Tuolumne to South Lake Tahoe

We just walked another 150+ miles through some gorgeous, wet, buggy and high mountains of the High Sierra. We left our car in Tuolumne Meadow in Yosemite and walked north with our friend Chris (trail name Teach, after the teacher from Bevis and Butthead).
We walked from Sunday until Friday, up over 10,000 feet multiple times in the gusting cold wind and then down into valleys (then back up to 10,000 and back down...), covering around 12 - 15 miles per day.
The bugs were horrendous in some meadows, riverbeds and swampy areas. We bought head bug nets at the last minute and thanked God multiple times an hour that we had them. Never in our three lives (combined) have we seen or been hunted by so many insects. I felt like that tv guy that wears a protective suit and the bees swarm and cover every millimeter, but with mosquitos. We were troopers though, each sustaining hundreds of bites and only mildly freaked out once, when we all three climbed into our tent to wait 3 hours until dark, when the mosquitos would be better. Although they were so relentless in that area that they just waited for us to emerge to continue the onslaught, well into the night.
From Sonora Pass, we hitched (sorry mom, you didn't read that) into Bridgeport for a night of food and showers then got right back onto the trail after 20 hours. It was hardly a zero day: spent going to the post office and general store to resupply, then sitting on the side of the road trying to hitch back.
After two rides to get back, one from the Post Master and one from two middle-aged hippies from Burning Man, we walked back out into the wilderness. Saturday until Wednesday around 5:00 pm was spent walking north (or something close to north), with Brian hobbling on a bum knee.
We had been looking forward to getting showers and lots and lots of food, when we arrived at Carson Pass. While sitting at a bench snacking at a popular trailhead, a young woman and dog offered us a ride to South Lake Tahoe, since she was heading there anyways. Well, we were going to walk 14 more miles to get there on Thursday, but what's one day? So we hopped into the pickup bed and got to eat pizza a night early. We are staying at the Days Inn until Friday, sleeping in beds, eating as much as possible and swimming in the pool and hot tub.
On Friday, we leave here and walk to Echo Lake and then to Truckee (hopefully for the 4th), where we'll hang out for another day or two before bussing back to Yosemite to our cars.