Marlette Campground (27.0) to Mt Rose Campground (40.9)

Mileage: 13.9 miles, total 40.9 miles

I had a good night’s sleep last night. It is the longest day of the year and in Tahoe the sun sets at 8.30pm and it is light again by 5.30am which makes sleeping difficult at times. We packed up camp and once we had filled up on water, we headed onto the trail.

There was an initial climb up from the campsite and, in contrast to the previous stretch, we passed a water source almost immediately after leaving the campsite. It was great not to have to ration our water today or do a big water carry.

As the trail headed northwards, we said goodbye to Marlette Lake which is one of the most picturesque spots along the whole Tahoe Rim Trail. The trail then began to descend and reached a beautiful lake where we stopped for a break.

The trail then headed due north away from the lake providing some beautiful views. We have now essentially completed the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe which is the driest section and tomorrow we will start crossing the top of the lake.

The trail then descended down to Tahoe Meadows. We met quite a few people going out for a hike and enjoying the weather. The meadows were really nice and made for easy hiking. There were still remnants of snow lying in pockets of shade.

When we reached Ophir Creek which crosses Tahoe Meadows we saw Kelly and her husband who we bumped into earlier in the day. They were out for a hike with their pet dog which was a super cute Boston Terrier. They kindly offered to take us for a bite to eat, but we didn’t want to interrupt their afternoon so we started the final 1.5 miles to the Mt Rose campground.

The final stretch to the campground ran next to the highway unfortunately and was all uphill. We were pretty exhausted when we finally arrived. We met the campsite host there who informed us the campsite was closed and they were still in the process of opening given the late snow. This meant we we had nowhere to camp, no water and were 14 miles from the nearest town.

I had no mobile reception but Ben was with a different carrier and had a good signal. We managed to find accomodation in Incline Village at a “budget” motel. That meant they provided budget facilities but charged an arm and a leg. The next problem was how to get there but fortunately we were able to get the one Uber driver around in Incline Village to drive the 14 miles to come and pick us up.

The Uber driver, Mark, was a cheery chappie and very friendly. However, my track record with overly fast Uber drivers continued and he veered around precipitous bends at breakneck speed before we arrived breathless at our destination.

We thought we’d head out to dinner to recover and went to the local ribs place called Gus’ BBQ. We ordered a full rack of St Louis ribs with onion rings. I couldn’t finish mine but Ben did the job.

Tomorrow we will do a resupply for the next three days to Tahoe City where we will take a zero day with no mileage. We will also be climbing Relay Peak tomorrow which is the tallest peak on the trail at just over 10,000 feet.