Today, I encountered the sultry enchantress called Lola Montez on foot. It’s not the same as upon my faithful aluminum steed, but that will have to wait. Lola was relatively clear, but she had an algae coated mucky bottom.
As I had feared, yesterday I ended my bike climb (or more accurately, bike drag) only about 150 feet short of where the wicked climb changed to a private dirt road on a very gradual slope. The rest of the climb would have been relatively easy.
Since the only object I brought that told time was my cellphone, I left it on during the hike. Amazingly, I got a signal most of the way. Often, I got a really strong signal. I-80 is pretty well covered with cell towers. I hiked at a relatively quickly pace, jogging at times and made it to the lake in almost exactly an hour. If you actually like to look at what you are hiking past, you should budget more time. During the hike, I encountered three mountain bikers, one large but scared dog apparently owned by someone living off the private road, and roughly 436 chipmunks.