Wind or Bugs but Progress

We've been having quite a bit of wind this last week and as I type this on a picnic table in Susanville I have to hold the screen of my laptop so that it's not blown flat and my iPad tries to fly away when I open its cover!     For Tina and Kevin, the wind has been a savior in that it keeps away the tremendous swarms of mosquitoes that rise out of the many lakes.    However, last night their campsite wound up being too exposed to the wind and they got very little sleep.  :(

The forecast calls for continued winds but with a good chance of rain and freezing conditions for them tonight as they proceed north along the PCT in the mountains just to the west of Lake Tahoe and through the Desolation Wilderness and the Eldorado National Forest at altitudes ranging ~7500 to ~9500.    

As I type the most recent satellite position report has them at PCT mile 1112.4 - about 40 miles north from my last report and 43 miles trail south of Highway 40, where I will fetch them next.   

When I last wrote they were nearing Carson Pass and at the last minute I decided to drive down there to pick them up for an early day off given the condition of Kevin's feet.    They didn't know I was coming and so I knew it was going to a very close thing to meet them.   I found them in the little visitors center cabin at the pass and had the docents there not delayed them by feeding them watermelon they would have left already!   

In any case, Kevin and Tina were glad to see me and after a day off the next afternoon they hiked from Carson Pass to Highway 50 outside of South Lake Tahoe having set a new combined bests for distance and time for themselves.    Unfortunately, that was because it was *not* windy that day and the mosquitoes were eating them alive and Kevin had re-injured his feet by trying to outrun them a time or two.    When I put them out late yesterday morning again I think things had abated to where it was just one toe that was numb for Kevin.   Good thing he's young.  :)

All the best, David