Tahoe Rim Trail – Day 10

Daily Miles: 20

Total Miles: 139

It is funny how on days when we go into town, we seem to move a lot faster.  This was especially true with our friends who would be finished with their hike once we got to town.  They had the call of showers, good food, family time and boot-free living to put some pep in their step.

We got packed up quickly and were on trail close to 6:30am.  Shortly after starting to hike we came to the junction where the PCT splits off from the TRT.  With the snow conditions in the Sierra causing PCT hikers to jump around on the trail, we probably saw more PCT hikers than we normally would at this time.

The bulk of the miles into town this morning were downhill.  With our morning freshness, we made good time.  We stopped for a breakfast break about four miles into the day.  There seemed to be an unspoken urge to get into town quickly, so we ended up not taking any more breaks before we got to town.

We saw a lot of day hikers in the morning.  The trail crossed several roads which gave day hikers multiple entry points.  We passed by Paige’s Meadow which seemed to be a destination for some day hikers.

We also saw multiple TRT hikers who were finishing today in Tahoe City.  It seemed kinda strange that we were encountering so many folks finishing the trail today.

We ended up finishing the 12 miles into Tahoe City by 1pm.  That was a record for us on this trip.  We headed straight for a cafe to get some food and were disappointed to see that it was closed.  We arrived at 1:02 and they had closed at 1:00.  We could even hear the last customers inside ordering their food.  It was pretty disappointing, but luckily there was a bar & grill a short walk away.

The five of us ate lunch and had a bit more time to hang out before we parted ways.  After lunch, Frank, Sonja and Annika were heading to meet their relatives at the town beach.  We headed off to the store to get food for our final two days on the trail. We had some extra food from the last stretch, so we only had to pick up a few things.

By 3pm, we were headed back up the trail.  We thought that the climb out of town with full bellies was going to be miserable, but it actually wasn’t too bad.

Shortly after starting on the trail, we found a man’s wallet.  We looked at the drivers license and googled the guy’s name since we still had cell service.  We found an office number for him and called.  No one answered, but we left a message with our contact info so we could try to meet him and give back his wallet.

Within 10 minutes a couple came down the trail asking if we were the folks with the wallet.  We recognized the guy right away from his drivers license photo.  His office had called him right away and given him our message.  We’re not even sure that he realized his wallet was missing before he got the call.  In any case, we were glad for the speedy and happy ending for that guy.

Less than a mile into the trail, we picked up 5 liters of water to get us through a 14 mile waterless stretch.  The water felt heavy in our packs, but we still felt good as we climbed.  As it got later into the afternoon, we got more shade and the temperature was really pleasant.

We had nice trail and it was so quiet with no one else on the trail.  We ended up walking until 7:15pm.  Since we had a hot meal in town, we planned to eat our lunch snacks for dinner.  Because we weren’t cooking dinner, we were ok to walk a bit later.

It feels a bit weird for it to be just the two of us again after having hiked and camped with our friends for the past 10 days.  We are glad that we got the opportunity to spend time with them in nature…completely disconnected from the usual tasks and daily stresses.  We’re going to miss them in our last two days of the loop.