Tahoe – N6JFD's Sota Blog

Easter weekend SOTA(s): W7N/WC-005 and W6/NS-290 and a companion

Saturday: Was a productive and beautiful spring weekend in the Tahoe area! Miracle March has left and the temps are warming, and the difference in one week in the Mount Rose area was very noticeable. If you remember/read, last weekend I did W7N/WC-003 Tamarack Peak in waist deep powder, this weekend I was literally on the other side of Mt Rose highway walking on hard pack easily going 2mph faster… Looking back at Tamarack on Saturday, what was covered the weekend before was already showing bare. So Spring is here, and while MM delivered an awesome 12 feet to help our meager snow pack, it’s already melting off. Before I get into the SOTA side of things, lets rehash this for a second. At the end of January, we were at a 30% snow pack percentage for the ’17/’18 season. At the end of the March we were at 85% of our average… Even with the amazing ’16/’17 season we are still not out of the woods, and we could easily slip back into a drought scenario if we keep having these 70-90% snow pack years. Hopefully we do not accept this as the new norm.. Okay hippy tree hugging climate change PSA is out of the way!! So on Saturday I decided it was time to finish off the Mt Rose section and consequently have finally finished WC-001 thru WC-005 in the process. This is an unnamed peak listed as 9225 (W7N/WC-005). This like Tamarack is one of those i would suggest is easier in the winter then the summer, especially if snowshoeing on hard pack snow..

You can go directly to the peak off trail, there is only really one hard ascent at the end, which you would have to do in the summer too, but the hard pack snow with good grip snowshoes (or crampons would be a good option too) will make the ascent easier to deal with. I would not actually call the ascent that hard, it’s ~800 feet long with 280 feet of climbing for that last final push. The route is 1.7 miles each way. GSP Track image below:

This day was definitely getting warm, and the avalanche danger was getting moderate, however the ascent route is on the north facing side, so that did keep the avy danger down some during the afternoon warming/wet slide concerns.

Easy to get to this location: drive up Mt Rose Highway, and park on either side of the side of the road at Tahoe Meadows/Ophir Creek. (1/2 mile shy of Rose pass).

So next up is an apologies to the chasers, I tend to get a little ADD on Saturdays with the S2S chasing myself. It is hard to focus on just the activation when I am seeing regions i know are reachable, so a lot of times I tend to go try S2S chase while leaving my working freq. If it seems like i have wandered off, it’s bc I’m probably S2S someone.

I spent two hours on the summit on Saturday between chasing S2S (and waiting for a few folks from some of the alerts) and working the activation. I ended up getting S2S with KI4SVM, KH7AL, and VE6IXD. All in all 14 QSO for this summit. Trying to get my QSO count per activation up too!

Time	Call	Band	Mode	Notes
18:22z	N4EX	14MHz	SSB	s3x3, r4x4. into NC
18:23z	W0MNA	14MHz	SSB	5×7 to Ks, thnx Gary
18:25z	W0ERI	14MHz	SSB	5×7 to Ks
18:25z	K9IR	14MHz	SSB	s5x5 r3x3 chicago
18:37z	KH7AL	7MHz	SSB	s2s, 3×3.
18:39z	NS7P	7MHz	SSB	r5x6, s5x5, Thnx Phil
18:57z	K8TE	14MHz	SSB	r5x5, s5x9 NM
18:59z	WA2USA	14MHz	SSB	2×2, 5×9 IN
19:00z	KD0YOD	14MHz	SSB	5×7 to Minn
19:07z	KI4SVM	14MHz	SSB	s2s to w4g
19:12z	WA9STI	7MHz	SSB	weak 3×3, 5×7 to LA
19:14z	NG6R	7MHz	SSB	r4x3, s5x7, thnx Jerry
19:15z	KK7BV	7MHz	SSB	4×5, 5×7 in AZ
20:12z	VE6IXD	14MHz	SSB	s2s, 2×2, s3x3

Sunday:

The snow capped peaks include Pyramid Peak, Price, Little Pyramid. I am standing just below Big Hill on the Big Hill Helispot.

So earlier in the week I’d been talking with N6DNM (Dmitry) about his upcoming Tahoe weekend and working to get a chase on him as well as hopefully doing a double activation with him. Saturday night we agreed we would do Big Hill (W6/NS-290). He’d need to finish up a couple of things, and then he would roll down and meet me in South Lake, and we’d fight the Easter Sunday traffic out of Tahoe down the 50 and to our peak.. So this is one of the few drive up peaks I’ve done. I keep telling myself to explore this side of Desolation, but seem to barely get past Wright’s Lake road headed West. FWIW, I am planning a trip in August to Loon Lake for camping, there I will go after McKinstry and Guide peak. That assumes i do not go buy a side-by-side or some other OHV and approach them via the Rubicon.

