Day 81: Lovely spending the day in Tahoe once Brit came! Words cannot even describe how much I miss her. She was so nice to drive us around to grab supplies and food resupply. We went to Cali Burger for lunch and a beer and got to chat and listen to some high quality live music. Soon the whole gang was there with us. Then we went to Coldstone for some ice cream. While shopping for new shades Freckles and Tim got an offer for a place to stay, and they were nice enough to allow the rest of us to join for the stay as well! Our hosts name was Grace and she was nothing short of amazing. Brit and I got some pizza and boxed wine for dinner, classy I know! Grace cooked up a big meal for some of the others and we all just simply enjoyed our time with each other. The night ended by Brit and I sleeping in her massive 6 person tent and watching Moana on an iPad. Simply perfect! The next day we were heading back out to the trail, Brit left in the morning and I almost cried saying goodbye. she was also kind enough to take home some of my Sierra gear. Like my best canister, whippet, some extra clothes, and lots of bars I had extra of. The plan was for her to send me the bars to Truckee to have for my next resupply. Grace cooked us breakfast and as we ate, Stats left to try and get a hitch into a different town for some gear or packaging thing he had going on. Poor guy stood on the street forever before getting a ride. Scotty had to stay to also to get some stuff done, so me, Freckles, and Tim headed out together. Immediately we hit Elk lake and stopped and got some food from the store. A big watermelon and some beverages. It was so pretty there. We hiked on meeting tons of day hikers who were filled with questions. Which is so nice, but then sometimes you’re barely making any progress because you keep getting stopped. The most interesting thing was one particular woman who was our trail running. We said hi and she chatted a sec then asked where we were headed. And we responded “Canada!” Well she didn’t like that answer and snapped back, “ yea well I’m going to China but not right now” super rudely. We were all shocked and misunderstood what happened. Maybe she thought we were being smart asses? Not sure but it definitely bothered all of us, even though it wasn’t our shit so we didn’t need to be bothered. Then the damn snow started again. We kept walking and before we knew it we were pretty far off trail. We had headed in the wrong direction and now have to sort of back track and climb a bit to get back to where we need to go. This caused us to hike just 9 miles to Lake Aloha. Basically still fully frozen over and surrounded by an abundance of snow. So much for being done with snow after Sonora Pass. It was a beautiful campsite though. And the conversation was just as equal. I’m so blessed to get to have real conversations with people that I actually barely know. Even though I feel like I’ve none them forever. The bond that comes from doing this stuff together without the distractions of social media and technology isn’t really something I’ve ever experienced until now. And I am just grateful.