Tahoe Rim Trail Hike - Day 3

The chargers at the top of the hill: Colleen and Corrinne at the lake overlook

Day 3 consisted of a 13 mile hike between Spooner Summit and Kingsbury Grade. This turned out to be one of the hardest days of the journey along with days 1,5, and 11. At this point we were still getting used to hiking, plus we hadn't really had any rest days. Most people had blisters developing. Cara had tripped along the trail the previous day and was nursing an wound on her knee. However, it was also a rewarding day in which we were greeted with excellent views and met friendly folks.

After the initial section of trail leading from Spooner Summit Colleen and Corrinne decided to charge the hill. They took off up the mountain with the rock pile in the alpine area as the pre-designated meeting spot for lunch. At this point in the hike Holly was still struggling with acclimitization (she has a difficult time catching her breath at higher elevations). For whatever reason I really like this section of trail. It probably isn't on anybody's top list of the best hikes in terms of scenery, but it makes a great day hike. If you are a strong hiker you can probably do the entire section out and back in a day. For slightly slower hikers the 13 mile section makes a good hike with a car shuttle.

At the end of the day when we rolled up to the trailhead we were ecstatic. After three fairly hard days we got to stay at the rental house off of Tramway Drive. The best part was that there was a hot tub. Sally met us at trailhead and provided a shuttle to the condo. There is a 3.5 mile stretch along which the thru-hiker must walk along roads. I opted to do the walk so that I could have the full experience of circumnavigating the lake on foot, however the others decided that we had already done enough hiking and gladly accepted the ride. After a soak in the hot tub, we chowed on pizza and beer. We also got showers and got to do our wash. A lot of time was spent bandaging and treating blisters and wounds. Fortunately, Sally and John are both veterinarians and were able to offer some good medical advice. Our pit stop also provided us with an opportunity to drop off unneccessary gear. I think that Carl dropped nearly 10 pounds from his load by cutting out his tent body (while keeping the fly) plus some other heavy items. While it is possible to hike the trail without a support crew having an excellent support crew really helped us out in a big way. We were really lucky to have had Sally and Chris helping us. I think we were pretty much a wreck when we finished this segment, but this stop followed by an easier 9 mile day really helped us a lot. A support crew is really big help when it comes to dropping off items and picking up forgotten items. One of the nice things about the Tahoe Rim Trail is that there is good cell phone reception along much of the trail so we were able to make emergency drops and pick up forgotten items. That definately wouldn't be so easy on the John Muir Trail.