The Rim

Day 86 - June 30

Mile: 1120.4 to 1139.6

up/down: 3600/2500 feet

Since a few miles before Carson Pass we've been hiking on the PCT and the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT). The TRT is a 165 mile loop trail around Lake Tahoe. Today we walked a few miles that were truly on the rim. We need to average about 19 miles per day in this section to make it to Sierra City without running low on food. With all the up and down the last few days, and more to come, it's been all we could do to make our miles. It's funny, we keep seeing some of the same kids go by us after towns. The youngsters can make more miles than us old timers then blow it all with long town stays. We'll just keep plodding along and get our measly miles done. 

We left camp early and climbed steadily through the forest to Barker Pass. This gave us our first looks at Lake Tahoe far below and set us up for the rim walk. For quite a while we were weaving in and out of the rocks along the crest with one spectacular view after another. We finish with a pass over Alpine Meadows Ski Area before dropping off the west side into Five Lakes basin. It was a good thing too as we needed some water. The rim was a waterless 7 miles. We are so used to getting water almost any time we want for the last 400 miles that planning ahead for waterless stretches is a near novelty. This will become far more frequent going forward.

 

 

 

 

After a long descent below Five Lakes we started a long hot climb toward Squaw Valley and the headwaters of the American River. We are camped tonight next to the middle fork of what is a mighty river far from here. For us it is a mere trickle. 

The mighty American River! 

We continue to stay mostly ahead of the mosquito curve but have found the deer flies the last couple days. Ugh.