After spending the evening in South Lake Tahoe, we headed up to Echo Lake, parked the car, and hiked to the trailhead. It was a beautiful day to hike as it wasn't too hot. We skirted Echo Lake, ogling the cabins strewn along the shoreline, and wondering how one gets property on an alpine lake.

After about 3 miles, the trail started gaining elevation. Several switchbacks later, we flattened out and started a slow decent to Lake Aloha. Our campsite was just under 7 miles from the car. We found a nice spot nestled in the trees, just big enough for 2 tents. We spent the afternoon wandering the shore, swimming, and taking photos.

Dinner was cooked by the lake, pre-prepared by Jing. Rissoto and dehydrated homemade chilie. We celebrated Jrah's birthday with a glass of hot-coco and a dash of whiskey.

Once the sun went down, we watched the stars.

Coffee and oatmeal. We then packed up and eased to the south part of the lake and dropped our bags just off the trail. We had our eye on a snow patch for Stani to play on, and a desire to explore the other side of the lake. We got an amazing view from top of a bluff, and found a damn that had been built in ~1917. We swam and soaked, and then headed back to the trail to return to civilization.

The hike back was a bit of a slog as we were tired and probably not really wanting to leave. 2.5 hours back to the car.