Tuesday, 4 September 2018
Lake Susie Outlet (1551) – Echo Lake (1560.3): 9.3 miles / 592.3 total miles walked
Since I fell asleep around 8:30 last night it wasn’t surprising that I woke up in the middle of the night. T
What was surprising, was that I smelled thick smoke and almost had a panic attack because of it, at around 1 am. The smell of fire was so strong and fresh that I seriously considered waking up Sink to tell her we have to pack up and get the hell out of there.
I managed to calm myself down, because I did not see any kind of haze when I looked around, and after about an hour the wind shifted, bringing blessed cool and fresh air. And I managed to catch a few more hours of sleep.
I did wake up fully before my alarm and packed up quickly, enjoying the morning light. This is the favorite part of my day, seeing the colors change as the sun comes up. And as we are moving irrevocably towards fall, the period of ‘golden light’ gets to be longer every day.
The trail led alongside beautiful lakes within a vast expanse of grey, dead granite. I felt like I was transported into the Neverending Story, and was sure to encounter a rock biter around the corner at any moment.
The biggest of the lakes was Lake Aloha, although the water level seemed really low. The drought in California is continuing, it seems.
Although the views today were astoundingly beautiful, the trail itself was not. It was all rocks and granite slabs and talus. It is so incredibly tiring when you have to watch EVERY. FUCKING. STEP. I really wanted to move fast, especially since the trail was flat, but I simply couldn’t.
It got to a point where I was so fed up with the stupid rocks I just gave the trail the finger. Didn’t help. The 9 miles to Echo Lake were a real struggle.
Especially since we didn’t know if the store would be open. It usually closes after Labor Day, which was yesterday. So all day the sought after location of soda and ice cream was Schroedinger’s Store.
We made it to the lake by around noon……and the door to the store was open! It wasn’t officially open, because the owners were just doing cleanup, but they were nice enough to allow us inside to pick up some refreshments. So the store actually was open AND closed at the same time. 😄
We sat there and chatted with another hiker, Sunshine from Quebec, until Dan came to the rescue. He was kind enough to pick us up at the lake and gave us a ride to town.
We got some food, I bought groceries and after we said goodbye to Sunshine we went back to Dan’s house and I made dinner.
It feels so good to cook with fresh ingredients, that’s probably one of the things I miss most…..except for indoor plumbing. 😂
The day ended with some good movies
Keeping you posted….