Day 3: Expect the unexpected

June 22, 2018June 22, 2018Leave a comment

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.

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Day 2: A dry stretch

June 20, 2018June 26, 2018Leave a comment

Sierra Canyon Trailhead (11) to Marlette Campground (27)

Mileage: 16 miles, total 27 miles

Camp Elevation: 8,283 feet

I slept pretty well last night apart from being camped on a slope and occasionally waking up with my face pressed against the tent well.

The day started with a short climb which eventually broke out of tree line and onto a ridge. The views along the ridgeline were absolutely amazing and made the hard work yesterday worth it.

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Day 1: A beautiful start

June 20, 2018June 21, 2018Leave a comment

Kingsbury South Trailhead (0) to Sierra Canyon Trail Junction (11)

Mileage 11 miles (+1 mile side trail), total 11 miles

Campsite elevation: 8,448 feet

The day started very early at 5.30 AM with our alarm call. The drive to Lake Tahoe would take a little over three hours so, after a quick breakfast, we were on the road.

It was nice to drive through Northern California on our way to Tahoe. The traffic was fairly quiet with none of the crazy driving we’d seen in San Fransisco. We passed through Sacramento and the scenery gradually changed with more trees and we followed the south fork of the American River on our way into Tahoe.

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Taking the plunge

June 19, 2018June 19, 20182 Comments

Today was our last day of pre-hike logistics before heading to Lake Tahoe tomorrow. Most of the organisation aspect was done yesterday so we had a relatively easy day today.

We started by catching the hotel shuttle to the local US Post Office. It was a huge building on the outside but completely tiny in the inside making me wonder what they were doing with all that extra space.

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Getting organised….

June 18, 2018June 18, 2018Leave a comment

Today was pre-hike logistics day. One of the unfortunate realities of thru-hiking is that nobody is going to organise the resupply aspect for you. So today involved organising our mail drops and first few days of supplies.

The day started off with an Uber ride to Berkeley to pick up last minute supplies from REI. Our driver on the way there was a South African called Juan (for some reason pronounced Dew-Ann). I didn’t have the heart to tell him he had been pronouncing his name wrong all these years.

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In Concord

June 17, 2018June 17, 2018Leave a comment

This should really be a continuation of yesterday’s post seeing as we basically haven’t had any sleep since leaving Perth. On getting to the hotel this morning, fortunately the room was ready so it was time to grab a quick shower and then head out.

The hotel is primarily a business location so it felt quite funny to stay here as stinky hikers. Fortunately not stinky yet but we will be on our way back through Concord to pick up our bags before heading to San Francisco. The room’s great although it has a really noisy air conditioner I mistook a few times for a low flying 747 buzzing the hotel.

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Inbound to San Francisco

June 16, 2018June 16, 2018Leave a comment

The day started very early – 3 AM to be precise to get to Perth Airport for the 5.15 AM flight to Sydney. Whilst it felt every bit as early as it was, we were soon on our way to Sydney which is a 4 hour flight from Perth.

At Sydney, we had a tight turnaround. Or so it was supposed to be but the flight ended up being delayed slightly. It’s about 12.5 hours flying time from Sydney to San Francisco so it’s not a short flight but our total travel time was good at only 18 hrs from Perth to San Fran.

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Two weeks to Lake Tahoe

June 4, 2018June 4, 20183 Comments

In a few weeks, I’ll be heading to California from Australia to do a thru-hike of the Tahoe Rim Trail. As well as the TRT, I’ll also be hiking the John Muir Trail from Kearsarge Pass through to Mt Whitney.

Lake Tahoe along the TRT

The hike has come around very quickly and I’m looking forward to seeing the Sierras again. There has been more snow this time compared to my last hike in 2015 where we saw virtually no snow for the entire hike.

The 2018 snow season has been interesting. March saw a lot of snow hit the Sierras/Lake Tahoe area which means that we will almost certainly see a reasonable amount of snow on the passes. As I am not that experienced in snow travel (read: not experienced at all), it is going to make for an interesting time.

The Tahoe Rim Trail Association (who I have to say have been fantastic with trail info) currently have the following on their website:

March storms dropped a lot of snow in Tahoe and you can still expect to find snow and ice on much of the trail at high elevations and on north facing slopes. Stream crossings and creeks are flowing above average so use caution at water crossings. Thunderstorms and snowstorms are possible any time.

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Day 5: Cruising into Donnelly River

April 10, 2018April 10, 2018Leave a comment

Tom Road campsite to Donnelly River

Mileage: 10.1 miles/16.2 km

Sectional total: 66.7 miles/106.8 km

I had a really good night’s sleep last night. The bush was pretty quiet as were the school group and the only thing to disturb my sleep was the waning moon rising later in the night and shining straight into the tent.

We had a good chat with the teachers and kids in the morning at the campsite. A lot of the kids had never stayed overnight in the wilds before and it was a big experience for them. It was great to speak to the teachers and it was clear the kids just needed some positive words of encouragement speaking into their lives. One of them asked us if we were professional hikers to which I responded ‘We wish!….’.

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Day 4: Back on the flats

April 9, 2018Leave a comment

Boarding House to Tom Road campsite

Mileage: 13.9 miles/22.3 km

Sectional total: 56.6 miles/90.6 km

I ended up putting my tent up last night around 10pm as there was a fair bit of snoring going on in the shelter. I had a good night sleep in the end. The tent sites on the trail can be a bit hit and miss but the ones on this section are great as they have woodchips. This makes for a comfortable nights sleep rather than the hard rock common in the north.

We got going around 7.30 AM and it was clear that this was going to be a much easier day than the last two days. In many ways this was a bit of a transitional day with karri in the morning and jarrah in the afternoon.

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