Danielle: It took us awhile to get packed this morning, and we didn't reach the beginning of the hike until around noon. The driving directions from the hiking book were confusing which should have given us an indicator as how the rest of the hike was going to go.

This shot was taken from the opposite direction as the one you just saw with me. We hadn't even started the official hike yet, and were blown away by the scenery. We couldn't wait for more great views!

Tad: As Danielle said, we really haven't gone anywhere yet. The Tahoe hiking book (which Danielle gave me for my birthday) was too big to carry with us on the hike. So, we ripped (what we thought) were the relevant pages out and brought them with us. Even so, the trail descriptions weren't very accurate. It mentioned several stream crossings, which we made (or thought we did, anyway), but it turned out that we hiked at least two or three miles out of our way before we realized that there was no way we were on the correct trail. So, we backtracked and finally found the right trail. Turns out that there really weren't as many stream crossings as the book described. Maybe the streams were dried up or something.

The scenery was just absolutely stunning. You can see the mountains behind me still have snow on them. Indeed, we ended up crossing some snow fields near the summit. Quite an experience, to be in shorts and T-Shirts, and walking on top of snow that is at least five feet deep!