...and we finally got our first good views of Lake Tahoe, off in the distance (although you can barely see it in the picture due to the haze).
As I looked at the exposed trail ahead, I could see that it wasn't going to stay in the flat area as I'd hoped, and would instead climb up and over the ridge in front of us...
By the time we reached the top of the ridge, I had to stop to eat some trail mix and try to regain some energy. We stopped and sat on top of a large boulder in a big meadow, which was really quite pretty.
A husband/wife pair passed us heading South around this time, and they actually asked us if we were thru-hiking the PCT! I guess we must've looked pretty dirty for them to think that! We tried not to laugh and to sound burlier than we really were, but as they told us that they were taking a month or two and hiking from Echo Pass to Mt. Whitney (South of Yosemite), I couldn't help but realize how pathetic I was... Here was a couple in their late 50's that was going to do a pretty long trip, and we were only on day 3 and I was hurting. Ouch...
Anyway, we bid them farewell and pushed on. As the trail entered the trees...
...I found that I was feeling much better...I guess that trail mix really helped energize me. Funny how eating some calories will do that... Aside from obviously haven not eaten enough, I was starting to feel pretty good. The aches and pains were fading (although the blisters were getting bigger), and I was starting to feel like "it's just walking". Which is a pretty good feeling, because it feels like you can just keep going and going. I definately was nowhere near what a thru-hiker must feel when they consider a 25-30 mile day "easy", but at least I was getting better.
Eventually, we began a steep descent toward Echo Summit. The couple we'd passed had told us there was a good campsite not too far down, and the guidebook also described it as pretty nice, so we decided to stop there for the night. As we got close to the campsite, Justin...
...stopped to check out the view of Tahoe (again, pretty hazy in the picture).
We continued the descent to camp, which became very steep, loose, and rocky. It was then that something went horribly wrong...
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