The Rambler

20
August 11-20, 2011 Tahoe Rim Backpack
by Michael Budig
The Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) is a 165-mile multi-use trail along the rim of mountains surrounding and
shadowing over Lake Tahoe. Larry Hall and I started hiking at Kingsbury Grade, not far from the
glitter and lights of the South Tahoe Casinos. Unfortunately, we managed to hike nearly a whole mile
before taking our first wrong turn and adding about a mile to what would have been a 13-mile day.
Otherwise, the first day was quite scenic and uneventful, except for the mature rattlesnake that I
nearly stepped on.
We camped that night at the Spooner Summit Picnic Area, where John Veranth met us the next
morning. John and Larry then hiked with me for four days, as had been planned before they had
to head home. Both were in better shape than me and John set a great comfortable and consistent
pace.
During the next few days, we encountered more mountain bikers than hikers, which was fine,
though a bit disconcerting when we encountered one in a designated wilderness area, plus many
others on an odd-numbered day in a section closed to bikers on odd-numbered days. If bikers
want hikers to cooperate and yield the trail as the rules require, they need to follow the rules too.
On day two, we encountered a group of three hikers who were impressed and overenthusiastic
in offers to help when they heard I was planning to hike the whole trail. They acknowledged
that they probably had more food than they needed and offered to share. We said, “No thanks,
we are fine.” They persisted and wanted to know how they could help out as surely, there was
something we needed and they wanted to help however they could. I finally replied, “Well, I
could use a wallet with a big wad of cash.” They laughed nervously and answered, “Oh, we don’t
have that. We just came from the casinos!”
The TRT offered beautiful views and a very well graded and maintained trail, much less strenuous
than the John Muir Trail. Also, it is close enough to the civilization of Lake Tahoe communities
to offer cell phone signals much of the time. In fact, in one phone conversation with my best
friend, I was asked, “How does hiking there compared to hiking in Yellowstone?” I answered
that “Phone reception is better and it has more casinos. In contrast, the Yellowstone backcountry
is really wild.”
Halfway through day five, we reached my vehicle and drove into Incline Village for a quick lunch.
Any lingering notions of cannibalism were extinguished as our burgers quickly appeared. After
lunch, Larry and John dropped me off back at the trailhead to resume the trek, while they spotted
my car at the end of the trail and departed for Utah and home.
After camping near Watson Lake that night, I hiked into Tahoe City the next day where I secured a
hotel room and refreshed myself with a shower and some pizza before resuming the trail the next
morning. I hiked about 23 miles that day, accelerating my pace to try to keep my distance from the
hoards of mosquitoes. The next day the mosquitoes persisted for several miles, so I kept up my pace
for another 20-mile day and reached Aloha Lake, a true gem in the Desolation Wilderness. I followed
that with yet another 20-mile day, and then determined that I could conclude the hike with a 30-mile
plus day on day 10. I decided to go for it! This involved about 90 minutes of hiking in the dark,
which I had anticipated - and I ended up scraping up my left knee a bit. However, I reached the
trailhead at about 10:30 PM and found my car about an hour later.
I had successfully completed another decent trek and look forward to new challenges in the
future (maybe the Colorado Trail in 2012?).