Since there is SO much information we could share, I'll just keep it simple and use pictures to tell our story...
Bottom line: Hiking that far, in 8 and 1/2 days, is a LONG way to hike.
And mostly Hal and I got bored.
It's the truth.
There's not much to do every day except keep walking, make sure you know where your next water sources are, and keep yourself comfortable. So that leaves LOTS of time for talking, walking, listening, trying not to fall asleep while walking, and wishing you could be doing anything other than walking.
I'm not complaining, I just don't think we will be doing another long distance backpack anytime soon.
We averaged about 20 miles a day, which would have been okay except that I forgot to plan in a 'rest' day. So at day 6, we hiked 20 miles to Tahoe City, picked up our food drop from our good friend, and got a hotel that night. It was great to sleep in a king sized bed, shower, and clean up.
Since we slept in the following morning and only did 10 miles that afternoon, we were now 10 miles behind, with only two more days left. So, thus followed two 25-mile back-to-back days, at the end of our hike, with the most elevation gain of the trip-ugh.
We started at Spooner Summit, which is in Nevada, and we were worried that our Subaru might be towed while we were out hiking, but people said, "Don't worry, your car is on the Nevada side, not the California side."
They were right and when we finished up back at Spooner Summit, 8 and 1/2 LONG days later, our trusty Subaru was right where we left her.
A great resource was the Tahoe Rim Trail organization website. We also relied solely on this map.
We had two resupplies, carried out for us by our generous and kind friends,
Our favorite section was by far the eight mile stretch from Echo Lake to Aloha Lake. That section alone is worth traveling to CA for.
The entire trail was VERY dry and dusty, so gauging your water sources appropriately is critical.
The weather was amazing, no clouds, no storms, beautiful blue skies every day.
Which is also why there were SO many people on the trail. But the majority were very friendly, very knowledgeable of trail etiquette, and left no trash behind.
The only trash we did find was an old rusted bike that was locked to a tree, and three battered tents-weird.
Here are the pics to tell the rest of the story:
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| Our start at Spooner Summit (see how clean and happy we are on the very first day?!) |
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| Trail markers were decent throughout the route |
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| Big tree! |
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| Happy camping Hal (now he never wants to see that tiny tent again!) |
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| Big meadow, a favorite... |
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| Echo Lake-want to come back here! |
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| Aloha Lake-also awesome! |
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| Echo Lake again-spoiler alert, this will probably be on our xmas postcards this year! |
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| Hal heard something big crash in the night, and this was what we found the next morning, less than 200 yards from our camp-yikes! |
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| Heading into civilization-Tahoe City |
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| Food drop via moto-thanks Rob! |
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| One of the rare views of Lake Tahoe from the Tahoe Rim Trail (I know, we thought we'd be hiking closer to the lake too!) |
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| Dehydrated breakfast of champions! |
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| This was called an 'unreliable' water source in our data book... |
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| And finally back at Spooner Summit, 171 miles later! |
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| Ewww, we need a bath! |
Thanks for reading, we are more than happy to provide anyone who'd like to do this hike with much more detailed information.
On that note, this would be a great loop to do for someone's first thru-hike-good scenery, not very isolated should something go wrong, and great weather.
But that doesn't mean that we ever need to hike it again-ha!
