Day 14: Lake Tahoe Views

PCT Mile 1118.4 to 1137.8

Miles Hikes = 19.4

I was up and hiking today by 7:15am – it was another beautiful morning here on the PCT with clear blue skies overhead.

The first five or six miles today were in the forest. Forest hiking has advantages because the trails are often smooth dirt with minimal rocks and ledges or other obstacles. There also is shade from all the trees. So usually I can hike at a little faster pace while I’m in the forest. Photo ops in the forest include lakes, meadows, flowers and sometimes wildlife.

For me, however, the downside of forest hiking is that there typically are not grand, epic views like what you get above the tree line. My favorite time on the trail is when I’m on ridge lines and mountain passes with views that extend for miles and miles.

After about six miles, the trail passed through the Barker Pass Trailhead. There were cars, a restroom and quite a few day hikers. I took a short snack break and then hiked on.

Soon after leaving the Barker Pass Trailhead, the trail reached a view point of Lake Tahoe. These were the first views of the lake in the past 3-4 days.

The Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) is a 165 mile trail that circles around Lake Tahoe. For the last fifty miles, the PCT and the TRT overlap so I’ve actually been hiking on both. In a few more miles the trails separate and each goes their own way.

As I continued to hike north, I enjoyed additional views of Lake Tahoe.

I passed behind the Alpine Meadows Ski Area and enjoyed additional views of the wilderness to the west of Lake Tahoe. At 5:30 pm I was about 2 miles from where my intended camping site was but in order to get there I was looking at a 1500 foot climb. I decided to make camp and tackle the climb in the morning.

Thanks for reading.