Tahoe Rim Trail

[Tony Wong]

Tom,

Three clear moments stand out for me on this trip as special:

The 2nd day of the trip as we walked along the ridge on the Eastern side of Lake Tahoe.

I never really realized how large and vast Lake Tahoe was until we were up on that ridge to be able to look out across the last from South to North, nothing but the lake. The trail was a gentle descent, it was sunny with blue skies, and cool.

The 7th day as we headed up from Barker Pass to Granite Chief Wilderness.

It was not so much about the scenery as the change with me. Normally, I was not a good hiker on the switchbacks. I was usually the guy trailing behind everyone. That day I seem to find my trail legs and was able to push steady and hard up hill to the top. More than anything, it gave me an inner confidence in my ability to handle the steep uphill sections of the trail.

The 9th day along the stretch of trail around Mt. Rose was a spectacular mix of beautiful wild flowers stretching out like a dotted carpet of color and rocks along the steep slopes above and below the trail. Clear views of the entire length of Lake Tahoe from North to South, with white snow capped mountains along the horizon.

Oddly, Desolation Wilderness did not jump out at me at one of the highlights of the trip. Perhaps in part because we were hiking hard that day and did not spend the night there.

Don't get me wrong, it was spectacular to see the massive slopes of granite, white and smooth capped with patches of snow, however maybe I am a little jaded from my time around Yosemite?

The least favorite parts of the trip?

This is odd, but our shortest day was my hardest day. 13 Miles with breakfast at the Fox & Hound. The march up from Heavenly to Monument Pass was really hard on me. I fell behind so far from the other that I lost sight of them and only caught up with them as they started to have lunch. I found that I was gasping for air and taking photos in part because of the beauty and also to get a chance to catch my breath. It was sunny, hot, dry, and uphill…all the things that I dread on the trail.

Day 6, pushing to Dicks Pass. Once again, I was the trailing guy on the trail. No matter how hard I pushed myself to go forward, I just found myself gasping for air after each turn in the switchbacks. The views were amazing as ever, but I was a sad mix of dripping sweat and being chilled at rest with constant gusting winds hitting me.

The end of the 4th day was physically the hardest on all of us. 21 amazing miles of such a contrast of views, nothing to complain about in that regard, but the last push uphill to Showers Lake was just a killer. We all pretty much were ready to just drop our packs and setup camp and sleep.

Overall, I counted myself lucky in that the only physically problems that I had were the chaffing on my inner thigh from the rubbing of my zip off pants against my thighs and the irritation of my hiking poles rubbing the webbing between my thumb and forefinger, which I used the Kinesio tape to remedy. Stuff that comes up after 120 miles on the trail, funny.

What I did learn about myself on this trip is that I really don't have any desire to be out on the trail more than two weeks. I simply missed my family.

So I guess that this means no PCT or AT to me, which I had listed on my Bucket List on a prior BPL thread. Maybe that will change in the future, maybe not.

Here I differ from Cameron and Jeremy. This trip only reinforced their desire for more time on the trail and dreams of doing the PCT.

I am not sure what Jay's desires are on longer trips. Since he has soloed the JMT, I suspect he would be up for doing the PCT.

The best thing about this trip, and I know that this sounds silly, was being able to spend all this time with the other guys. Getting to know them and finding that even after 9 days on the trail, I was good with them all. No one really argued, though we did have a cranky moment at the end of the day at Showers Lake after a long, long day. I made two new friends, Cameron and Jay, who I would go on future trips with in a heart beat.

I appreciated and respected everyone's willingness to let everyone "hike your own hike". If someone was falling behind or had to stop to attend to a foot problem, there was no grumbling….merely heartfelt support and understand for the other person.

After nine days of dealing with anyone, it would test any relationship, right?

Anyway, so those are my reflections on the best and worst parts of this amazing journey for me.

I am curious to see what thoughts the other have?

Maybe they all wanted to kill me for slowing down to take so many stupid photos!

-Tony

[Cayenne Redmonk]

I really enjoyed the north eastern / easter side of the lake. Being able to look out and stare at the mountains across the lake, and out into nevada all day long was awesome.

[Jay Wilkerson]

I really enjoyed the hike and was able to make new friends. I would recommend the hike but with one downside..I am sure that most people on the website enjoy really getting out there-meaning no civilisation. On the TRT you have civilisation almost always around you (Desolation wilderness still has road crossings and stores). On the Eastern side you can see cars on the road, you have several road crossing with ALOT of cars, there are bicycle riders on the trail, we came upon a TH were people were passed out on the ground from going off the the night before(Big Bash) must of Ben fun.. For those Lone Wolfs out there I would not recommended but if you do not mind seeing people daily and towns and cars then go for it.. I really enjoyed the hike but I would not do it again—2011:JMT is on my list again!!! Hike your own hike!!

-Jay

[Thomas Gauperaa]

Fantastic report! Thanks for sharing

[David Scott]

Properly stunning!

I went to Lake Tahoe last year (being an English man) and was blown away with how amazing it was. If I could emigrate to anywhere, it would be Lake Tahoe. I also went to Yosemite a few years ago too.

I would LOVE to copy your route! I have a special place in my life for the Sierra Nevada area!

[JD Schaefer]

In what did you put your water cache and how well did you have to hide it?

Planning on doing a thru starting July 20, 2015

Thanks
JD
Cary, NC

[Tony Wong]

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

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