Short Notice – Tahoe Rim Trail – Nov 21-25

[Jesse Gibbs]

So I have an unexpected vacation next week, and in conjunction w/ the unseasonably warm N. California weather, I'm hoping to tackle a full circuit of the 165 mi Tahoe Rim Trail, starting next Friday morning at Echo Pass.

My goal is to complete the circuit in 4 days, allowing a 5th day as insurance in case the altitude slows us down, or we hit bad weather (chance of showers next Sunday, according to current forecasts).

I really only want to take this on with a companion (solitude gets old for me after a day), so if you're available and interested, please get in touch.

As an added bonus: I have family in Tahoe that can help out w/ assistance as we pass through N. Lake Tahoe, so we can lighten the loads a bit.

Email me at watkinsgibbs(at)yahoo(dot)com if you're interested and we can connect early this week!

Jesse

[Steven Nelson]

Hi Jesse –

Should be a beautiful time to do the trip, though water might be an issue.

Averaging more than 41 miles per day seems quite on the extreme end based on my experience on the portions of the route I've done.

With a group of experienced ultralight backpackers on a couple of different trips within the western half of the loop, we did 20-22 mile days and had time for rest stops and a lunch break, but would have been pushing it to go much further than that – and that was a couple of months earlier in the season with more light.

Not trying to dissuade you at all – just curious if you'll be trail running, hiking at night, or have some other strategy for cranking out so many miles per day.

[Jesse Gibbs]

I ended up having to abort the trip after hitting heavy snow above 8000 ft as I went from Big Meadows to Echo Lakes. The snow was not very deep, but cover was pretty consistent, and with the warm temperatures (high 40s), it wasn't possible to walk over the top.

FYI, my thought in doing 40+ per day was to hike 5AM until 5-6PM, starting and ending in the dark. It's pretty intense, but I think it's doable!

[Dave T]

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