Day 1 |
Saturday, June 23 |
Uh oh...one mile in and Glenda's already getting rub marks from her pack.
"Here's what we could do Glenda! Lets call a taxi at this road and get a ride to Brockway Summit. We'll do the Tahoe Rim drive..."
"Oh yeah...that's why I backpack!"
Vibrant pinkish red snowplant leaps out at us with its intense splash of color against a brownish gray forest floor.
My finished Juniper berry hemp bracelet!
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Glenda and I met Lori, Echo and Rob (our trail angel) at the Brockway Summit Trailhead where we would be heading east to begin our 165 mile, 13 day hike around Lake Tahoe. We were there from 9:00 AM until about 11:00 AM distr ibuting and packing the food and supplies. The time passed by so quickly.
Rob hiked with us for the first hour of forested, slightly uphill trail. We stopped at a comfortable spot to have lunch and look at the map. Echo flung dirt everywhere and made himself a comfortable hole to lie in. He also walked all over the map while Glenda tried to read it. We found (despite all the dirt) that our only choice for camping at a water source was Mud Lake located in the Mount Rose Wilderness in Nevada. So we crossed the border into Nevada on our very first day as Rob headed back to Davis. We had a bit of a climb but with it came  our first view of the majestic Lake Tahoe from it's very own rim trail. We walked along a rocky and dusty forested dirt road for a while before picking up the trail and four miles later we were at another vista where we could see the first vista. It seemed so far away yet there was much, much further to go. Echo loved the views. He kept running back up the trail to see them then looking back at us expectantly as if to say "Hey you guys, this view is AMAZING!" 
We also found that he likes to herd the group. He runs ahead and blocks whoever's in front the let the person behind keep up.
We camped at Mud Lake 11 miles from the Brockway Summit Trailhead. Mud Lake really is that: a mud hole. It's practically a puddle. You can walk out into the middle of it and the water goes up to about your knees. Oh, and it's  extremely cold there. But we weren't complaining...water is water in backpacking, right? Glenda made us an awsome dinner: pasta with fresh mushrooms and zuchinni, our only fresh veggies for quite a while. Lori had the idea that we would each bring four surprises for the trip and Glenda was the only one with a non-food surprise. She brought hemp string and Juniper berries from a Navajo reservation she was at in New Mexico and we all made jewelry with Juniper berries to protect us on our trip and remind us of it when it was over. |
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Day 2 |
Sunday, June 24 |
OMG! Look at that scary vicious attack dog!
Here we are, the highest point on the TRT!
"Oh Look Tahoe Mea--OMG LOOK AT THAT GINORMOUS FIRE!! " |
 We got up well after 9:00 AM, grumbling at our inefficiency as we finished packing up at around 10:00 AM. It was a sandy, slippery, steep climb back to the trail from the lake. Glenda wanted to make it to Ophir Creek in Tahoe Meadows by lunch. We had a pretty big climb up Mount Rose and reached  the highest point on the TRT at around 10,000 feet with amazing views in all directions. After our big climb, naturally we went down. We reached some kind of tower and hiked down an exposed access road that was hard on the feet. For the next several miles all we could think about was lunch and the road seemed to last forever. This area is where we first saw the initial smoke from the South Lake Tahoe fire billiowing up, a distant white column. So when we finally reached the Tahoe Meadows Trailhead we collapsed on our tarp and ate lunch. It felt great to take off our shoes and rub some of Lori's "body glide" on the sore spots. We finally forced ourselves to get moving again and soon found that Ophir Creek was less than a mile away from where we had  lunch. We filled up on water before pressing on again. This section right after Tahoe Meadows had a lot of mountain bikers. We dry camped at 7:15 PM when we found a nice spacious flat spot. Glenda made us some tasty "Tasty Bites" indian food, great for dry camping. I was glad I slept in the tent with Lori and Echo that night because it was literally freezing.
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Day 3 |
Monday, June 25 |
It's already startin' to get hazy around here.
