Day 1 of the TRT

After a comedy of errors navigating the bus system in town, I finally made it to the trailhead!  Each bus route cycles each hour, so if your errand takes 15 minutes after you get off the bus, you’re stuck waiting 45 minutes for it to come back!  Since I had to hit two areas of town, it happened to me twice, so I didn’t hit the trail until 4 pm,  I also didn’t realize I had to take a spur trail before reaching the actual Tahoe Rim Trail, so I had 9 miles to cover before dark, at a higher altitude than I’m accustomed to, mostly uphill!  I cruised into camp around 7:15 and had about 20 minutes to set up my tent and get my rope in place for my food hang before it got dark.  No worries though, it all worked out fine.

I cooked my dinner to the light of the nearly full and rising moon over Star Lake.  I still can’t believe I forgot to take a picture of it!  It was so bright and gave any candlelit dinner I’ve ever had a run for its money.

After hanging my food (best bear hang I’ve probably ever done and I’ve had some doozies!) I crawled in my tent and tried to sleep….”tried” being the operative word.  I don’t ever sleep well when I’m backpacking, simply because various body parts fall asleep constantly and I wake up to it, then readjust.  It’s a restless night of tossing and turning but totally worth it! This trail is already exceeding every expectation I had!