It was yet another amazing Sierra Nevada day, and even though the peak is at 6100 feet, no hoody was needed, just shorts, hat, sunglasses, and away we went.

This peak is doable all winter long technically as they keep the road to Big Hill plowed since it is an NFS Fire Tower: Not a lot to write about, so here is my QSO log, and then pictures from the rest of the weekend will be below. 13 contacts, N6DNM and I changed positions for SOTA complete and 1 S2S.

Time	Call	Band	Mode	Notes
20:10z	AE0AX	14MHz	SSB	S2S, r3x3, s4x4
20:16z	KK6YYD	14MHz	SSB	2×2, just above me in Placerville
20:17z	K8HU	14MHz	SSB	r2x2, s5x7 VA
20:35z	KG7LR	144MHz	FM	FQ to LOdi s5x4
20:50z	W6JMP	7MHz	SSB	r5x5, s5x7 SAC ground skip
21:08z	WB6DZJB	144MHz	FM	r5x5, s5x7 Oakley California
21:12z	WJ6N	144MHz	FM	Barry down in Galt, FQ
21:28z	KD0IPI	14MHz	SSB	s5x9, r5x7 MN
21:28z	VA2MO	14MHz	SSB	s5x7 r5x3 DX to QC
21:29z	N1EU	14MHz	SSB	r5x6s5x5, NY
21:32z	WD4CFN	14MHz	SSB	s5x7r3x3QSB, TN
21:35z	KF5ZFL	14MHz	SSB	r: 5x7s5x9 AR

Some parting shots from Saturday:

talk about an easy approach, head across that meadow, hit the first ridge, shoot along the ridge line right to left, hit the saddle and do the final push up to the top of 9225.

Rose (WC-001) on the right, Tamarack (WC-003) and Houghton (WC-002) behind and left of Tamarack.

You let mother nature give you a way to string your wire and hang your flag..

Some parting shots from Sunday:

another show with Pyramid on the left, then Price, Little Pyramid, and 9240. I think McKinstry or Guide are all SOTA peaks in this image.. all 8 pointers too..

W7N/WC-003, Tamarack Peak…Finally!!!

So, this peak has stymied me four times in the past. Twice due to weather, and twice because I ran out of time trying to pull a two-fer with Rose, and Houghton. What is funny is that I originally wanted to do those three peaks as a three-fer..I’m wondering if a two-fer with Rose or Houghton is even possible at this rate..(camp in the area, leave at first light, sure!), but as noted, even in summer with easy access to Mt Rose I still had a hard time getting back to Tamarack in time to get a same day activation..

So all that aside it was time to finally push for this peak today. The weather was going to be awesome, the avalanche danger was low for the aspects I was ascending, all I had to deal with was snowshoeing up the fresh powder from the previous week. Fresh untouched powder being the main caveat. The GPS says it’s only one mile from the parking area to the summit, however I logged two miles each way. It took three hours to cover the two miles. The first 1/2 mile was pretty easy thanks to the snowmobiles packing down the snow. Above the forest service road, it was fresh tracks the rest of the way. Even with floaty snowshoes I was sinking up to my calves. Definitely glad I do TRX mountain climbers and buzzsaws. Three hours up, but 45 minutes down. The climb from where I started is approximately 1300 feet.

So to note, this was a winter ascent (yah Winter Bonus!) The summer route is much different, I had been scoping just coming in on the Rim Trail from the pass on Mt Rose highway and then grabbing the ridge before the Rim Trail passes under the shadow of Tamarack on ti’s way to Rose. For a winter ascent, you can either do a backcountry ski/snowboard route from the North that is most definitely a fun route down, or as I did snowshoe straight up from the Tahoe Meadows parking area. In more firm snow conditions it is possible to get up the hill faster. Also note you can access W7N/WC-005 (9225) from this area, it is South along the Rim Trail. Slide Mountain is in the area too, but that is better coming out of the Rose Parking lot (or just cheat and take the lift up during the ski season ;)..

