Echo Lake to Barker Pass

Betty dropped us off at Echo Lake and persuaded us to take the boat to the other side of the lake and meet up with the PCT there. What a wonderful treat! We met up with Pigpen and Blox a couple miles in and continued hiking to Aloha Lake where we camped for the night. The stars were amazing! We made dinner with Pigpen and Blox while laughing at the mice who continued to come closer and closer to our things.

We hiked past many lakes hoping to be able to jump in and cool off but it was too windy for that. Our packs were very heavy! Probably too much food. We were going to hike between 15-17 miles but because we couldn't find water… we hiked 19 miles and camped at Richardson Lake where we saw tons of crawdads in the lake! Ferd and Pigpen caught a couple but it wasn't until after we ate dinner so we didn't cook them up.

We woke up at 5:50am the next morning, packed up and hiked out to the Barker Pass Trailhead where Dangit's oldest brother, Michael, and youngest brother, William, drove 9 hours from Utah to meet up with us for a day! We went to Lake Tahoe where we stuck our feet in, then drove through Truckee, then to Reno (because it was cheaper to stay there). We jumped in the pool at La Quinta, took showers, then went to Panda Express for dinner and a movie-- Dawn of the Planet of the Apes! Awesome movie!

The next day we went back to the trail after getting pizza with the brothers. We tried convincing them to hike a few miles with us but Michael needed to head back to Utah to make it to work the next day. We had left a note for TEC the day before hoping we'd see them.