Looking Back on Backpacking Trips CJ and I have Done: Tahoe Rim Trail Day 1

The Tahoe Rim Trail is a loop around Lake Tahoe that follows the approximate mountain rim of the Tahoe basin at about 8000' elevation, plus or minus 2000' here and there. If you hike the full circle, total distance is 165 miles. Through those miles, the character of the trail changes significantly. The west side, where pacific storms deliver abundant rain and snow, is heavily forested with dense trees and many lakes and streams. The east side reminds you you're nearly in Nevada. Its like a desert at 8000' elevat ion. There are long stretches without any water sources. Less water, fewer trees, and the resulting open trail gives a feeling the sun is pounding on you.... I had hiked the trail's north/south lines on both sides of the lake earlier in life so I knew the differences but I had never hiked the sections of trail that swing east/west around the ends of the lake.

In 2013, I figured out how to pull eight days together between a family trip to Oregon and the day CJ was scheduled to take his black belt test in Tae Kwon Do. At the end of July. It wouldn't be enough days to do the entire 160 miles, but it seemed like enough time to do half. Since the end of July didn't seem like an appealing time to be on the hot dry side, I decided to look for a section with more tree cover. I settled on the idea of starting at Kingsbury Grade on the southeast end of the lake in Nevada, and walking clockwise toward Tahoe City on the northwest end of the lake, in California. 90 miles with abundant bail-out locations. And we needed a permit.

We mainly needed a permit to pass through Desolation Wilderness, which is legally a wilderness but considering its a day hike area for Tahoe vacationers there are people galore. Permits for overnight camping are regulated by a quota system. Luckily, we had no problem walking into the forest service kiosk at the Taylor Creek Visitor Center in Tahoe and getting a permit. When we told the Rangers our overarching plan to hike as much of the Tahoe Rim as possible,  they issued us a Tahoe Rim Permit which took us out of the Desolation quota system. This gave us flexibility on when we could enter Desolation and where we could camp that we wouldn't have had with a regular Desolation permit.

Immediately after we got our permit, Erin took us to Kingsbury Grade to be dropped off. I thought I had figured out where the trail head was but it still took us about an hour to find it. Its pretty much right under the Heavenly Valley ski lifts on the Nevada side. Our morning grocery shopping, the permit process, and the search for the trail head took longer than I expected. We hadn't eaten in  timely manner so the first thing we did after Erin dropped us off was sit right there and eat.  By the time we got hiking it was nearly four o'clock in the afternoon, about 3 hours later than I had planned to get started, and we were hoping to go nine miles to our first campsite at Star Lake. 

Our campsites as we worked our way around the lake:

• Star Lake
• Big Meadow
• Ledge between Showers and Echo
• Lake Aloha
• Richardson Lake 
• Tahoe City Hotel

CJ was such a stud. We made the nine miles with no problem, arriving at Star Lake in about 4.5 hours of walking, just at sunset. If there was a weaker member of our duo, it was me. Along the way, we had some great views of the Carson Valley for the first few hours. Then our view transitioned to the city of South Lake Tahoe and the lake as the sun set. By the time we got our tent set up, we were operating with headlamps in hard darkness. Not really a good thing considering it was the first time we set up a backpacking camp together like that. We weren't as synchronized as we needed to be. The campsite was kind of a mess. 

View of Carson Valley from Rim Trail