Leg 8 - Barker Pass to Tahoe City

Well, finished it up today. Met Chris at the original Tahoe City trailhead at 8:00, and shuttled back to the Barker pass trailhead by 8:30.



Then we started running. Yes, running - we decided to try to run all of the last leg, and finish in under 3 hours. (We are both doing a trail half marathon in Bend, OR in a couple weekends.) The first mile was pretty uphill, and it was more gently uphill for another 3-4 after that, but it was supposed to be mostly downhill from there. No matter how closely you've read the map, though, there are always surprises on the trail - turned out there was a big climb, then a big drop, then another big climb before the main downhill section. Had some greas scenery in there, though:



And I grabbed this shot of Chris running beneath a big rock formation:



So, eventually we started going downhill. The uphill took quite a bit out of me, though, and I was losing concentration - had a couple of small falls where I put one hand down, then a BIG fall going downhill where I actually rolled off my shoulder onto my back. Dinged my knee pretty good, too, but not enough to affect my running. Took a break, had a GU, and continued. That was right near this cool waterfall...



I ended up walking a little on a couple of surprise uphills we had, but not for more than 10 minutes. Didn't take any more pictures until the end; it was mostly in the woods and we were concentrating on finishing. We did end up finishing right at 3 hours, then walked across the street to where we started 10 weeks ago:



And that's it. I'd like to thank my sponsors - oh, wait, I don't have any. Well, I'd like to thank my wife and kids for letting me be absent on all those valuable weekend days; they were very understanding. I might have a few more updates to this blog, but for the most part, it's over...

Leg 7 - Echo Lake to Barker Pass

Well. That was quite a day. Left the house at 4:00 am, and got to Echo Lake at about 5:45. By the time I found the trailhead, filled out a Wilderness Area permit, and got set to go, it was 6:00.



Echo Lake sure was beautiful in the morning - and quiet. I felt like the sound of my footsteps on the rocky granite path must have traveled for miles.



Here was a sign that I didn't expect to see - apparently they run a water taxi service to drop people off at the far end of Echo Lake. I guess I was a bit too early for that...



After awhile, I entered the Desolation Wilderness Area. Kinda sounded like it would be lonely out there, but that wasn't the case.



After this, it was just one alpine lake after another. First, passed by Aloha lake, which had some campers by it but seemed to be kind of low:




Then skirted the edge of Susie Lake, which was very beautiful but didn't have any campsites:



Passed yet another lake, Gilmore Lake, then had a big pass to climb over - Dicks Pass. This was the high point of the day, at 9974 feet. Great views coming down the other side of more lakes - here are Dick's lake, Fontanillis Lake, and Velma Lakes.



There were lots of people down in this basin - I think it's a popular day hike in from Emerald Bay. Lots of dogs, too - for awhile there, I was the only person without a dog! The trails got kind of confused down here, too - I think I left the main trail for half a mle or so, but hooked back up with it right near Velma Lake.

From here, the trail changed totally - the trail surface had been granite, either powdery of in big, hard-to-walk-on chunks. Now it went into the woods, and had that nice bark-dust surface that feels good on the feet. Miles and miles, now, of tromping through the forest, with very few landmarks. The first major thing was 8.5 miles later, Richardson Lake.



Slightly farther on, the next landmark was the Rubicon Trail, an OHV (Off-Highway Vehicle) trail. Not too exciting where I crossed it, but I had to have a picture of myself crossing the Rubicon. (Jeez, I'm a nerd.)



Only had about 4 miles left at this point, but about a mile into that, I ran out of water. I had a 100 oz bladder filled at the beginning, and went all the way through it. Those last three miles were pretty thirsty - luckily, some people that were camping at the Barker Pass trailhead had some extra water they shared with me. Here I am at the end:



So, almost exactly nine hours on the trail, and I only ran for about an hour of that. Pretty sore today, but I'll live. Only have 16 miles left to complete.

