Day 4 Crossing the Rubicon

I often talk about Murphy's Law. What can go wrong will go wrong. Mr. Murphy and I have an understanding, he will raise his ugly head and I promise to be prepared for him. Planning ahead and preparing for everything is important when embarking on any journey. So far, my hips felt great (if you read my earlier blogs you would know I had my second hip replaced back in November), I don't have any muscle soreness, all of my training was paying off. Unfortunately, my knee was in bad shape. I've never had knee problems! I convinced myself it was one of the benefits of being bowlegged. ;)

As part of my planning, I also planned for the potential for emergency. In this case I had identified three different points along the trail where I could bail out down to Lake Tahoe. The Rubicon Trail, Barker Pass and an Alpine Meadows ski area service road would all lead me down to Hwy 89 along the west shore of Lake Tahoe. If I ran into real problems, I had prearranged an emergency contact in our friends Nick and Kathy Pappis who live in South Lake Tahoe and were willing to come to the rescue.

I knew that I had three more days of climbing to reach Donner Pass, and moving forward with the condition my knee was in could jeopardize my health or lead to a serious emergency. I reviewed my maps and plan and decided I would need to hike out of the Sierras and end my trip early. Definitely disappointing but again, the right decision. That still meant a 9 mile hike down along the famous Rubicon 4WD Jeep trail.

I was hoping I would be able to hitchhike a ride in a nice Jeep. What were the chances one would be going out on a Wednesday? I had a 1.7 mile hike down from Richardson Lake to the Rubicon trail and then another 7-8 miles out to Hwy 89. A number of Jeep caravans used the trail this day. These Jeeps were all highly modified machines with oversized tires and massive suspension. The only problem is they are all two seaters and stuffed to the gills with gear. There would be no ride to the lake and I resigned myself to hiking the entire distance.

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Once I got down to Hwy 89 I knew there was bus service into Tahoe City where I could find a hotel and services. This wasn't a true emergency because I was still ambulatory so I left Nick and Kathy alone. A tattooed kid on a bike rode up to the bus stop as I was waiting and could have worked for the County. He gave me the whole talk on the bus service, how to transfer, to tell the bus driver and they would call ahead and hold the bus to Truckee. We waited just 15 minutes and jumped on the bus. While on the bus ride I went online on my phone and found a hotel room at the famous Truckee Hotel (est. 1873) below, situated a block from the bus and Amtrak station. The bus traveled through the Squaw Valley resort on it's route to Truckee. Unfortunately I was in the Tram parking lot on a bus and not at the top of the mountain where I planned to be. The consolation was a nice bed and a burger, fries and beer at the bar downstairs. I was actually able to Uber the last 10 miles up to Donner Pass the next morning to rescue the car and head back down to the Bay

Area. Time to head home and dial up my Orthopedic Surgeon. "Doc, great work on the hips, how are you with knees? I have a big hike planned on the PCT in Oregon next year. Can you have me ready?" Stay tuned!

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