute certainty about everything he did (and who he was) were just a few things that made him such an admirable friend and like a brother. His love for adventure and life were evident every day. We miss him very much and will be donating to the Tahoe Forest Hospice in his honor. We also are sending all of our love to Benita, his wife. We love you Benita!
Wish us luck!
Katie Tyler
Realtor®
BRE 01442453
c 530 277 1012
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