Day 71 - Wednesday, July 7

Tenting just past Squaw Valley Ski Lift (mile 1140.9). Walked 33.4 miles today.

We got out of camp today just before 6 am, later than we had hoped. Our goal today is to hike 33 miles in honor of Frank's 33rd Birthday. The trail wound around Dick's Lake before descending into the trees.

Frank was still a little sore and so she was moving slowly. I jumped ahead and then waited for her at the 5-mile mark of the day. After she caught up, we hiked on and entered another mosquito hell. After we finally got past that, the trail stayed in the trees for the rest of the morning.

We hiked for about 4 hours straight at a good clip. The only break was when I stopped for two minutes to stretch. We finally stopped for lunch at about 12:30 at a campsite 15 miles into the day. After a shorter than normal lunch, we hiked on up to a high point with great views of Lake Tahoe before dropping briefly.

Here, we ran into Slash and chatted briefly before moving on to climb up to a ridge. At the top, we rested and Slash caught up. We chatted a bit more here and then continued our slog with about 11 miles to go. The ridge had fantastic views of the entire area and cell service, so Frank checked on the fire (which was bigger today), but found that the trail moved away from the fire area, so we should be in the clear.

At the end of the ridge, we dropped down to a stream and campsite where a ton of people are camped tonight; however, we were only at the 28-mile mark and had to push on, but only after a much needed break. Everything from the waist down hurt, especially my feet. We descended a bit more before starting the 1200 foot climb that would mark the end of our long day (horrible idea to finish with a climb).

We slowly pushed on through meadows, and forests, golden colored with the setting sun.

We finally reached the top and after 0.2 miles of descent, reached the 33 mile mark, just before 9:00 pm and we'll after sunset. However, our day wasn't done yet.

We still had 0.2 to go to reach our campsite. There, we found it full with no spots. Luckily there were a couple other sites 0.2 miles farther up the trail. We staggered through the growing darkness, resisting the urge to turn on our headlamps. When we arrived at the new site, we found it empty.

We set up our tents and collapsed into them. I had enough energy to wipe off my filthy feet, but not enough to get food out of my bag. Suddenly I got really cold and put on my puffy and got in my sleeping bag. It was the same phenomenon that happens to marathon runners after they finish. We were on the trail 16 hours today and did 33 miles: the longest I've ever hiked in terms of distance and time. We also happened to finish on an area where the first ultra-marathon was held which was appropriate since we technically did an ultra-marathon today. It was also special for Frank to celebrate her birthday in this way since she's an ultra-marathoner as well.

Thank goodness the trail was good tread today as there's no way we could have done it on yesterday's bad tread. I fell asleep very quickly even through the achiness of my legs. I was insanely exhausted.