Wandering with Sophie

On a ridge close to the peak Once we passed Floating Island Lake and then Cathedral Lake where one can stretch the legs and take a breather (be aware of mosquitoes), the terrain started to change. We were faced with a huge mountain of massive rocks, and a faint trail switching back and forth up. It had been a while since I last witnessed the desolate look of a nearly treeless mountainside of rocks, pebbles and stones. I was mesmerized by the scale of the mountain, the texture of the rocks, and its minimalist beauty. It is also in this stretch where it got steep... very steep. I would even go so far as to consider this section more of a stair/rock hopping section, but on the side of a mountain. (Tip, if you experience vertigo, this is not the best trail to take, consider taking a different route from Glen Alpine.) As the trail continued to climb, my breathing got even more labored. I tried to use my core and thighs more consciously but nothing seemed to be helping much. Mea...

I picked up hiking again since the shelter-in-place started in March. I hiked about 3-4 times a month in the San Francisco Bay Area and got myself relatively conditioned for trails. When we had a day off on Juneteenth, we decided for the first time since the pandemic to drive out of the Bay Area and spend a long weekend in Lake Tahoe. For our first weekend-get-away since the pandemic, I thought I would go hike in the Lake Tahoe area, as I had never done so. A friend who's a property owner in South Lake Tahoe mentioned Mt Tallac trail. As soon as I saw the description on AllTrails, I had my heart set. I expected a beautiful journey through lush forest, along scenic ridge lines, past small alpine lakes and across high-altitude meadows. In the same time, I completely ignored that the trail is 10 miles over 6400 ft elevation out and back, and that I have to climb 3300 ft in five miles. 😬 We arrived on Thursday evening. For some reason, perhaps out of anxiety and excitement, I was not ...