Leg 6 - Big Meadow to Echo Lake

Learned my lesson last week - need to get an early start when the temperatures are up. I didn't get on the trail until after 9:30 last Monday, and paid for it - had to go home from work on Tuesday and stayed home Wednesday, recovering. The smoke in the air and the fact that I was a little out of shape probably didn't help.) So today I left home at 5:15, and started hiking at 6:40 (Yeah, long commutes to the South Lake sections...) Actually had to start out wearing a long sleeve shirt, but it didn't last too long.



Came to the first big lake; Round lake - tried to take a panorama sho, but it didn't seem to work, so here's part of it:



The junction with the Pacific Crest Trail , or PCT (which the TRT follows along the western shore of the lake) is in Meiss Meadows, which is where I proposed to Mich - uhh... just a little under ten years ago. We came in from Carson Pass, and it looked different from that side, so I couldn't really tell where we had been. I remember this cowboy shack that's still standing there, though:



And not long after, saw the first of many PCT trail markers (for those of you that are interested in that kind of thing...)



In some of the meadows I literally had to wade through wildflowers. Lupine, indian paintbrush, whatever those little yellow and white ones are. At times it was waist or even shoulder high on me; would have been like a tunnel for the kids!



Next big lake I came to was Showers Lake - there was a good-sized group camping there (more people in general on the trail - prime part of the season or popular spots? Both?)



And not to far from that, a breathtaking panorama opened up:



About halfway across this big bowl, I realized that I could see Lake Tahoe for the first (and only, it turned out) time. Tried to get a picture, but it didn't come out very well. Look in the upper left corner, and kinda squint..



After a REALLY steep downhill (everything was steep today, the ups and the downs) I crossed Hwy. 50 and made my way to the Echo Lake Trailhead. Mich and the kids had hiked about a half mile in to meet me; got a picture with Julien at the trailhead.



So, I was on the trail for 4:20 today, and ran for 1:25 of that. Looking forward to next week...

Leg 5 - Kingsbury to Big Meadow

Got another leg of the TRT in today, and it was hot and smoky from the fires in the area. Actually, not so smoky up where I was, but the haze in the distance sure cut down on the views. And it was hot because I got a later start than usual - dropped the kids off at about 8, and didn't get on the trail until 9:30. Here's the opening shot of the trailhead, right under the Stagecoach lift at Heavenly:



The trail stayed within or hear the ski area for quite awhile - almost 5 miles, I'd say. Here's some signage that was still in-bounds:



Not long after this, a pretty big bird decided to cross the trail right in front of me. I was able to get the camera out before it ambled away. Mich's dad and grandpa (who picked me up) said they thought it was a Blue Grouse.



Pretty much a lot of climbing - in the first two and a half hours, I got about 20 minutes of running in, wherever I could. Had some really breathtaking overlooks of the Carson Valley, somewhat obscured by the haze:



And some pretty cool parts of the trail:



Eventually came to a really nice looking lake called Star Lake - seemed to be camp spots around it, and if I remember, the guidebook says the fishing is good. I'll bet that's where the two sets of thru-hikers I passed were heading to or from.



Hadn't had any Tahoe views at all up to this point, but I think I caught a glimpse of it through the haze here:



At about 2 and a half hours in, I came to the high point - just below Freel Peak, right about 10,000 feet. Not going up there; not today...



So I THOUGHT it was pretty much downhill all the way out from there, and it did start with a pretty good downhill stretch that I could run. There seemed to be mor climbing after that than I had expected, though. I finally found my mistake: I had thought that one 5-mile stretch dropped from 8700 to 8330 feet, but had misread it - it actually climbed from 8700 to 8830! Wasn't expecting all that climbing there, and it kinda killed me - a little demoralizing when you're expecting an easy glide down. Made it town, though, and was able to run about 3 of the last 4 miles in. Showed up about 50 minutes late for my shuttle pickup (thanks Bill and Nick) which wasn't too bad considering I had started a half an hour later than I had expected. So really, I was only 20 minutes behind my projected time. Here's the finish trailhead:



So: on the trail for 5:20, and only got to run for 1:35. Lotta climbing there. After shuttle to my car and the drive back to Reno, it was 5:00 - that was a full day. Pretty stiff tonight, we'll see if I can walk tomorrow.

