Day 8 on the Tahoe Rim Trail: Walking downhill is just as difficult, but Chinese food makes things better

• Miles they walked: 13.5
• Miles covered: 72.8-86.3
• Miles remaining: 88.7
• Number of filtered water bottles: 2

Thank goodness it was dry overnight and some of our stuff dried out. My skirt was still wet but at least it wasn’t dripping anymore. It had clearly been cold overnight, so the start of the day was cold but sunny. Until now I hadn’t been very cold at night even though I slept in my leggings, down jacket and hat.

It took us a while to leave the camp and we were also hungry because we hadn’t had a proper dinner the night before. A few meters from our campsite was a beautiful stream, so we again filtered our water for the day. It wasn’t too far to the next water point so there was no need to carry much water which helped with the weight of the bags.

He also passed us by the person whose tent we had seen near Star Lake the day before. He told us that his tent had almost flooded and that he had to build some sort of wall to stay dry, so maybe not stopping there turned out to be a good decision in the end.

Going up and down

Today’s highest point was near Freel Peak at 9740 feet or ~2970 m. It wasn’t a bad climb at all. After this we descended to Armstrong Pass before a slightly steeper climb. The TRT has a lot of curves, so no climb has been that steep compared to what I’ve hiked before.

We stopped for a brief lunch with the goal of reaching Round Lake for the night. A place that would help reduce Friday walks to a more manageable distance. After lunch, the trail was pretty much downhill. It was still harder than I thought, which surprised me. In some places, the combination of heavy rain and mountain bikers caused the trail to have a narrow rut of sorts, which made walking more difficult at times.

Stunning views from the trail.

A change of plan

As we descended, we made the decision to stop at the Big Meadow trailhead, about 3 or 4 miles from our original goal of Round Lake. We decided to return to South Lake Tahoe for the night and find a place to stay for two nights. This meant we could pack less on Thursday (walk but only carry day bags) in an attempt to cover a longer distance.

Our daily distances so far had been shorter than Ben and I had anticipated before we started and also shorter than I had walked on previous hikes. Being unwell at the beginning of the hike had definitely had an impact and carrying my backpack every day had definitely been one of my concerns before I started.

When you just want to get there and the road is boring

As we approached the Big Meadow trailhead, the trail passed through what to me was the most boring part of the trail so far. I also felt like it went on and on. I could see and hear the road but we didn’t seem to get any closer. The landscape was made up of overgrown green bushes, basically like a UK nature reserve, and was unattractive even though it was flat.

A trailhead with a tremendously large TRT sign

Johnny Cash and his gang to the rescue

We tried to catch a ride into town but didn’t have much luck. Although there was an area for cars to stop, the curve of the road meant that any driver would have to stop as soon as they saw us.

Then we saw four hikers and their dog returning to the parking lot. I asked them if they were going into town, but they apologized and said their car was already full. I think I must have seemed so helpless that they returned moments later saying they would make it work.

They had some drinks and snacks after the walk around the parking lot and invited us to join them. So we did and had a very nice chat with a local couple, their friends and their dog, Johnny Cash, who were visiting us from Colorado. Afterwards, we all piled into his car, which fit six people when the back of the car became an extra row of seats. They dropped us off in South Lake Tahoe at a Chinese restaurant, one of their recommended restaurants.

The emotion of rice

We stopped for dinner at Mandarin Garden. I was really excited about eating rice and Ben was just excited about a proper dinner. Both some customers and the waiter asked us about our walk as we entered with all our things.

I enjoyed the old school atmosphere of the restaurant, including the artex walls and ruffled curtains. We over-ordered with the idea of ​​being able to eat some food tomorrow night and after a while we left the restaurant pleasantly full.

The emotion of rice

a hot shower

We then booked into the Tahoe Mountain Inn, just a short walk away, for the next two nights. It was a book and they sent him an unstaffed inn-type door code. The room was small but modern and there was a shared kitchen in front of us.

We showered, did laundry, and did various online tasks and then it was time for bed. Tomorrow we had the pleasure of being able to walk with only backpacks.

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