Wow, I have WAY to much clothing on in this picture.
Too bad we can't see beyond Marlette Lake. If somebody hadn't started a FIRE... |
Yes it was actually freezing...our water had frozen overnight. We decided we needed to get serious about miles after the last morning's sluggish start so we got moving before  breakfast and ate at Twin Lakes. Twin Lakes is really one lake if you can really call it a lake. If the bone dry sand pit next to the watering hole had been full, both bodies of water would have equated to about half of the tiny Mud Lake at which we had camped previously. After breakfast we climbed up to a beautiful view of Marlette Lake. We reached the eerily empty Marlette campground and found several empty Kirkland water bottles in the bear box there. Marlette Lake seemed the perfect place to have lunch and was the only reliable water source until Spooner Lake. Our trail guide seemed certain that the hike was along the lines of "quick run down to the water" on a dirt road. So we hiked 3 miles on a downhill road, out of the way of the TRT and arrived at the wa ter with extremely sore feet to eat our lunch. There seemed to be relatively a lot of people there for a lake so seemingly out of the way. But then it's supposedly just a quick run down to the lake, right? A lot of smoke from the fire had blown over to Marlette Lake and settled above the still water, floating in a misty haze. We dragged ourselves from our beloved resting place and ambled back onto the trail, revived but still wincing at the pain in our feet. We took an alternate route straight from Marlette Lake to Spooner Lake so we wouldn't have to walk back up that dreadful road. The sun was slowly fading away behind distant mountains as arrived at the fairly populated Spooner Lake which also had road access. We passed people fishing in the cooling summer evening as we searched for a  campsite. We didn't know if we were allowed to camp at Spooner but...HEY we're thru hikers, we can camp wherever we want! The perfect end to our 16 mile day was an extremely tasty noodles with peanut sauce. It was warm enough for us all to sleep outside. We were so tired we barely were able to hang our food. |
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Day 4 |
Tuesday, June 26 |
Fire starters just have to ruin it for everyone else...burning down buildings, millions of dollars in damage, destroying wildlife habitat, killing wildlife blah, blah, blah. But really what's important is this taking our view away! What's with that?
Lori insisted on providing proof of exactly how disgusting she was...don't ask.
They should have never let us in this hotel. |
 We pumped water in the morning, then headed up toward the Spooner Summit Trailhead. You can hear the highway from Spooner Lake and we had to cross it when we picked up the TRT again. It was crazy busy. We "Froggered" our way across and then had a climb uphill until lunch. The view at the top was great but I suspect it would have been  spectacular had there not been a ton of smoke from the fire floating around. The lunch spot was perfect and, as always, we had a hard time leaving it. The climb down was pretty hot and rocky at first so Lori put Echo's booties on him. He really had to get used them...poor dog, we were laughing our asses of at his reaction. The rest of the day became extremely repetitive as far as the trail goes. It was a winding bore of thickly forested dusty trail moving back and forth, following the shape of the slopes. Every corner we turned or high spot we reached seemed to promise some sign of the road we were expecting to reach but it felt as if we were walking in circles. When we finally reached the paved residential road Lori called a taxi van and we stayed at a Casino hotel in Heavenly/Kingsbury. I was skeptical at first but once we got there it felt good to walk on carpet, take a real bath and sleep in a comfortable bed. Lori disapeared for a while and turned up about an hour later with a shitload of food and some tasty cocktails.
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Day 5 |
Wednsday, June 27 |
"I don't think you could possibly know how horrible this is for me right now...do we really need to be doing this? WTF?!"
"GOOD BOY ECHO!!"
You guys! Get a room, will you?
"Hehe. I'm not going anywhere."
