Monday July 6 – From Susie’s Lake to Lower Echo Lake. Today’s miles – 9.1. Total trip miles – 60.6.
Twas difficult to pull away from our sweet campsite at Susie’s Lake. Unlike many campsites that are in lower darker spots (where the water tends to be 🙂), we were sort of on a plateau with lots of light (and 2 pesky chipmunks trying to steal our things). And finally learned what the whooshing and drumming sound was that we’d been hearing for several days — apparently, male grouse stand on rocks or logs and beat their wings to claim territory. They can be heard up to a quarter mile away!
Unlike yesterday, we had a mostly flat and downhill hike leading into tomorrow’s zero day. And it was a day of lakes! We passed by Heather, Aloha, Tamarack, Upper Echo and Lower Echo, among others.
The biggest highlight was between Heather and Aloha hearing some loud yapping and yipping and barking of many (?) of an unknown animal for 5-10 minutes. Long story short—- it turned out to be (probably) only 2 coyotes (pictured). Because we were surrounded by high cliffs, the echoes made it sound like many more. We were surprised and treated to see these 2 milling about for a bit (from a safe distance!)
After a long hot downhill (albeit with some challenging footing), we reached the general store at the end of Lower Echo Lake and treated ourselves to well deserved ice cream and soda. First trail segment done!We contacted shuttle driver Connie who drove us into South Lake Tahoe for our zero day.
PS I’m including Lisa’s prior pics of trail magic and other hikers here. Check out her Instagram at lisa._caesar1 for her trip description and more pics. I’ll try and add more “prior” pics and coyote audio as time permits.
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