Stateline Lookout

Stateline Lookout (Off Hwy 28, near Crystal Bay CA) -

Distance: 1 mi / 2.2 km (Round Trip)

Elevation Gain: ~500 ft.

Highest Elevation: ~6831 ft. / 2082.2 m.

Dogs: Allowed

Difficulty: Easy

I originally picked out this hike because we needed something easy and short to do with Chris' Mom when she visited us back in October.

Can't Say I was disappointed...

Most of the hikes we do in California come from my copy of Foghorn Outdoors: California Hiking by Tom Stienstra and Ann Marie Brown. I had the Foghorn for Washington and Oregon and loved it, so when we moved I gifted my copy to Katie and naturally picked this up as a replacement (you should too). Aside from the occasional issue with directions and mileage these books are outstanding. They have spot on ratings for difficulty and beauty, and have pretty much all the relevant information you need as far as permits, location etc.

The Stateline entry caught my eye for a couple of reasons: the ratings and mileage were exactly what I was looking for, and when I read the first few sentences of the description I was all in.

"For years we avoided this trail because we thought it was just a tourist attraction, located at the lookout tower that straddles the Nevada and California state line. It turns out that we were the dumb tourists, because this little trail is great." (Pg. 222)

You basically hike up an old access road, but don't worry, the pay off is so good you might cry. This is a great spot to hike up to and eat some lunch if you're tooling around the northern end of Tahoe. There's some cool plaques with cultural information about the area, including timber, mining etc.

But I have to say my eyes were otherwise occupied...
 

Tahoe Rim Trail (Northern End) Meadows to Diamond Peak

Northern Tahoe Rim Trail: Tahoe Meadows to Diamond Peak - September 1st, 2014

Tahoe National Forest

Distance: 11.8 mi / 18.99 km (Round Trip)

Highest Elevation: 8945 ft. / 2726.6 m.

Dogs: Allowed

Difficulty: Moderate

After the glory that was Marlette lake, Chris and I were keen to get back up into the mountains before school started. After a little research we settled on starting at Tahoe Meadows and hiking on a northern section of the Tahoe Rim Trail to Diamond Peak and back. 

This hike was really, heart stoppingly, beautiful. You start in this gorgeous alpine meadow right behind Mt. Rose. There are quite nice paths through here and if you're in the mood for something easy, or just a quick leg stretcher, this is a great place to do it! There are some raised boardwalks through parts of the meadow, and then you start up through the forest. This bit is a little repetitive, though it's still beautiful Sierra pine forest. But then you break through those trees and Lake Tahoe is spread out before you, like the big beautiful bitch that she is. 

From here you're basically on the rim trail and it's just an endless parade of glorious views and beautiful forest. 

We ran into relatively few other hikers, though there were some surly mountain bikers. The Tahoe Rim trail is open to hikers constantly, but bikers are only allowed on even days (the 2nd, 4th, 6th etc. of every month). This was Labor day weekend, and this particular biker was fairly incensed that there were so many hikers (there weren't) and that they (the bikers)

weren't even supposed to be there. Basically he was talking to his friend really loudly, and it went something like this:

"I don't even care, it's like the last three day weekend of the year, and they get two days of it?! No fucking fair! I won't put up with it! They take up the whole fucking trail and it's not right. Why don't bikers gets a day to themselves...." and so on.

After a bit the hikers and bikers start to thin out and you run into fewer and fewer people. At one point you have a view of the Washoe Valley to the east, including Washoe lake. It's a bit pale after the sapphire madness of Tahoe, but still a very cool view. We stopped at Diamond Peak, which is a ski resort during the winter. We had lunch at the top of the highest chair lift and played fetch with Jaxx for a bit. 

The only other notable thing about this trip was the heat. It was hot as hell and for a good portion of the hike there is very little shade. Make sure you bring lots of sunscreen and water. We were all completely exhausted by the time we got back.

Farewell faithful blog readers. We're off for the PCT!

I'm typing this final blog post at Allison's mom's house in Santa Rosa, CA.  The post is part of the final to do list to leave for our summer of hiking. Allison and I have been discussing over and over again how the fact that we will be hiking for 1/4 of a year in two days just doesn't seem real at all.

The last two months have been a whirlwind of preparation.  You've all read about preparing food for the trail, we ended up with over 200 lbs!  Here is a picture of it all packed into the forester.  

You've also read about the huge amount of logistics that went into being prepared to do the trail.  Pictures of hundreds of maps, lists of stats about the trail, and explanation of gear really won't ever do justice to the shear amount of work it took us to successfully do all of the logistics for this adventure.  Once we get back we will write an extensive series of blog posts and try to flesh out the experience of getting ready for the hike in a more detailed manner.  We would have liked to do more posts leading up to the adventure, but there were just not, as you can imagine, enough hours in the day.

Our first section is 30 miles without any water so we will be carrying 14 liters of water or 30.8 lbs.  It looks like the weather for the first part of the hike will be rainy and between 39 and 65 degrees.  While you might think that starting in the rain would be a bummer, it is actually a blessing in disguise because of the lack of water in this section.  

If all goes as planned we will be arriving in Oregon a few days into the beginning of June, then entering Washington around or before the middle of July, and arriving at our final destination 60 miles south of Canada in early to mid August.

We will be in sporadic contact throughout our hike, mostly with our GPS messenger unit.  We will be sending periodic check in messages to 10 people.  We may make a few quick PCT blog updates if we have time and connectivity, but no promises.  Here is a list of people who will be receiving our GPS messenger updates, if you'd like to check in on our current progress:  Allison's family: Laurie or Steve, my family: Tanya, Nan or Cherese, and Seattle contacts: Katie and Jesse.

We have preemptively written several blog posts which are scheduled to post automatically while we are gone.  So, there should be fresh content on the blog periodically.  

In closing, I'd like to say a final thanks to everyone who has supported us, believed in us, followed our adventures, participated in our hiking group, and helped us achieve this once in a lifetime experience.  We love you all!  Have a great summer and we'll catch you on the flip side.