"Oh, this tree is SO huge, I just LOVE it! The bigger the better, baby!" |
We took a cab to the trailhead early the next morning. It's amazing how much easier it is to get up when you don't have to face the freezing morning air first thing. The trailhead was right in the middle of Heavenly Ski  Resort and the TRT sign was actually as small peice of wood with a map and some brochures on it, nailed to the side of a ski lift. Turns out this whole section is just full of ski lifts, right up to Monument Pass. The hike was a bit uphill at first then gradual up and flat. There was an amazing view of the Carson Valley. The mountains rose so steeply and abruptly from the valley that looking down to the east felt like looking down from an airplane. I think It was the first time I'd ever truely  grasped the impressive height of these comparatively modest mountains. We saw a HUGE Western White Pine under which we took a break. The climb up around Monument Peak was extremely steep and rocky. After the pass we had a flat hike passed some beautiful Juniper trees before climbing yet again to reach Star Lake.  Star Lake was a great reward after that hike. It's so beautifully nestled in the snow splashed mountains. Echo and Lori went swimming...or rather, Lori went swimming and Echo tried to save her. Some Desolation Wilderness rangers passed us making sure nobody made campfires with all the recent fire danger. Yet again it was difficult to leave our quaint little lunch spot and although the trail guide said it was mostly downhill to Armstrong Pass we had a bit of a climb first. We got our water at a gorgeous little stream a mere 200 yards or so from its snowmelt source so we didn't have to pump it. It was  soooo tasty! We camped at Armstrong Pass that night and had our first mosquito night. |
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Day 6 |
Thursday, June 28 |
Whenever there's water we just have to take off all our clothes. Of course!
The perfect lunchtime view. Especially if you're in a lot of pain.
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The hike to Big Meadow from Armstrong Pass was difficult not because of the trail but because of our injuries. The trail was a good mix of up, down and flat but it felt like forever because Glenda and I were hurting and it was taking us longer because we were hiking  slower. I think the pain drove us kinda mad and we started "angry hiking" as fast as we could so that we could stop sooner. We left poor Lori in the dust. About a mile uphill from the Big Meadow Trailhead we came to a beautiful meadow with a creek flowing through it were we had a late lunch, washed our clothes and swam.  From there it was a nice little 3 mile hike to our campsite at Round Lake. Some campsites had thick clouds of mosquitos...we chose the windy campsite instead. |
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Day 7 |
Friday, June 29 |
Glenda, what the hell are you doing?
You guys go ahead. I'll just stay here...forever.
Lori: "Echo, d'ya want some wuuuaaater? D'ya wanna go swimeeen?"
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 From Round Lake we hobbled reluctantly out of camp. But as soon as our trail met with the PCT about 3 miles later we were rewarded with a beautiful trail through a long meadow, across a  creek and by an old cowboy cabin. The rest of the trail was a gorgeous mix of meadows and streams. We passed Showers Lake and a bit after that we got to a very pretty section of the trail where several streams flowed down the mountain with lupine, asters, and shootings stars all sprouting up joyfully among them. The  snowmelt source was only feet from the trail. We  continued through more meadowy, melting snow areas and stopped for lunch in Bryan Meadow, a pretty but windy meadow where Glenda made us a got lunch of risotto and shells and cheese. We had a flat, we and later steep downhill climb to Echo Summit. The trail seemed kinda badly maintained at the  end. We kept having to re-find it. We found a note from Rob by the trailhead parking lot. We called him and he picked us up at Echo Summit and drove us to Berkeley  Echo Lake Camp, a fun little camp with tent cabins and a friendly, enthusiastic coordinator who welcomed us joyfully. We had a greasy yet satisfying dinner at Strawberry's and returned to our tent cabins for a good night's sleep.
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Day 8 |
Saturday, June 30 |
View from our Echo Lake cabin |
We finally got to sleep in a bit as it was a rest day. There was a problem with the water pressure but we did our laundry anyway and it worked. We had to flush the toilet by pouring water on it. All we did all day was eat and sleep...and anticipate the meal bells. At dinner we met a PCT thru hiker, "Yedi", who knew Nadine (also hiking the PCT) who Lori and I would later join for a 60 mile section. Apparently Yedi's 69 years old and doing about 30 miles day! |
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Day 9 |
Sunday, July 1 |
Echo, that's your lake!