Chasers you all are awesome, I think my alert was for 930, I left the trailhead at about 930, Once I made it to the fresh tracks I added a new spot/alert saying “ETA 11”, but as noted I started my activation just after 1300 PST. Although it’s not the first time I’ve blown my start time. For some reason I decided to start with 40m today, and kind of glad I did, when I finished up with 40, and moved to 20 there was some sort of big contest going on. I could not even find a freq to post up, so I called CQ on 2m and got one reply from a guy out in Fallon. I counted it about 60 miles crow fly. After that, I just wrapped it up and headed down…If you normally chase me on 20 (W0MNA/W0ERI as an example) sorry i did not try for 20, but I was not about to compete with the contesters.

QSO for this activation..

Time	Call	Band	Mode	Notes
20:14z	NS7P	7MHz	SSB	R5x7, S5x5 Thanks Phil!
20:15z	K6EL	7MHz	SSB	R 5×8, QSB, S:5×5 Thanks Phillip!
20:17z	N6DNM	7MHz	SSB	R5x7, S5x5 Thanks Dmitry!
20:18z	NG6R	7MHz	SSB	R5x4, S5x9. Thanks Jerry
20:19z	W6TDX	7MHz	SSB	R55, S44 Thanks Chris, new chaser..
20:22z	W7RV	7MHz	SSB	5×2, to AZ.. Thanks Thomas
20:24z	W3WJL	7MHz	SSB	R58, S52 to OR, Thanks Walter
20:36z	K7NNV	144MHz	FM	FQ to Fallon… that’s a long QSO for HT

And now some parting shots.

W7N/WC-001, Mt Rose, and then some snowboard/ski tracks leading off Tamarack below me..

From sand to snow.. two activations to totally different types of zones, and finally 100pts on SOTA!

A couple of false summits to keep your hopes up

The weekend of April 1/2 I managed to snag two different peaks in two different zones and states, and two very different types of hikes :D. The CVHams meet on the first Saturday of the month, so I headed to Carson Valley with the intention of doing two different activations, but ran out of time scouting the entry roads. So I opted to head to the meeting w/ the purpose of snagging W7N/TR-042 (McTarnahan Hill) after the fact. This morning my goal was to hit that peak before the meeting, but yah those NV back roads are in rough shape from winter. Anyway that said, I managed to get within 1/2 mile from the backside of the peak, but if you went up the front side from Carson City side, and had a Quad/Motorcycle you can make it to 20 feet from the summit. I know better then to activate this close to 0000 UTC.. Oh well, I allowed the Auchard’s to get double chaser points. Another successful activation, As noted the Auchards both before and after 0000, as well as a local guy in Carson City, and NG6R from Southern Cal.

Leave no Trace! A campsite on the side of the road where folks left unopened beers and other various trash.Look folks, LEAVE NO TRACE. Leave it how you found it. Oddly enough when I came back thru the second time, the bottles were actually gone. I guess the runners I saw out on Sunshine Pass Road needed a pick me up on this fine day!

And now the Snow Zone 😀

Panorama from Big Blue and Desolation, Hope Valley on around to Carson Pass

So Sunday the goal was get up to Stevens Peak (W6/NS-345). This is one of the peaks on my “TRT Challenge to Self” so one checked off, a few more to go. No this summit does not help me from a miles perspective. There was still plenty of snow, so I opted to go up the backcountry skiers route, but the sun was blasting that hillside, so it was getting soft. Sidehilling in soft snow on a 30 degree slope is risky for a multitude of reasons, unless you have solid self arrest skills, do not bother. HOWEVER..you gain 1000 feet in the first mile, making for a mellow grade for that last 1/2 mile push up the summer trail. Even though there was ample snow in the first 2.5 miles the last mile was pretty snow free on the climb. The top still had plenty of snow though. People are pecuiliar, I followed these two skiers up the bowl, and watched em descend. Turns out one of the guys was on his third day out ever, not third day of learning BC Skiing, but third day of skiing period. 30 degree slopes are hard blues/easy blacks. Is BC on a spring corn day on avalanche terrain really the place to be learning how to ski? Saw a couple of snow bunnies and a few bear prints in the snow while hiking. All in all, I love snowshoeing thru the snow. Once on the summit, I saw my fair share of BC skiers/snowboards who had come up the main face of Stevens (as opposed to Carson Pass). Oddly enough there were two backcountry riders who ferried one of those super expensive drones that have “follow the subject mode’ or whatever it’s called. The guy was complaining that my antenna was creating interference. Odd that the drones are impacted by the RF from a radio on 20m. I was nice and let them film and ski out, b/c the sooner they were gone the sooner I could get to it. So the nice thing about my SOTA attempts is they are always a learning experience. The experience on this trip is that snow does affect radiation patterns and such, oh and I need to figure out how to use APRS2SOTA. I somehow managed a contact on 20m at ~60miles crow fly. Thanks KK6CUG for the spot, that brought the chasers on. That and since I could see Kirkwood Ski resort, I managed a few simplex contacts from folks with their HT’s riding the lifts. Funny, I never considered carrying my HT while resort riding, but if you snag ski patrol’s frequency, I can see why it’s worth it. The hike out was pretty uneventful, but I went back the summer/PCT path instead of trudging down that hillside I came up. It would be easy to snag Stevens and Red Lake in a single day, and I almost considered it, if I had been off Stevens 30 minutes earlier I probably would have gone for it. Anyway some pics from the summit and from the surrounding areas. Oh how I do love the Tahoe/Carson area! My particular path was 7.1 miles total, the return path was a bit longer then the up path, but I was going for the safety factor, and even did some butt glissading. I was also scouting the route for my attempt on Red Lake peak, I’ll be skipping the skiers bowl that overlooks HWY 88 the next time

