Date: 9/11/18 Miles: 14.3 Total Miles: 171.0 No two hikes are ever the same and no matter how many miles you have under your feet there’s always something more to learn—that’s part of what makes it so much fun. Whether it’s learning how to not shower for a week or more (surprisingly easy) or learning…
Tahoe Rim Trail 2018
The Five Senses
Date: 9/10/18 Miles: 18.3 Total Miles: 156.7 Sandwiched in between the snowy Crystal Range to the west and the parched Carson Range to the east, Lake Tahoe sits as the second deepest lake in the country and somewhere deep within its inky blue waters lies the California-Nevada state line. This morning we watched the sun…
Limits
Date: 9/9/18 Miles: 16.9 Total Miles: 138.4 When I reached out of my hammock and lit the stove for coffee, the contrast of the dull warmth of the stove’s heat against the chill of the morning air only amplified how cold of a night it had been. Nestled into a basin all its own, Star…
The Movable Cheering Squad
Date: 9/8/18 Miles: 17.6 Total Miles: 121.5 The southern portion of the Tahoe Rim Trail sweeps well away from the lake itself, so much so that it’s possible to forget the lake is even there at all let alone your orientation to it. Today, however, we began making our turn back towards the lake while…
Solitude
Date: 9/7/18 Miles: 18.7 Total Miles: 103.9 Just as the sun began to crest the distant ridge, we were already saying our goodbyes to the Desolation Wilderness. The uncharacteristically rock-choked trail that had begun almost upon entering the wilderness yesterday continued for a few final miles as we hewed closely to the shore of Echo…
Desolation
Date: 9/6/18 Miles: 16.4 Total Miles: 85.2 Returning somewhere that holds a special space in your memory can go one of two ways—either the anticipation proves too great for the reality to live up to the recollection or the memory is renewed and reaffirmed. Today was most certainly the latter. The Desolation Wilderness is a…
The End of Newdle-palooza
Date: 9/5/18 Miles: 17.3 Total Miles: 68.8 Little did I know how close we were. Our hammock spot last night was a mere few hundred yards from the junction of where the Tahoe Rim Trail joins the Pacific Crest Trail for a 50-mile stretch through the mountains along the west side of Lake Tahoe. Moments…
Evolution
Date: 9/4/18 Miles: 17.4 Total Miles: 51.5 It took me a moment to recognize what I was looking at. Scattered flecks of grey and white were sprinkled on my hammock as I went to turn in last night, and it was then I realized that the smoke hanging on the horizon that had given us…
California’s Playground
Date: 9/3/18 Miles: 17.1 Total Miles: 34.1 Before today had even begun, yesterday quite literally ended with a thud. The thud in this case was the sound of me smacking into the ground neck first as my hammock came unmoored from its webbing on one end while I was lying in it. The ground beneath…
The Land of Dust and Fire
Date: 9/2/18 Miles: 17.0 Total Miles: 17.0 The shade of blue hadn’t changed at all. From high above and through a scrim of smoky haze, the sapphire hue of Lake Tahoe was no less brilliant than when I had last seen it two years ago while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Only this time, Emily…
