I woke up at midnight smelling smoke. Looked up at the sky: no stars. Back to sleep. I woke again at 4:00 a.m., checked the sky again: twinkling stars. Back to sleep again.
At 5:30 a.m. I began packing up. Today we’re hiking into Tahoe City for two nights and a day of rest, reflection, showers and food, not necessarily in that order.
Cold oatmeal again!
Carol and I stepped onto the trail facing an orange-tinted sky and a red sun on the horizon, the most significant evidence of wildfires to date. Does that mean the fires are closer or does that mean the wind is just blowing smoke our way? No matter what, we’re heading to Tahoe City.
The first 2.5 miles were uphill, testing our lessons of the previous days. We practiced slow steps on long graded switchbacks, crossing rockslide sections. Hmmm…those backpacks don’t feel quite as heavy. The views into Blackwood Canyon were obscured by smoke, but our immediate surroundings were breathtaking in a different way.
Granite cliffs
On a switchback we stopped to talk with a southbound PCT thru-hiker called Abe Lincoln. He retired to part-time work so he can enjoy life hiking. (There’s a lesson for us all!) 2021 has become a bad year for PCT hikers. Like others we’d met, Abe had to skip a few hundred miles of trail because of the fires.
We crossed into the Granite Chief Wilderness and came to the intersection where the Tahoe Rim Trail diverges from the PCT…except we didn’t read the sign closely and marched merrily along until we realized we were on the wrong side of the Twin Peaks. This was the only oops detour of our trip. We backtracked, corrected our mistake and skirted around the base of Twin Peaks on the east side. We didn’t take the side trail to the summit because (a) it’s a bit technical, (b) no views today, and (c) we were discussing how much food we would eat in Tahoe City.
Twin Peaks
A long relaxing break at the junction with Stanford Rock Trail:
From there we began a long and sometimes steep downhill through majestic pines cloaked in that ethereal wolf lichen – lots of downed trees here too – and passed through meadows of fading summer foliage and emerging fall flowers. Carol’s flower ID app kept us engaged through this section as the heat intensified.
McCloud Waterfall – pretty to look at but not accessible as a water source
Mountain coyote mint
Down a steep embankment by the bridge, we filled up with water.
I stepped into the woods for a pee break and saw a dark flash. It was a small bear scampering away. How cute! Wait – is there a mama bear nearby? I swiveled my head 360 degrees, then looked again at the retreating figure, decided it was bigger than a cub, probably a juvenile. Nonetheless, peeing was postponed.
Mountain biking is allowed on many sections of the TRT, but not on the miles that overlap with the PCT, which we parted from at Twin Peaks. We had been warned that they often come upon hikers without warning. As we sat enjoying our lunch by the bridge, our first mountain biker came around a curve suddenly, startling us, but he stopped to say hello as he waited for his friends to catch up.
It was noon and we had 7 miles to go to Tahoe City. We were feeling pumped for the home stretch – but the positive vibes were muted by that inevitable afternoon heat. Unfortunately, this was the most boring stretch of our trip. The first two miles beyond the bridge passed through a logging operation, a flat wide dusty road churned up by heavy equipment. Now, we’d hiked in dust before, but this was thick, throat-irritating, tire-tracks-deep DUST.
After crossing Ward Creek Road, the climb up to Page Meadows slowed us down. At a sitting rock stop, I misjudged and slid off the rock sideways (no way to stop as my pack weight pulled me over) and landed flat on my back. My good hiking buddy Carol busted a gut laughing! At least she didn’t take a picture, which I may or may not have done in the past when she took a spill.
The last miles into town were on steep, rutted mountain bike trail. (Somewhere in there we crossed paths again with the same mountain bikers from the Ward Creek Bridge.) My right knee ached and I felt hot, dirty, thirsty and over it. Like the proverbial cow heading to the barn, I barely glanced at the Truckee River tubers and the pedestrians ambling along the sidewalks of Tahoe City.
Notice the beautiful blue sky…Carol and I arrived at our America’s Best Value Inn oasis at 4:30 p.m. and began the transition from trail to town. (I’ll admit it took me an hour to calm down.) We checked in with spousal support, took super long hot showers and put on the only clean items we had – our sleeping clothes.
Carol’s pedicureNow, hundreds of people thru-hike the Tahoe Rim Trail every year and many more hike the section that Carol and I just completed. This was my unique experience. As with most big hiking endeavors, time makes the hard parts fuzzy while the good parts are magnified to epic legend. Case in point: my patty melt burger with cheese, caramelized onions and Thousand Island dressing at the Fat Cat Bar & Grill will live in my memory as the best burger of my life.
The next day (Tuesday, August 17) was a zero day to take care of in-town chores, laundry, sorting through our food packages that we had sent to ourselves at the motel, mailing home a box of unnecessary items…and eating and drinking.
A new wildfire, called the Caldor fire, had ignited southwest of Echo Summit on August 14, the day after our start. This was the main source of the increasing smoke as the fire spread eastward. Between chores we spent most of our time searching for information about the Caldor fire. It was growing so big and so rapidly that already tiny bits of ash were falling in Tahoe City and large snowflake-sized ash blanketed South Lake Tahoe. Conditions changed hourly as we watched the TV news and scrolled the internet, trying to determine whether to continue our hike – and where?
I talked with Ceci Chourre, a shuttle driver familiar with the trail, and asked her advice. “If I was your best friend, what would you tell me to do?” Her reply: “Get the hell off the trail.”
On Wednesday, Ceci shuttled us from Tahoe City to Mellow Mountain Hostel in Stateline on the southeast side of Lake Tahoe. We adopted a wait-and-see attitude, hoping to get in a day hike on the east side of the TRT, but the Caldor fire raged on at an alarming rate. The smoke intensified and subsided with the winds. The hostel filled up with other hikers, some who were one day short of finishing the TRT and some who weren’t even getting to start. We realized that our hike was over.
Scenes from Mellow Mountain Hostel and South Lake Tahoe:
Priyanka Surio, our hostel bunkmate, an author and digital nomad
Hostel shenanigans
EPILOGUE
Within the next 2 weeks after we returned home, all California national forests and Nevada’s public lands surrounding Lake Tahoe were closed, including the entire Tahoe Rim Trail. The Caldor fire touched Echo Summit, the western shores of Echo Lake and the southeastern portions of the trail. Many small towns and residential areas, including South Lake Tahoe, were evacuated.
As of this writing, the Caldor fire is 76% contained, thanks to the expertise and bravery of thousands of firefighters. While nearly 1,000 structures have burned, including homes, schools and churches, there has been no loss of life. Most folks have returned to their homes.
I don’t know that I will go back to the Tahoe Rim Trail. The window of hiking the trail after snow season and before wildfire season now seems to overlap, making a successful thru-hike unlikely. And yet…unfinished business…
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