On the West side of Lake Tahoe lies the Crystal Range, a different geologic slice of the same granite cake. This side also gets most of the water coming from the Pacific Ocean. As a result, the landscape is full of desolate glaciar valleys, turquoise lakes, polished granite slabs, streams of melting snow, and ancient pines.

It’s also more popular, and, here, the Tahoe Rim Trail overlaps with the Pacific Crest Trail, which goes from Mexico to Canada, so it was a bit too crowded for me sometimes. But, apparently, even bears are fine with that…

All-in-all, the Tahoe Rim Trail is a great and easy trail for 2 weeks (20 km/d), with beautiful and diverse landscapes. In an average snow year, start in the second half of June on the East side to avoid heat and water issues. Even with patches of snow, the moderate slopes (5% average) won’t be dangerous. Take advantage of the free buses to reach the trailhead and resupply.

I had a great time in my first week on the Tahoe Rim Trail. I was surprised by the beauty of its contrast.

The hardest part was to get on the trail! On Day 1, I had to walk 10 extra km and pass by 9 private bridges with “No Trepassing” signs before being able to cross the Truckee River.

Then, I didn’t see a house or a gate for the next 130 km. The trail followed the East side of the lake rim along the Carson Range in Nevada, mostly between 2100 m and 2700 m and without much slope.

The dry and sparce forests on white decomposed granite contrasted with the lush meadows full of life at the lower passes and the highland chaparral full of wild flowers and Mountain Pennyroyal mint.

No bears in sight, but super cute chipmunks and birds ranging from big hawks to the stunning Mountain Bluebird and even a Calliope Hummingbird.

That’s the dry side of the Sierra with stretches of up to 26 km without reliable water source on the trail. I hit the sweet spot in terms of calendar and had some extra sources (including snow patches), which made this water game fun and tactical. A few weeks later, it would have been painful. Lots of sun, but lots of shade too, and mild temperatures.

The trail was really not crowded except near highways. There was good gender parity among backpackers (17 men and 14 women), even though women traveled more in pairs than alone. Most people traveled in pairs anyway (65%).

I’m done preparing my first week of food on the Tahoe Rim Trail.

The presence of bears and the long stretches without resupply make it particularly challenging. But, that’s a price I’m ready to pay to hike entire weeks between each road crossing.

Sic. A paradox of hiking is that you often need a car precisely to get as far away from cars as possible.

Mexico is a pretty bad place for long-distance hiking, so I decided to explore the neighboring hiker’s paradise for my traditional birthday hike. But, it’s notoriously hard to travel around the US without a car (at least until we win The War on Cars).

In the end, I managed to pull off a plan of 4 weeks and 600 km of premium hiking using only public transportation, a direct flight from MEX, and a single hotel night. I’m detailing here these tricky logistics.

• Part 1, Tahoe Rim Trail
• Part 2, Yosemite Double Loop