Day 86: ⛺ @ mile 1079.3 - South Lake Tahoe

Date: 02.07.2018 Miles hiked 02.07.2018: 11.5 Miles Total Mileage: Mile 1090 My alarm rang at 5:15am but I was not ready to get up yet. So I just kept on lying in my sleeping bag for another half an hour. When I finally got out of my tent there where only a few ones left. Seems like most other hikers have already packed up and started hiking! I started hiking at 6:15am so not to bad either. And I felt great. It's a 11.5 miles hike to get to the main road where I should be able to get a hitch to town. I calculated a little more than 4 hours for this strech. My hiking pace was fast, motivated by reaching town before lunch time. I soon started to pass other hikers. And there I crasped the first view of Lake Tahoe! It's a much bigger Lake than I thought it would be. I hiked up the first hill ans down the other side passing more and more hikers. I'm really in this hike now. Shortly before the second uphill, which looks small but steep on the elevation profile, I feeded myself with some dries apricots. They made me speeding up the hill! I finally made it to the street in just about 3.5 hours. What a great time for 11.5 miles! And there is also some trail magic - beers! I'm still not much into beers but getting more used to it now. And how could I turn down a cold beer after the hike? The two young guys providing the beers turn around and chat to each other. But hang on, I'm grabbing my eyes, are they talking Swiss German?! That's not possible, is it? Yes, they are from Aargau and started to hike the PCT until Wrightwood, where they finished. They did not really plan to hike all of the PCT since the beginning as they only have a 90 Day Visa. And now they are driving along the PCT and do some trail magic before they head home in a couple of days. Sweet. More hikers arrive and within a couple of minutes only we are about 16 hikers there. As i just put off my backpack another guy passes by offering fresh donuts and 4 seats to drive to town. Awesome. And a second later a hippie bus stopps in front of us offering to take as many hikers to town as they fit into the van. We didn't even try to hitch hike yet. That's awesome! Between the two cars we fit in all the hikers and off we go. South Lake Tahoe looks like a really cool touristy place and I like it already. I grab a coffee at Starbucks and sit outside to use their wifi and to wait for Joanne and Giggles. While I sit there Starwars, a Swiss guy I've first met in Big Bear, walks by. Haven't seen him for a long time! I just finished my coffee when Flash turns up. If I wanna join for lunch, they are going to the pizza place which offers a free pizza to thru-hikers. That's cool sure I'll join! That's so nice, even if you are alone, there are always some hikers around which you know. And in each town you would meet again, even without previously texting. In fact I don't have shared my number much yet. The pizza is delicious, one of the better ones I had so far. While flash and Flo have to get their resupply sorted out I keep sitting. Only a minute later Trashqueen and seabas turn up. So I switch tables and have and with them. I still haven't heard anything from Joanne and Giggles and it's about 4pm already. I thought they would be in town a long time ago already. As i soon have to exchange my shoes, the Sierras were hard for them too!, I go and check out the sports store here. But bummer, they don't have my shoes. I really want to stick with the same ones as I has blisters long enough and don't wanna risk it by buying new shoes. But they do have wifi and i use it to upload some blogs while I'm waiting for Joanne and Giggles. Finally, around 4:30pm I hear from Joanne. They are going for dinner to Taco Bell. But it's a little out of town. We still haven't sorted a hotel out yet. As independence day, 4th of July, is coming up and Lake Tahoe seems to be the place to be for Californians, hotels are firstly very pricy and secondly mostly fully booked. I'm checking on option when Joanne texts again. They have met a couple (PJ and Melva) at Taco Bells who offer us to stay with them at their house - trail angels as we call them. Awesome! I've never stayed with trail angels so far. They picked me up and we all went to their home. They live about half a mile from the town centre, so very close, in a very cute neighbour good called Lake Tahoe Tirol. All the houses looked like Austrian, German or Swiss chalets. Also Jo's and Melva's house is a very nice, roomy house. All of us have a bed. First thing was showering and washing our clothes. After that was done JP and Melva took us to their community pool and hot tap area! We are being spoiled. Coming back we are sitting around the table, eating fresh melon, buttered popcorn and chocolate cookies and chatting along till it's bedtime. I do like staying at trail angels a lot, we must repeat this if possible!