Highway 50 to I-80 and 2 feet short of 50 miles.

Two weeks ago I had a chance to try and hike from Highway 50 through to Interstate 80 along the pacific crest trail. Our guess was that it would be somewhere around 50 miles, and we could cover it in 3 days @ 17-18 miles a day. Upon arriving at the trailhead on 50 I realized that I did not bring my hiking socks (thick cushy socks) but only had my regular ones. This bone head move was compounded by the fact that I had a brand new pair of hiking boots to break in. So began the trouble.
I couldn't be bothered to be too concerned about my footwear situation so I just laced up and hit the trail. Desolation was beautiful as usual, although this was the first time I have been during peak season - Wow is there a lot of people hiking at this time of year. I found out that Desolation is one of the most visited Wildernesses in the US, a fact that does not make the place any more appealing to me. I was doing great, flying past Echo, up to Aloha, and headed towards Dick's pass when I could feel what felt like the beginning of blisters. We pulled over at about 10 miles in and I threw on an extra pair of socks before the assent to the top of the pass. The climb to the pass was about 4 times what I had expected. each semi crest I would think "OK, this HAS to be it", but up and up it went. 9200 feet and then all the way up to about 9400 feet. At this poitn I was at a slow shuffle because my heels were killing me. We stopped to rest a minute and I took off my shoes to assess the damage. Bad. Apparently I had blisters a few miles ago, now I just had holes in my ankles and bags of water around my toes. I have never really had blisters in my hiking career so it wasn't something I had worried about, planned for, or even expected to happen. Not having the the best first aid kit on me I fixed it up with some good 'ol Duct Tape. The roll was a brand that actually said "Duck Tape" and had a picture of a duck which I found a little ridiculous. So I taped up, double socked my feet, and got back on the trail knowing we had to make the first night's camping spot at about 18 miles in next to Middle Velma Lake. BY the end of day 1 I was toast. My feet were killing me and now I was worried about the risk of infection which kept me from jumping in and swimming around the nice cool water. I threw my hammock up in a couple of trees, ate and drank while laying in it and then passed out for the night. I had assumed the nights would be cold but a breeze came up out of the valley that felt as if a giant hair dryer was blowing on me all night. I ended up down to my skivvies on top of my bag for most of the night. The mosquitoes were swarming.
The next morning I awoke and felt great. We took our time getting ready and I was thinking, skin or no skin I am finishing this hike. We packed up and hit the trail. It took some limping initially but after the heel area got lubricated with a little blood and juices it actually wasn't that bad... for the first 8 miles. I started to realize that making the full 50 was going to be quite a chore. We stopped to ask random passers by about were the trails went and how far it was from our second night's targeted stop to out final destination. It was becoming less clear the more we asked.
"How far is it from this pass to I-80?" We asked.
Hiker #1: "I think about 15 miles."
Hiker #2: "We just came that way, about 25 miles."
Ranger: "Well lets see, that's got to be about 30-35 miles."
I noticed the numbers kept getting bigger and commented that we better stop asking now while it still seems in reach.
Not knowing what lay ahead and beginning to barely limp along we decided it would be best for me to try and cut over the the Rubicon Trail (a popular 4x4 trail) and try and hitch a ride out to the highway with a Jeeper. We said our goodbyes and good lucks and I wandered off on my own to find the trail. I few miles later I actually made it to the trail but all of the Jeeps were going West and I needed to head East. I just hobbled along until just before I reached the pavement I got picked up by a guy and his son in a wrangler. They had too much gear to give me a seat so I sat on the spare tire and help the roll cage while they drove out to the highway.
When we arrived at highway 89 they found that they had a broken rear axle and needed repairs. I thanked them for the lift, stuck out my thumb and got picked up by some 20 somethings from France who were traveling through on their way to Reno. They were nice enough, and spoke just enough English, to give me a ride to GarWoods bar and grill just outside Tahoe City. There some 151 coolers eased my pain and that ended the hiking part of my adventure. From there I hitched a ride to South Lake with a friend, partied up the night in the casinos with gauze on my feet and headed home in the morning. My fellow hiker finish his trip in Tahoe city as well because it turns out that dropping off the PCT and down to the town puts the hike right at 50 miles.
All in all, the trip was fun as usual. I will be returning the boots for sure (Thank you REI), and I will look forward to trying that trip again in the future.
Here is a quick compilation of the pics from the trip. Sorry about the quality but I had to put it on youtube because the file size was too big for a Vimeo upload. I'll try and fix that soon.

Hope you enjoyed it.

M