A few images of the area. Nothing specific, Round Top (W6/NS-055) which is on my list to do. Red Lake Peak (W6/NS-062) as well. There is probably 50-70 SOTA points in the various pictures there with named peaks in the W6/NS (and some W7N/TR designator) in the panorama.

All in all it was a great weekend, Some sand, some snow, some awesome scenery and an overdose of Vitamin D (the uncovered parts of my face are purple thanks to the reflective power of the snow :D).

Loving the KX2 and took care of the easy Tahoe Summits

Another activation with the KX2 while I continue to get used to the radio, and another Tahoe Summit off the list. W6/NS-248. Not as easy as Tahoe Mountain, but still easy enough. Snowshoes today though. Oddly enough for as short as the run up this hill is, there was a skin track (backcountry ski/snowboarding) up to the peak. Usually takes me about 30 minutes to bust up this hill, and today was about on par with that with the snowshoes on. Anyway, successful summit, got 1 2M QSO, but I am friends with WA6EWV, I may have to introduce him to chasing, or summiting :D. Not sure his level of adventure etc. Anyway, I commented that I had my longest and shortest QSO a few days ago, Tahoe to North Carolina..no crushed that today, well by 300 miles. KB1RJD, and KB1RJC gotta love those husband wife teams! Tahoe to NH…approximately 2520 miles. Anyway, 6 more points, finally broke 100 points on SOTA, and am finally getting my system dialed in well. Managed to get a good working headset mic combo, although I probably need to work on the TX EQ to get my headset audio up. The pic below is the flagpole I used as a mast today, normally there is a flag on there. They take the flag down for the season, and if you climb up on the rock there is an eye hook you can use for your antenna. Do not use it though when the flag is on there. I see that as disrespectful. Behind it is Tallac: (W6/NS-036). Another one I’ll have at some point before summer. Anyway that’s all, loving the KX2, just need to keep babying it, and hope it holds up well for the 4 summits I intend on this weekend.

A new radio, and finally W6/NS-397

Well this is probably the easiest peak to get in the basin, but today was my second attempt (radio issues first time around). So, I sold my old HF radio in December knowing it would not last me thru this year. I toiled for months trying to figure out which was the right radio for me, and by then had narrowed it down to the tank, and the new pocket rocket: FT-817, or KX2. The 817 is like a tank, everyone I ever talked to swore by it, tons of blogs praise it. It set the standard for backpacking durability and HF QPR. For someone like myself who is hard on gear, this seemed like the right way to go. So I went with the KX2 instead ;-). Maybe I just like taking risk, or maybe as I get older i’m finding ways to not be so rough on things. Maintaining constant situational awareness, blah blah. Probably what intrigued me is the BIG readout, the way easy to use buttons, and while I have a few Yaesu radios, enough of my other SOTA buddies convinced me I would be a lot happier with the KX2. Well, I cannot say I would not be happy with the 817, but damn, that KX2 is nice. I am not going to really review the radio today, but it did show up on the 27th at my house. I did a lot of listening to other SOTA folks from the desk while working, and while also testing my battery life on my LiPo battery. So far I am at 10 hours with ~3 hours of me yacking away and still at 11.55v (started at 12.5). Well I have already surpassed my old radio on power consumption..and apparently the KX2 is a lot better then the 817, but I cannot do a direct comparison.. Anyway that said, I’ve had this thing for 2 days, I’ve been listening at home, but I have not made any contacts with anyone, so time to go run up W6/NS-397. As noted above, it’s the easiest peak in the basin, it’s a 10 minute drive and then a 10 minute walk up to the tower on top. Tossed my line up in a tree, and extended my EndFedz antenna, self spotted on SotaGOAT and started calling on 14mhz. I knocked out 6 QSO on 20M in 20 minutes..Not a record by any stretch, but I was playing with antenna direction and such (about 25-30 feet up in the tree, at probably a 30-40 degree take off angle) so I was moving from E/W polarity to N/S polarity etc. All my connections came from the east needless to say. I was 3×4 into NC, and he was 5×5 to me.. The Chaser couple that live in KS had me at 5×5 (Thanks Gary and Martha, you two ROCK!) , and managed MN, and IA as well. flipped to 40M and adjusted angle slightly to be more NW/SE angle. I managed ID, Reno x2, UT, AZ, and OR x2 in 14 minutes. I could have kept going, but I was on a time budget. From my house to the summit back to my house in 90 minutes, and managed an activation that marked my shortest and longest HF QSO to date… Probably nothing new for most SOTA activators, and I cared more about playing w/ the new radio then anything else :D. I may have to bag the other 6 pointer in the basin on Thursday towards the end of the day..

