July 19, 2017
Tahoe Zero Day #1
Pacific Crest Trail Thru-Hike: Day 75

Day one of our first-ever ‘double zero’. Spent the day stuck with our packs until 3pm when we could finally check into our airBNB. Tahoe is wildly smoky, you can’t even see the mountains. Actually, you can’t even see down the street. To say I’m disappointed…well, I’m glad we’re here because there’s a lot of good food but I’m bummed that Alex doesn’t get to see the majesty of this giant alpine lake.

We woke up and walked to the grocery store, taking care of our grocery shopping at Raley’s. They didn’t have Andes mints!

Then we took the bus to the fancy part of town where all the tourists hang out. We had six mini donuts for $7 (WAY TOO EXPENSIVE), sat outside for a while killing time and people watching. Then we went to the Patagonia store and had a nice chat with Tim, the employee. Then to Tahoe sports; Alex bought fishing flys and lures, inspired by Dean. It was uncomfortably smoky by that point. We tried a couple thrift stores for beach towels to go swimming in the lake and found nothing under $15. Plus, it was too smoky to enjoy a swim so we figured we’d just wait to get to the airBNB to clean up.

I went to a craft supply store to look for twine for Dad’s presents (to tie on and label them). It’s his birthday coming up so I’m sending him some driftwood, a rock from PCT Mile 1000, and a giant pinecone that he keeps telling us to use as a fire starter.

The woman at the craft store just GAVE me twine, and then we found out her son’s name is Cedar too! Small world!

We got more pizza at Slice of Sierra, went and stopped by a brewery to try beer, to Goodwill to get Alex a pair of shorts for town, to Rite Aid to finish Dad’s present, to the post office to mail our bear cans home, and finally to the Natural Foods Store to buy cook food and finish our resupply.

When we were done we called an uber to get to the airBNB. The uber driver grew up in Minnesota! Small world.

I took a long, glorious shower with beer. We ended up staying in for the evening, making cookies and watching movies and relaxing on the couch. It was wonderful to get some rest. We hung out with our airBNB host Lauren for a bit when she got home. We drank wine and beer and talked politics, music and travel.

After being on the go every day for the last two months, I forgot how nice it is sometimes to just stay in and do nothing at all.