We have been dream­ing about this stop for a long time. This is a big step in the jour­ney as we are close to Tahoe and will soon enter the High Sier­ra. Also for me, I have now walked back home from Cana­da. It’s great to get back home again!

We’ll be able to sort our gear and put togeth­er mail drops for the next sec­tions. We are going to ski a short sec­tion tomor­row, to test out our ski gear and make sure our boots are feel­ing good. Then we will take a rest day before we con­tin­ue on.

The last cou­ple of weeks since Christ­mas have been great. We only had an inch of snow one night and have been able to do 20+ miles every day. We have met some great peo­ple and amaz­ing trail angels. It’s been a mem­o­rable sec­tion 260 miles. At first the tem­per­a­tures were chilly with lows in the sin­gle dig­its, highs in the teens, and frigid wind chills. Grad­u­al­ly the tem­per­a­tures warmed to sum­mer like. It’s felt like 80 degrees, but I am sure it’s only 45–50. The last few days we have been drip­ping sweat dur­ing the day, drink­ing liters of water, and been hik­ing in a white, snowy desert. Worse off the night­time tem­per­a­tures have only dropped below freez­ing in mead­ows and near lakes, so the snow pack has­n’t ful­ly refrozen. Our nice crust dur­ing the frigid days dis­ap­peared into mashed pota­toes. Beg­gars can’t be choosers.

In the next cou­ple of days we’ll suss out the sit­u­a­tion with our ski boots and see if our feet are too ten­der and swollen to switch quiv­ers from snow­shoes to skis. If only they made wider ran­donee rac­ing boots.….….

Pho­tos from Bur­ney, CA to Truc­k­ee, CA (about 270 miles): https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153092639680628&set=a.10153092746055628&type=3&theater