"Hey, you guys. Do I have any white on my face?"
Lake LeConte (where we had lunch) and Lake Aloha in the background.
"Come on Lori, you can do this!"
Glenda almost seems like some kind of prophetic mirage here...an da heavens shan dan apown hu!! |
 We had a camp breakfast of fresh fruit and french toast, our last camp meal. No more anticipating mealtime bells ("20 minutes to lunch...5 minutes to lunch..."). Rob drove us down to Echo Lake and took "Echo  Schmeko" back to Davis while we took a boat across Echo Lakes to pick up the trail on the other side. There were several charming cabins all around the lake and even one on an island! The hike up to Desolation Wilderness was pretty rocky and  steep uphill. It was great to be in Desolation with a lake nearly every mile. We had lunch at Lake LeConte, right across the trail from Lake Aloha. We had a  sort of "snow cone" from actual snow that was melting into Lake LeConte. It was a Gookinade snow cone! Yum! After lunch we "cross countried" from Lake LeConte to Heather Lake  and it took us about as much time as it would on the trail anyway. It was really fun though and we got to slide down the snow. When we picked up the trail  again we ran into some cute marmots and another PCT hiker. From there we passed some more lakes and finally headed up to Dick's Pass. The view from the pass was great and there was a lot of snow up there which, interestingly, was almost completely gone when I returned there  about a week later! We then had a huge descent down to Dick's Lake  where a few other people were camping. The water there had a nice fresh snow/granite kind of taste. The mosquitos were pretty much epidemic status so we ate inside the tent with a hankerchief for a table...I mean thermarest-cloth.  Glenda's pots reminded us oddly of Japanese Bento perhaps because our meal was an Asian one: miso soup and noodles with peanut sauce. We're so lucky to have Glenda!! (Notice how much I talk about food).
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Day 10 |
Monday, July 2 |
We were just too cute, Lori couldn't resist taking a picture of us.
columbine |
The PCT hikers we were camped next to were long gone when we got up in the morning. We left around 9:00 AM and had a nice, fairly flat, beautiful hike through meadows and lots of lovely wildflowers. We had a great lunch break and escape from the mosquito infested trail in a shady and slightly rocky, breezy spot. We read a little of Lori's wierd dog book to each other which actually started tripping out on us with a talking dog, so Lori turned to making fun of it by "reading" her own interpretation. Yedi passed us and we taked to him for a while  and shared our raisins. Later some other TRT thru hikers passed us (Finally! Proof that someone else besides mountain bikers and day hikers are on the TRT. People do actually thru hike it!) The hike to Richardson Lake was a pleasant flat and downhill hike with lots of paintbrush, columbine, and monkeyflower (it actually looks like a monkey...no, seriously, I wasn't on acid!) At Richardson Lake we ran  into those TRT thru hikers again (only ones besides us apparently...) We camped at a nice creek two miles from Richardson Lake. This was the first water source that it was warm enough for me to actually get in and still feel my limbs. The mosquitos there were horrific (they just seem to be getting worse don't they) so we had another "bento" dinner in the tent. |
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Day 11 |
Tuesday, July 3 |
mariposa lily
Ah yes. Passout Point, I remember it well...
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We started the day with the hike up to Barker Pass which, for some reason, seemed a lot longer than the it was claimed to be. We could see the saddle toward the end but as it was so far away, the rate at which it seemed to get  closer to us as we walked was painfully slow. The climb was a nice gradual one with mostly grades that weren't steep but we were hiking very fast and taking no breaks. We took a short break at Barker Pass where there were bathrooms and a large map before heading uphill somemore (What? Uphill from a pass? WTF?) There was a great view of Lake Tahoe which we hadn't seen for a few days because the trail went pretty far south of the lake, apparently to avoid some sheer cliffs and unreasonable hiking. I still had too much clothing on from the freezing cold morning and hadn't bothered to shed it in the heat of midday. I practically passed out at the top of the climb...ok, maybe I was being a little dramatic. So, as we had just gone up, up, up...what do you think we did next? This is the TRT, of course we went down, down, down! Oh...oh wait, now we're going up again...
