Total Trail Miles: 1119.7 

Ascent/Descent: 2617/2109 ft 

Start Time: 10:01 

End Time: 18:13 

Temperature: 24°C (75°F)

We enjoyed coffee and breakfast with Kathy and John before saying our goodbyes when Sheryl l Sheryl arrived to give us a lift. We had originally intended on going to Eagle Falls trail but Sheryl told us about another option; Bayview trail, it joins up with Eagle Falls and is a tiny bit longer but it was less and on south facing slopes so less likely to have snow, we took her advice and opted for this one. It was still a ptretty steep and long climb to get up into desolation wilderness but the views over Lake Tahoe and emerald bay were amazing and once we got to the top the rest of the day was pretty chilled. We joined back on with the PCT and middle Velma Lake, it was very pretty so we took our lunch break here and watched some ducks swimming around on the lake. We stop had 8.5 miles to go before we were out of desolation wilderness and could camp without a bear can. Snow was patchy but not too bad so we made pretty good time after our late lunch. We aimed to camp at Richardson Lake which was a mile or so out of DW. It was a pretty Lake surrounded by trees, there were a few other people who had set up camp around it, a couple of PCTers and some 'weekend' hikers but there were plenty of private spots around the lake and it was super beautiful. Marcus got in for a dip straight away whilst I set up camp. The downside to this spot was the mozzies, so many mozzies. We ended up eating dinner in the tent to get away from them, it was warm enough to start camping without the rain fly on again which was nice as I hadn't been able to do this since before the Sierra and it made the tent feel less claustrophobic for two.