Miles: 0

Ok. I hope this is not a trend. 

Today was not complicated by illness but by logistics. 

We slept in to allow a little more recovery time and left the motel around 10 a.m.

We planned to drive about 2 hours north to the Lake Tahoe area for 2 or 3 days of slack packing. 

Slack packing, or slacking, is when thru hikers cover miles on their trail but do so without the added weight of tent, sleeping bag or other overnight gear. 

We intended to slack ourselves, for example, by driving Richard to a road crossing along the PCT and sending him north. I would then drive to a different road crossing 25 or 30 trail miles north, parking the car and heading south. We would meet partway through the day, then continue in our designated directions. At the end of the day, Richard would reach the car and drive south to get me at the same spot where I had dropped him off earlier that morning. 

This process is more complicated than normal slacking because, usually, a third party does all the driving. 

Well, the drive didn’t take 2 hours. It took more like 4 because we had to stop many times for construction. And when we got to the necessary crossroad, it was closed about 7 miles east of where the PCT crossed it. 

Ok, we thought, new plan. 

We rented a bike. In the morning I will ride the bike 7 miles to the trail and stash the bike in the woods. I will hike south 34 miles. 

Richard will drive south 34 trail miles, park the car near Echo Lake Resort and start hiking north. 

At the end of the day, I will drive back to our campsite and Richard will bike back. 

Ooff. So complicated. Oh, well. We’ve heard this section of trail is supposed to be beautiful.