Hello from Moab! We’ve been traveling through Southwest Colorado the last couple days and made our way back to Moab to enjoy the last bit of warm weather before we head north to Canada for our Nordic skiing adventure set to begin mid-November. We have some reliable internet access as we’ve been crashing at cheap motels the last few nights to avoid the freezing temps in CO, hence the blog updates. This post picks up after our stop at Yellowstone and before our JMT hike.
After a chilly few days in Yellowstone we were hoping to spend quite a bit of time in Jackson and the Tetons, but the weather was horrible so we opted to drive through, visiting with a friend over dinner, and making our way toward the sun in Tahoe. We spent about 4 days in Tahoe enjoying the scenery, testing our gear for the JMT hike, and trying to acclimatize a bit to altitude. Tahoe was like the appetizer to the JMT; we did a couple of hikes in the Desolation Wilderness and got a taste of the granite peaks we would see in Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon. We stayed at a lovely state park, Sugar Pine Point, about 12 miles North of South Lake Tahoe. The park had some great trail running on the nordic trails used in the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics, beach access to Lake Tahoe, and spacious campsites.
After exploring the state park we spent some time meandering through South Lake Tahoe (think gear stores, coffee shops, and vegan food!) then off to the trails. We found a nice dog daycare so Ravi and I did a long day hike together without the dogs to Aloha Lake. The next day we took Duke on our hike to Velma lakes while Spike hung out at daycare again. Duke was pretty happy to be hiking with us and loved swimming in the alpine lakes! Our gear we purchased for the JMT passed the day hike test and we got a few aches and pains out of the way by doing some longer hikes before the “big one.”
Lastly, a trip to Tahoe wouldn’t be complete without sampling some of their delicious food establishments. We enjoyed picking up some groceries at Grass Roots (Natural Foods store), vegan pizza and beer at Lake Tahoe Pizza Company, Pho at Yama Noodles, and veggie burgers at Sprout’s cafe. Definitely lots of good food options. After Tahoe we headed to the bay area to spend a few days with Ravi’s brother and his family before heading out to Yosemite.
