It has become a tradition in the last couple of years to take a backpacking trip over the 4th of July weekend. Unfortunately this has meant we missed out on the yearly firework shows, instead “settling” for sunsets and the calmer sierra canyons.
This year though, as Trails and I headed into our 10th day on the trail, we were picking up “The Boys” who were joining us with their mountain bike just in time to bring 4th of July essentials: Whiskey, wine, flags, and enthusiasm…
Beginning June 25, 2014 I thru-hiked the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT), circling Lake Tahoe in 12 days. Accompanied by my friend and fellow blogger, Trails, we bravely took on this 165+ mile loop. I will be blogging a day-by-day rundown of each day’s hike, night’s campsite, and my contemplations while beating down miles. Check out my complete trip report for the TRT here – This is day 9. One of the peculiar…
I talked about the Pacific Crest Trail hikers we had met while the Tahoe Rim Trail overlapped with the Pacific Crest Trail, but what about our fellow TRT thru-hikers? Thru-hiking the TRT has it’s perks, like discovering Lake Tahoe beyond the casinos and ski resorts in a way not many else have on this relatively new trail. And, speaking practically, TRT thru-hikers don’t have to quit their jobs for a 2 week trek. I mean, why not?
Lake Tahoe is known for it’s crystal clear blue waters, a trait it has partially due to an active sediment filtering habitat surrounding the lake. I knew this, but it did not hit me that this would affect water filters until the very beautiful Star Lake (way back on day 1 of hiking) clogged a hardy MSR ceramic filter with silt -And day 1 was only a brief preview of how very silty these lakes surrounding Tahoe can get…
The longest backpacking trip I had done before hiking the Tahoe Rim trail had been my 5 day, 50 mile hike around Red Peak Pass. Here on day 6 I was breaking into the new frontier of trip length… and at the end of day 6 we had hiked over 90 miles! WHAT?!
Day 6 was arguable one of our longest days too…
The mosquitoes I tangoed with at Middle Velma Lake on camp night 4 were only a warm-up. The real deal was to be found on day 5, as we exited the Desolation Wilderness and hiked down the TRT to camp besides an unnamed small creek about a mile after Bear Creek.
I am calling camp on night 5 “PCT Creekside Camp” because we did see the most number of PCT hikers passing through here…
Beginning June 25, 2014 I thru-hiked the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT), circling Lake Tahoe in 12 days. Accompanied by my friend and fellow blogger, Trails, we bravely took on this 165+ mile loop. I will be blogging a day-by-day rundown of each day’s hike, night’s campsite, and my contemplations while beating down miles. Check out my complete trip report for the TRT here – This is day 4. The Desolation Wilderness is the…
Resupplies are part of the thru-hiking experience – planning ahead to restock food and personal items. We had 3 resupply stops on this trip, the first of which was at a little store and seasonal post office at Echo Lake.
Originally the plan was to resupply on day four, but instead I had reworked the schedule to bust our behinds into getting there in three days. In my defense, It shaved a day off of our time & the lakes we stayed at were some prime camping spots! Unfortunately that also meant we were 14 miles from the Echo Lake resupply location…
Sometime during the early morning hours at Star Lake a it started drizzling. It wasn’t a hard rain, but the wind can really whip up the canyon there if it wants to. Trails was a trooper and ran outside to pull our packs under the rainfly – maybe it would stop by morning time?
Despite our hopeful thoughts the rain did not stop. We hid in the tent cooking and packing up after waking, but it was inevitable. We had to pack up one wet and heavy tent, put on our pack covers, and brave the weather.
Hello! I am a 30-something outdoors-lady, backpacker, and resident of Groveland, California - 
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