Leg 4 - Spooner Summit to Kingsbury Grade

Got that sweet runner's high a couple of times today, when your legs are churning away, you're bouncing over rocks and roots, and it feels like running is what you were designed to do. Like it would feel weird to stop running. Anyway - it was a pretty good day.

Started out from home a little after 6, and got on the trail at 7:05. (The next few legs are going to have loooong drive/shuttle times.)


Started out uphill again (recurring theme) for the first five miles. There were some places where I could run, so I did, for short spurts. Here's an example of one of those (sorry it's kind of bouncy...)


Had a few views of Tahoe through the trees here, this is one:


Then I hit the high point of the day's section, and thought it was going to be flat and downhill from there on out. Here's the flat section:


And a good panorama from near there:


So it ended up being a little more uphill than I had expected, back to the trailhead. Ran what I could and walked a bit. Saw a few people as I got near the trailhead, and a bunch more getting ready to start out.


I wanted to connect to the next trailhead (so noone can say I didn't do the WHOLE thing) so had a 3.4 mile on-road slog to the next trailhead. That, too, was much more uphill that I expected. Ends up, the next trailhead i sright underneath one of the Heavenly lifts.


Here's me there, just for documentation's sake...


Ah, a good equipment addition this time: I have seen people on the trail and a races wearing these trail running gaiters, and wanted to get a pair, but the person who makes them only does them in wild colors. So, I decided to make some myself. Got some fabric (4-way stretch lycra) and whipped some up. They worked great! If I had to make another pair, I would adjust the dimensions a little, but these did their job just fine. No more emptying my shoes twice per run!


Numbers:
Trail distance: 15.6 mi
Time on trail:3:10
Time running: 1:40

Marlette Video

Had Chris take some video of me running above Marlette Lake, with Tahoe in the background. Turn volume down - it was kind of windy, and I haven't figured out how to edit video yet...

Third Leg - Tahoe Meadows to Spooner Summit

Longest day yet; 23 point something miles. Overall downhill, although there were a couple of big uphill sections. Had company again today, too - Chris picked me up at about 6:30 and we drove to the Mt. Rose Meadows (Tahoe Meadows) Trailhead.


Started out running - no uphill to start out this time. (Well, a little, but we ran through it.) In fact, we ran for about the firs ten miles - an hour and a half of running! It was nice to knock off so much of it early. Along the way, we had a few nice lake views like this, but most of the time were in the trees.



(Sorry, my panorama software that worked so well last time is giving me problems all of a sudden...)

And had to pause for some heroic tahoe shots like this:


Then we had a big uphill that we hiked, a flat section that we ran, and another big uphill that we had to hike most of. Started running near the top of the second big uphill - here's Chris taking off:


For quite a while now, we had amazing views of Marlette Lake and Lake Tahoe - again, these were planned as a panorama, but - well, technical difficulties...



That was about the highest point of the day; from there it was a 6-mile mostly downhill to Spooner Summit. Pretty fun to just let it out on the downhill at that point, but my legs were definitely feeling it toward the end...


Numbers:
Trail distance - 19.5 miles
Time on trail: 4:20
Time moving: 4:10
Time running: 3:00

Misspelling

Apparently I've been spelling Brockway wrong, as in Brockway Summit. I had it in my head as Brockaway. I hate misspellings, so I went back and changed them. Hope I didn't mess anything up...

