We caught our first glimpse of Lake Tahoe as we came over a rise in the trail in the early afternoon, lurking as a giant blue blur in the distance. Even from far away, I felt a happy familiarity: here we are, back in a place I’ve been to many times…but this time, we’ve hiked there from Mexico. That’s kind of crazy, and makes me feel proud.
And, to tell you the truth, the last few days have been feeling more and more like Tahoe, and less and less like the High Sierra we’ve (sort of) left. Tahoe’s a slightly gentler place, more full of hills and small mountains than great granite domes, and our trail’s been the same way — plenty of up and down still, but broken up into finer chunks, which feels much better.
Today we came over Carson Pass, which was also incredibly familiar because …