Backpacking the Tahoe Rim Trail — Part 3
South Lake Tahoe to Mount Rose Summit
Day 13 Kingsbury North Trailhead 97.1 to first flat campsite (no water) 97.6 — .5 miles
The plan for today was to take a nero (near zero miles). We spent most of the day in town and then headed to the trail very late in the day, hiked a short distance and camped. We did this for two reasons. First, so we could have more time for town chores. Second, because there was no water for the first 11 miles of the trail, we were going to be bringing packs full of food and full of water from town. Our packs would be super heavy.
In the morning we went back to Raley’s to shop for food for this last section of the trail. We bought the standard crackers, cheese, trail mix, cookies etc. We also stopped at a FedEx office and mailed our microspikes home since there was not going to be any snow on the rest of the trail.
We packed up and checked out of the hotel.
After using duct tape to repair my shoes, the shoes had only gotten slightly worse. They would probably survive the rest of the trail but they weren’t protecting my feet and weren’t keeping my feet dry and clean. It just seemed ridiculous to keep wearing these shoes. Across the street was a sporting goods store. It was a really nice and helpful store. Most of the shoes that I tried weren’t wide enough in the toe box for me. I ended up with a Merrel Moab which is a variant of my favorite hiking boots from 5 years ago, before I switched to trail runners. Maybe I’m done with trail runners and back to old school hiking shoes. I threw out my old shoes and walked out in the new ones. We were also able to pick up more Dr. Bonners soap which was running low.
We then walked a mile across town to a laundromat. Our clothes hadn’t been properly washed in 9 days and they were really smelly and dirty. It was so nice to get them washed. We learned on this trip that 6 to 7 days is really the longest we should go without laundry and showers.
Our plan for lunch was to get sandwiches at Whole Foods, but the Whole Foods wasn’t a full service store and didn’t have a deli counter. Instead we went to Chipotle for lunch. We rested for a long time at the picnic table in the shade outside Whole Foods. It was a nice place to rest because we could use the Whole Foods’ restroom and water fountain.
In the late afternoon, we got a Lyft to drive us to Kingsbury North Trailhead. Our driver was very friendly. He told us about a bunch of other hikers that he has driven around and asked about our experiences.
Once at the trailhead, we carried our super heavy packs with 2 gallons of water just a half mile to camp. Our campsite was at an intersection of the TRT and a popular bike trail, so a lot of bikers came by through the evening.
With that huge Chipotle burrito in my stomach, I didn’t need any dinner.
Day 14 first flat campsite (no water) 97.6 to right before no camping zone near Spooner Lake 109.6 — 12 miles
Most of today’s hike was along a ridge looking over Lake Tahoe and was filled with great views and photos. We only had the water that we had brought from South Lake Tahoe, so it was important to keep a good pace and get to our water cache pretty early in the day.
Starting just south of Spooner Summit trailhead, there is a 16 mile zone where camping is not allowed except in established campgrounds. We needed to camp before the start of this zone. We didn’t find very good spots but took what we could find. The worst part of the campsite was the lack of shade. It was a hot day.
After picking a campsite and dropping our packs we needed to get our water from the cache. It was a half mile down to the trailhead. Following the directions that Ceci gave us, we found eleven gallons of water. Only four of those were ours. At the trailhead, we drank some water, cooked mashed potatoes, washed dishes and rested in the shade. Eventually we went back to camp with enough water for the night.
Our campsite was an uncomfortable place to rest for so long. There were no good spots to sit in the shade and our tent was too hot in the sun to get in.
I bought a new piece of equipment for this trip, a hiking sun umbrella. I was hoping that the umbrella would help me from overheating in the hot sun in the middle of the day. A few times I tried using it by strapping it to the shoulder strap of my pack and walking in the shade of the umbrella. It didn’t work as well as I had hoped for several reasons. The TRT is pretty tree covered and not as exposed as other trails. When the trail is exposed, it is often windy and that causes the umbrella to collapse or be hard to control. The trail is pretty busy and when the trail is narrow the umbrella makes me too wide to pass other hikers easily. I did use the umbrella to give me some shade at today’s campsite but overall I don’t think it makes a lot of sense on a trail like this.
Day 15 Spooner Lake 97.6 to Marlette Peak Campground 119.1–11.5 miles
Heading out in the morning, we passed by our water cache again and loaded up with enough water for the whole day.
Like yesterday, today included lots of views of Lake Tahoe and Marlette Lake.
We were still in the no camping zone, so we had to camp at the developed campground at Marlette Peak. It was nice to have a picnic table. There is an old hand pump well at the campground for water.
Since Round Lake, we didn’t have our solar charger and weren’t able to charge our phones. We had charged in South Lake Tahoe and that needed to last until we finished. Earlier in the trip, both Dave and I had been using our phones quite a bit. Whenever there was a view of Lake Tahoe, there was usually a cell signal. We would check our messages, news, and play games. This was nice since we could always be up to date on information, but it was harder to disconnect than it had been on previous thru hikes.
We were still eating through the food that we had purchased at Raley’s in South Lake Tahoe. One of the items we bought were Almond Thin cookies. When we were shopping, I read the nutritional label and said there were approximately 1000 calories in the box. It turns out I read the label wrong and there were really only 400. We were 600 calories short of what we expected to have in this section of trail.
Tonight was our last night camping on the Tahoe Rim Trail and of course we had one last equipment issue to deal with. One of the door zippers on the tent wasn’t working correctly and wasn’t zipping closed. We’ve had this problem many times with both zippers. Thankfully Dave figured out how to get it closed by pulling with a lot of pressure at an angle. Those zippers are very important during mosquito season.
Day 16 Marlette Peak Campground 119.1 to Mt Rose Summit trailhead 133.7–14.6 miles
Last day! Today was our longest hiking day but our packs were light with little food and we were motivated to get home for some real food, shower, bed etc.
Our first rest of the day was at Twin Lakes. This is a misnomer though. These “lakes” are dry year round and should be called meadows.
Later in the day we crossed through Tahoe Meadows. It is a very large and beautiful meadow with a stream running through it. A half a mile to our car, we stopped at the Mount Rose campground to fill up on water for the drive home.
The very last difficulty of the TRT is crossing the highway to get back to our car. There are 3 lanes of traffic to cross and the sight-lines aren’t great. We had to wait quite a while but eventually got a clear section in both directions and hurried across to our car and clean clothes.