Second Leg - Brockway Summit to Tahoe Meadows

This leg had a few superlatives: Highest point on the TRT, the leg with the most climbing (I think), and my first solo leg. Brockway Summit, the starting point, is right about 7000 feet, and Relay Peak, about 4 miles from the Tahoe Meadows end of the segment, is over 10,000 (10,338 I think it was.) Add to that that I was alone today, and there was quite a bit more snow around than last week, and it made for a pretty long day.
After I dropped the kids off at school, I drove up and parked my car at the Tahoe Meadows trailhead. (I've always called this Mt. Rose Meadows, but that's not what it's marked as, apparently.) Mich picked me up (she had to visit a jobsite up at the lake anyway) and dropped me off at Brockway Summit, where Chris and I ended last week. Here's the obligatory trailhead sign shot, self-portrait style this time:


Since the first few miles of this segment were uphill again (basically, the access points are all on the passes, so most segments will begin with some degree of uphill) I started out by hiking instead of running. That seems like a pretty good tactic for me - fast-hike the uphills and run the traverses, flats and downhills. When I say fast-hike, I mean pretty quick - if I was, say, walking into the grocery store at that speed, you'd wonder what I was up to... Anyway, here's how the trail started out:

(and by the way, all these photos can be enlarged by clicking on them...)

Came through a meadow of mule ears, and heard a grouse calling right when the guidebook said I would - weird.


Continuing on, I had some good views of the lake:


There were a couple of funny directions that the trail took at this point, but they were very well marked:


After more great views of the lake, I crossed into Nevada and entered the Mt. Rose Wilderness Area:


At which point the trail became really cool. Basically, I had 2-3 miles where, for the most part, the trail traversed a sidehill. On my left were some interestingly shaped volcanic rocks, and on my right was Lake Tahoe. I could see all of Incline Village, all the way up the east side of the lake. Beautiful. Definitely enlarge this picture, and note the trail leading away on the far left.


And a cheesy picture of me, the trail, and the lake:


It was at this point that I started seeing a few bigger snowdrifts - here's the first BIG one, and one of the few that forced me off the trail:


Most of the snowdrifts I could walk across just fine, but there were 2 or three where they were shaped such that it would have been more dangerous to cross them than to simply go around them. In those cases, i tread as lightly as I could so as not to disturb off the trail, and other than a couple of slips, I think I did pretty well. I one case, this next picture, the snowdrift threw me off of the trail for a few minutes - It disappeared and I had to look around for a little while to figure out where it had gone. Found it, though, and continued on.


Now I came to the last big climb of the day, up the back side of Relay Peak. Pretty big slog up to the top, where I was greeted with a lovely backcountry sight, the radio towers (or whatever they are):


Now I was left with a 4-5 mile downhill to Tahoe Meadows, the start of which you see here:


Partway back, I had to choose whether to take the old way down, which is a gently graded road that allows bike traffic as well, or take the new trail back to the trailhead, which is foot travel only. Since I hadn't seen the new trail yet, I elected to go that way, even though it meant an extra 0.7 miles and another ridge to climb over. Glad I went, or I wouldn't have seen this cool waterfall that Amber blogged about the other day:


So I continued back to the trailhead, where I took the other end shot:


But I still had 0.4 miles to my car, which I had parked at the next trailhead, the start of the Tahoe Meadows to Spooner Summit leg. Don't want anyone to say that I cheesed out by only going from trailhead to trailhead, and not doing the mileage in between. (There is more of that down at the south end of the lake; up to 3 miles between trailheads that are on city streets.) At any rate, trotted down to the car and drank a huge bottle of Gatorade.

I was by myself most of the day - in fact, for the first 16 miles, I saw only one other person. She was doing a look in from Gray Lake, apparently - not sure if she drove in to that or what. In the last 2.5 miles, though, on the new part of the Mt. Rose access trail, I saw about 12 more people.

Numbers:
Trail distance - 19.5 miles
Time on trail: 4:35
Time moving: 4:10