September 23

I woke up to frost inside my tent. The morning was terribly cold and it took every ounce of concentrated will power to get out of my warm sleeping bag and get going. My shoes were frozen solid from hiking across the wet snow all day yesterday and being outside last night. Putting them on in the morning was like wearing blocks of ice on my feet. The pain was excruciating and reminded me of the times I would put my feet in ice water when I had plantar fasciitis last year. I was pleasantly surprised, when within 5 minutes of hiking my feet were no longer cold and within 10 minutes the frost and ice were no longer on my shoes. Louis wasn't quite as fortunate as his boots requires more energy to heat and start the thawing process. We had our first glimpse of Lake Tahoe as we climbed out of our valley campsite. Around mid-morning our PCT joined with the Tahoe Rim Trail and we started seeing people. 

We stopped for lunch after 15 miles of hiking and found a good spot to let everything air out. My sleeping bag, tent shoes and socks all needed to dry. While having lunch a large cinnamon black bear wandered by less than 50 yards from us, but didn't pose for a decent picture. After lunch, we packed up again and hiked the remaining 12 miles to our current campsite near a lake outlet at the base of our one remaining pass between us and town.