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Jean, Jennie, Leslie, Phil, and I drove to the Tahoe Rim Trail trailhead at Spooner Lake
along Highway 50. There were about 10 other cars parked in the lot, and we found one of
the last spaces.
The sign at the trailhead had a plague warning -- it said that squirrels in the area
could be plague carriers. Nice to know. Interestingly, I didn't see any other such
warnings on our other hikes in the area.
Sufficiently warned, we headed north up the trail, starting off around noon.
It's never really steep, and climbs
steadily through a lovely forest. It's an open forest, the kind which would be great to
snowshoe through in the winter. Unfortunately, the trees partially obscure views of
Spooner Lake to the west near the beginning of the hike.
View of Lake Tahoe thru the trees
We encountered very few people on the trail, which was a nice change from the previous
two days. After a half hour or so, we found a nice spot amongst some rocks to rest and
get a glimpse of Lake Tahoe through the trees.
Me getting set to take a picture (photo by Philip Haine)
Resting on the rocks
After our break we continued up the trail. Trees obscured most of the views, but there
were places where we could see views of Lake Tahoe to the west, or the Washoe Valley to
the east. We stopped at the top of a rise above a clearing and brought out our lunch.
Flies buzzed around us, but didn't otherwise bother us. The sun was strong and prompted
us to reapply our sunscreen.
Lunch break
After lunch we backtracked along the trail and found a nice rocky spot with pretty clear
views of the Washoe Valley. We stayed here for a while, taking pictures and admiring the
view.
View of the Washoe Valley
Leslie checking out the view
Group on the rocks
We continued along the trail, enjoying the serenity of the forest, which was mostly pine
trees. This is one of the few open-ended hikes I've done. There was no particular
destination. We would decide to turn around when we had to in order to get back at a
certain time. A bit past 3pm, we decided we had to turn around. I would love to explore
the trail further, but I can do that another day -- perhaps in the winter when it'll be
much different.
We retraced our steps, descending all the way back to the car in just about an hour. At
the trailhead there was a group of people with free refreshments (drinks, snacks). I
think they said they were with Campus Crusade for Christ. We chatted a bit before heading
back to our car and driving back to our cabin.
Return to 2001 Lake Tahoe trip report.
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