Woke up to a killer day. I sprang out of bed, motored through my morning pages and had a yoga mat stretch. Kirby woke up, had a swig of coffee and we hit the trail. The goal for the day was to hike up to Lake Aloha and scout the trail. I mean, it was also to have a crazy gorgeous hike but the inspiration was to check conditions. We retraced our footsteps from the day before back to the Echo Lake Chalet, crossed the dam and began our march on the north side of the lake.
Looking Out Over Echo Lake The day was toasty but not so toasty that I felt like diving into a snowmelt lake. Cold water and I aren’t good friends, so it’s a good thing it wasn’t hotter or I would have to confront my fear. The trail up to Aloha was super mellow. You climb up close to 600 feet without really noticing. There are really only about 2 switchbacks. As we rose in altitude, snow patches started to appear. As we hiked on, the snow converged across the trail.
We saw what the Tahoe Rim Trail hikers (TRTers) were saying about all the footprints but we kind of followed our instincts and found a posted sign with an arrow that let us know we were on the right track. We found slopes with snow but none of them felt like 45˚ angles. Besides, even if you slipped, the landings were soft. I determined that these particular TRTers seemed to not be extremely experienced snow travelers. Since I’ve had days (and nights) of traveling on glaciers, this didn’t seem to warrant the insistent advice about not joining Kelsey and Travis on their PCT adventure.
We saw what the Tahoe Rim Trail hikers (TRTers) were saying about all the footprints but we kind of followed our instincts and found a posted sign with an arrow that let us know we were on the right track. We found slopes with snow but none of them felt like 45˚ angles. Besides, even if you slipped, the landings were soft. I determined that these particular TRTers seemed to not be extremely experienced snow travelers. Since I’ve had days (and nights) of traveling on glaciers, this didn’t seem to warrant the insistent advice about not joining Kelsey and Travis on their PCT adventure.
The Frozen Edge of Lake Aloha Kirby and I got to the edge of the lake which was pretty much frozen over and plunked down for midday grub. After looking at the scene and listening to the water a bit, we unparked and began our descent. We used our sense of direction to guide us back to Echo Lake. We had decided to take the water taxi depending on timing and brokenness. When we got to the turn off, we opted for the taxi - strained knee, distance/time back to the lodge, and it’s just fun to take a boat across the water.
 Sitting by the Dock of Echo Lake |  The Intrepid Hikers |
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