Tahoe RimTrail-Day 5

Day 5–28.5 miles hiked

I woke up around 11 PM to the pitter patter of rain on my tent. What the heck?! I had just looked at the forecast earlier that day and there was bad weather moving in 2 days later…or so I thought. I hoped it was just a passing shower, but it was far from it! It rained most of the night with strong winds. I had set my alarm on my phone to wake me up at 6 AM, since I knew I wanted to get a lot of miles covered, but when six came and it was starting to hail, I decided to wait it out a bit longer!

It teased me with pockets of blue sky emerging momentarily (and treated me to a fabulous rainbow!), but it never did let up completely. I eventually put my big girl pants on and got hiking around 8:30 AM. Shortly after leaving camp, I met a couple of girls who were headed in the opposite direction. I asked them if they knew the forecast, wondering if I had misread it, and they confirmed that all this was supposed to start on Thursday. They even mentioned snow in the forecast on Thursday, which made me perk up, because I have nothing in my backpack to really get me through snow very safely.

I had a decision ahead of me. I needed to get up and over a pass at 9400 feet. I don’t know enough about weather to know if this storm would eventually turn into the electrical variety. It had not been so far, and I knew that in the summer months it’s better to be off high peaks by noon since thunderstorms tend to happen more in the afternoon. So I took my chances and hiked the 4 miles to the top as quickly as I could. I met two southbound PCT thru hikers in the way up as well as a father and son who were thru hiking the TRT.

Climbing higher and higher, more and more of the landscape I’d hiked through in the last day unfolded before me.

So beautiful looking back on Desolation Wilderness

Almost to the top!

When I got to the top, the rain had let up but the wind felt like it would blow me off the mountain! It was freezing cold too, so I decided to only take a couple of quick pictures and start heading down. About a mile into my descent I met a guy coming in the opposite direction. He was also thru hiking the TRT but had camped at the top of the pass and forgotten his tent stakes so he was going back to find them!

At the top of the pass and elated that there was no lightning (or snow!). The rain wasn’t over yet but at least I had hit the highest point of the day!

It became increasingly colder as the day wore on so I hardly stopped at all to rest, only to fill my water bottles. I have hip belt pockets that hold a small amount of food, so I ended up snacking all day as I walked.

Finally around 3:30 the weather blew out and left behind a cool, crisp day with plenty of blue skies and sunshine. My absolute favorite type of weather to hike in. I had planned to stop at about 20 miles in and camp, but I just couldn’t resist forging ahead. It was too good to pass up, the weather, the good thinking going on in my head, all of it. Finally after hiking 28-1/2 miles, as the sun was setting, I called it a day with a magnificent view of the setting sun over Lake Tahoe.

Dusk is my favorite time to hike so I was in my groove during this stretch

HUGE pinecones out here!

Too bad there wasn’t a water source nearby because I think I would have cowboy camped right here!

It was dark by the time I set up, and for the life of me I could not find a good branch to hang my food from, so I hoped my odor proof bags (Opsaks) and bear resistant stuff sack (Ursak) would keep any sensitive olfactory bulbs far away. I know some people are probably reading this and laughing, because they don’t take nearly as many precautions as I do with bears, but when I’m by myself I am admittedly on edge about having uninvited guests in camp with me. I think Yellowstone National Park instilled that in me when I worked and lived in the park one summer, even though grizzlies bring a whole different level of concern.

Facebook Pinterest Email