Our last day came too soon. The usual start:
And then we were off on a quick six mile hike to meet Vicki at Barker Pass (on Forest Road 3, halfway up the height of Lake Tahoe). Most of this six miles was, like some of yesterday's hike, in deeper forest. I wonder if the PCT sections north of here will be more like this, or if we'll have open areas with views like we had in much of the southern Sierra:
We did catch occasional pretty views to the west however, over the Rockbound Lake area:
But our focus on this hike wasn't pretty views, nice forest or fast hiking. The focus was a little bit on seeing mommy, a little bit on getting fresh food for lunch, and a lot bit on our first meeting with an expected new family member.
Meanwhile the trail started to emerge from the forest as we got close to Barker Pass:
We got our first view of Forest Road 3:
And then we saw where our trail reached the road. Tricia was almost there when Vicki walked over the road berm:
Vicki seemed to be carrying a bundle in her arms. Tricia reached Vicki and met our new little bundle, Halifax ("Hallie"). Katie was right behind:
Although a week ago we hadn't intended on getting a new dog any time soon, Vicki had learned of a dog show in Reno to be held while we were on the trail. She'd decided to go to it while she was waiting for us, maybe to meet some breeders from whom we might someday get a dog. Email meetings led to more communications than we expected and before Vicki knew it, a buyer had dropped out and she was asked if she wanted a new little girl.
She did. So I did too. We found out the night before we left. The girls were very excited.
And so our little addition came to Barker Pass to pick us up with Vicki.
We did our normal after-hike things:
But the main focus at the end of this trip was on our new little lady, Halifax Young. We have no doubt that by next summer she'll be doing PCT trips with us: