Tahoe Rim Trail

My neighbors, who were new to backpacking, started the Rim Trail on the dry eastern side and had to carry water. They quit after two days. (They had no real clue despite my best efforts about carrying weight.) Have you thought about starting at the south end of the lake and going clockwise north on the western slope, and then ending on the dry stretch? I personally don't find that dry stretch to be as appealing as the rest of the hike anyway.

But caching seems like a good idea–but I have no info.

I've done the TRT once fully and once partially (110 miles, was doing 33 mile days and got some plantar fascia issues). I've started both times at Echo Lake, once clockwise, once counter-clockwise. I resupplied at Tahoe City and Kingsbury. It's a great trail to take a SUPER minimal amount of stuff (I did it with a Golite Ion pack the second time).

The dry section on the NE/E side is pretty dry, but I didn't cache water. You can divert from the trail to get water (Marlette, Spooner). Sounds like a good plan to start clockwise from Kingsbury, so you are in good hiking shape and acclimated by the time you get around to the NE drier section. Make sure to go to Gray Lake on the north end – great, cold, clear water at the inflow on a hot day.

And DEFINITELY try to time the "bikes on odd days" section to be on an even day, otherwise you'll be dodging endless mountain bikes for a while (my second hike I hit it on a bikes open day on a Sunday, and it was pretty bad).

Make sure to climb Mt. Tallac when you do the hike (short side hike to an amazing view). And perhaps Freel Peak in the south.

I can try to answer any questions you have.

I didn't cache water on my TRT hike either. Spooner has gross yet drinkable water, the marlette campground has an awesome pump/well thingy and we hit twin lakes also (although it might be dry for you)

We did carry extra water from spooner to kingsbury though.

I'll be on the TRT in just over a week. When I get back I'll let you know how dry it is. I planned an early start on the trail since it is a low snow year. I would rather deal with a bit of snow and mud than no water!

Mike,
Thanks, I look forward to the information. How long is your trip, where are you starting at, and what is your plan for resupply?
Thanks
Eric

Wired just finished the TRT though I haven't read her blog on this one to see which way she went. either way she usually has good information in her posts

http://www.walkingwithwired.com/index.html

Eric,

I just answered a similar question from the Photo Gallery regarding a detailed photo essay that I have there.

Might not cover the section that you are concerned about, but it does show you what we did to cache water on the TRT.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=27149

Here is the answer that I gave JD yesterday:

JD,

This is the caption in the photo essay that you are looking for:

Water Cache at Brockway Summit East off to the Side of the Trail.
On the Drive up from Tahoe City to our Starting Point at Tahoe Meadows, we dropped off five gallons of water for us to resupply ourselves as this is a very dry section of trail.

We simply bought gallon water jugs from the grocery store.

Then we used MS Word to print out "labels" telling people to please not take the water as it may endanger us as backpackers….then put our names and the date.

Used clear, packaging tape to attach the labels and also made them water proof.

We drove up to the area and then walked only a few feet off the trail to hide them….only lightly covering them with pine needles and debris.

After we picked up our water, had our meal for the night and then loaded up our hydration bladders for that morning, we left the excess water bottles on the trail and used a pen to say "free water".

Later, at the end of the trip, we drove back to collect the empty bottles and had found that someone had taken the free bottle(s) of water we had left on the trail.

Hope that helps.

You are going to be in for a fantastic trip….the grade on a lot of the trail really was nice and easy.

Tony

Eric,

My trip will be about 10 days, maybe 9. I plan on starting at Kingsbury Grade as I found a secure place to park my motorcycle in Stateline while I hike. I plan on resupplying at Tahoe City. I might grab a few snacks at Echo Lake but I am not expecting to get much. I am not going to cache any water but I will have the ability to carry 6 liters.

I'm starting in about 12 days…

As a Brit I'm not up on trail conditions….but I'm just happy to be going :-D

The little shop by Echo Lake doesn't have a ton of stuff. When i was there they did have some knorr sides, salami, cheese its, pringles. Snacky stuff. Beer! We managed to resupply, but it wasn't a ton of diversity.

Also they make a killer milkshake.

Here is WIRED’S BLOG ,she is currently hiking it.Didn’t notice someone else posted it but will leave it so the hyper link will make it easier to access it.

You probably already know this, but the TRT Association has a conditions page that can be pretty helpful:

https://www.tahoerimtrail.org/index.php/trip-planning/current-trail-conditions