 We had lunch up at the top of our climb around Twin Peaks. We got to spend our lunch and about 300 yards of hiking in the Granite Chief Wilderness before parting ways with the PCT. Oh, guess what? Downhill! If we could  only conjure mountain bikes.... We pumped water several miles later when the trail crossed a bridge over a wide creek. When we reached the trailhead we called a cab we went to stay at William Kent Campground in Tahoe City where we were comparatively disgusting, insignificant compared to our RV camped counterparts, and...well obviously had a different idea of camping than our neighbors. We got to have ice cream from the store down the road. YAY, ice cream when your backpacking is just great! It was nice and warm outside so Glenda and I slept outside.
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Day 12 |
Wensday, July 4 |
"Haha. All those idiots down there have to deal with traffic and crowds...how come nobody else thought of this?"
"Um, I think that tree is gonna be a bit in the way..."
"Which one??"
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We had a very large and cheesy breakfast at the Fire Sign Grill right next to the camp. Some friendly day hikers had recommended it to us the day before when we were heading down from Barker Pass. We weren't used to so much food and it made us sleepy but is was good. We waited for the bus for about an hour and then took it to near our trailhead. There were tons of people in Tahoe City in line for river rafting and filling up their rafts at the gas station across the street. By the time we started hiking it was about 10:00 and roasting hot. We had about a 5 mile uphill climb to Cinder Cone, apparently some kind of rock pile ancient volcano thing. We had  lunch under a big tree with a great view of Truckee River Canyon. Some people had chalked their initials on flat rocks and stuck them into the bark of the tree so Glenda did one for us. We headed a couple more miles (urg! This was NOT the day to start late...our drinking water must have been about 90 degrees!) to a road where we thought there would be a creek because the creek was on the map...turned out there wasn't a drop of water in that creek. So we wandered around off the trail looking for a good spot to camp and watch the 4th of July fireworks. Glenda found us a good spot with a complete view of Lake Tahoe. We perched ourselves on two large rocks at the top of a mini peak and relaxed. We saw the faraway sparkle of the fireworks and it was as if he entire area around Tahoe was a miniature ant-like civilization. |
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Day 13 |
Thursday, July 5 |
"No! Don't take a picture of my twat!"
"Lori! What are you doing with the water pump?!"
Can't I just take a nap without being used as an friggin' table?!
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 Our final day was hot yet again which we would have known had we had the trail guide for that section. We got hiking pretty early and beat the heat to Watson Lake which was a bit of a climb. We spent the whole morning there snacking, reading and relaxing before we set off on the remaining 6 miles of our 165 mile journey. Toward the end it felt like we were going uphill forever in the heat, all of us panting with exhaustion from straining ourselves in thermometer bursting tempuratures. We hiked through a partially burned area of forest. As the final steps of our journey, the end of our great circle, drew closer, the beginning and the end became one. Brockway Summit meant more now as we approached it from a different perspective than it had when we left it, slightly naive about what lay before us. It was not only the starting and ending place of our trip but an outlet that led us to a place where we could clear our minds and release the accumulated stress of our lives. There we were again, 13 days later, the same people but there to end the Tahoe Rim Trail and take our memories home with us. Looking at Lake Tahoe from Brockway Summit then felt suddenly different. There was now an emotional current flowing through everything I saw before me. I saw the lake and its surrounding mountains as one, as connected and untited as the trail itself: one long loop winding through the great mountains, mountains that will always spark an emotional importance for me.
 END, END, END....
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"Now I can has SLEEP, SLEEP, SLEEP!"