This was my 3rd section of the TRT and my wife’s 1st section. This section was a great introduction to backpacking for her. We began at 12:30 and hiked until 5:00, then set up camp at mile 6 (just past Twin Peaks). It was a great spot with views of the lake, but be careful where you put your tent because there were a lot of Widow-makers there. The next morning we saw more great places where we could have set up camp between mile 6.5-7.0 (especially if you’ve got a hammock setup). As we descended down the mountain I was incredibly grateful to have brought trekking poles for the first time on a hike because they really saved my knees. I will definitely be using trekking poles from now on. At mile 10 we replenished our water at the bridge crossing Ward Creek. From there I was pretty disappointed in the trail because for the next 2.5 miles you are walking on a logging dirt road which is why I knocked this section down to 4-stars. (As an option in the future I may consider parking at Ward Creek Blvd. which would evened out the mileage between day 1 & day 2.) My other complaint about this section is that when we got to Page Meadows we wanted to take a long break somewhere along the TRT that traverses the northern part of the meadow (mile 14-15.5), expecting to have views of the meadow. But there were none, we were back up in the trees with no good options to sit. If I were to do this again, I would take a break right when we first saw the meadow (mile 13.9), or take the Shepherd’s Loop trail at Mile 14. Another better alternative than what we did would be to break off the TRT at mile 13.2 and take the “Page Meadows (Ward Direct)” trail, then reconnect with the TRT before descending into Tahoe City. By sticking on the TRT the way we did, really made us feel like we missed out on the beauty of Page Meadows. All that said, it was still an amazing trip and miles 1-10 definitely made it worth doing.

I am backpacking the TRT in sections and I planned to do Mt Rose Summit to Spooner (25 mi.) over the course of 2.5 days. I parked in the parking lot right at the summit and crossed the highway waking in on Mount Rose Summit Ski Rd (the road that leads to Mt Rose Campground); there is a trail head there. I couldn’t park at the Tahoe Meadows parking lot because the gate was locked. I began at 3:30 in the afternoon so that I would cover 8-9 miles and then set up camp for the night. I did it that way because camping inside Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park (between Tunnel Creek Road and Spooner Summit) is only allowed in designated campgrounds, and I didn’t want to hike 16 miles to get to Marlette Peak Campground. So at 8.7 miles I found a nice spot to set up for the night on the east side of the trail. The next morning my friend and I hiked about 8 miles to get to Marlette Campground (filling up our water at Twin Lakes). Make sure to take the Christopher Loop detour, even though you may be tired from just climbing 700’ it is worth the extra effort. It’s a great place to kick off your boots and have a snack. On the trail it is not called “Christopher’s Loop” the sign says “Sand Harbor Lookout.” When you get to Marlette peak you either go right or left. We opted for the easier route and turned left (the East face of Marlette Peak). Good thing we did other wise we would not have crossed a small stream flowing about a 1/4 mile just before the Campground since we did not know that the water pump had been broken for over a year. Some workers were actually trying to fix the pump the day we were there and said they replaced all the top components of the pump but were still unable to draw water. The problem they said was down at the bottom of the well and they were going to have to do some more research on how to fix it. All that to say, don’t count on water at the pump, hike back to that stream I mentioned. We arrived at the Campground at 1pm which was great because we were able to set up camp, ditch our gear and hike down to the lake for a swim. It was so refreshing and well worth the 1-mile, 500’ climb back up to camp. The morning of the third day we finished off the 9 miles of the trail by noon and went into Incline Village for a much craved, well deserved burger and a beer at Inclined Burgers. It was an amazing trip!