That is that, and I get more and more familiar and comfortable with the KX2 then I may go ahead and toss a more formal review up..

My ’17 challenge to self (Tahoe Rim Trail and ALL SOTA summits in this zone)

In 2005, I attempted the Tahoe Rim Trail, and pulled out early for a couple of varying reasons..primarily I did not take care of my feet. Not that it was a hard trail, I’d knocked the JMT out the year before in 13 days, and I was still in great backpacking shape (although not as good as I am now). We finished the Desolation to Brockway Summit portion of the trail, and over the years I’ve done segments from Luther Pass, and Spooner Summit, but mostly dis-contiguous segments. That said, it’s a new year (well first day of spring of a new year), and it is time to do some goal setting. 2016 saw the least number of trail miles I’d done since my mid 20s, and this is a good year to bounce back.. I’ve only got about 100 SOTA points, and I have neglected my backyard. This year the goal is simple and still allows for other opportunities for getting out: lots of day hikes, 3 day weekends, and overnights to finish the TRT, and retrace, or take liberties with side trails the parts I’ve already done to get more SOTA summits. I intend to activate EVERY SOTA summit in the TRT corridor (and also knock off all summits in Desolation wilderness. This does NOT get every summit related to the Tahoe basin, but it’s going to be a lot of fun miles, and hopefully a pile of points for myself and chasers! I am a huge embracer of Leave NO Trace ethics. Anytime you venture into the backcountry you are a visitor in someone else’s home. Wildlife and the like depend on you not trashing their home.. SO..if you pack it in, pack it out, do not burn it, do not toss it, do not let it drift away in the wind. Leave the backcountry exactly as you found it, or a saying popular in the 80’s “Take only pictures, leave only footprints”.

I will put up a spreadsheet of sections, mileages etc as I finish the planning, so do consider this post a work in progress. All but five of the peaks are 8 point summits. All five of those summits are in the W7N association (Nevada), one is a 10 pointer and the last four are 6 pointers. One thing to note is that quite a few of the summits do require some off trail, and questionable terrain (in one case a whole day trip of off trail paralleling the trail). This plan is based upon my skills, and any followup trip reports are in NO WAY a scouting report for you. You the individual reading this must assess your own skills. As a member of local SAR, I see a lot of examples where humans tend to overestimate their capabilities with a tad bit too much reliance upon technology. Know the 10 essentials, carry them, and be weather smart! If you have any interest, but no experience in this level of hiking then I suggest you start easy in and around your home hills as altitude is not the place to break in a new skill set. I am not responsible if you get lost, and will not be making any GPX files available. You will need to do your own planning and use your own ‘noggin based upon your skills with navigation, off trail walking, and general trail walking.

For this purpose the trail will be broken down into a few segments with Desolation Wilderness being the last segment I intend to address. Desolation is my favorite area to visit; I love granite. It is part of the carrot that will keep me going! There are 104 points inside the boundary of Desolation; to date I have done one SOTA attempt and activation in Desolation (Maggie’s Peak W6/NS-135). So 96 to go. I have also snagged a few other peaks on the southern end of the trail.

Echo to Luther: I’ve not hiked the segment from Echo Summit south, however I have completed the segment to Luther Pass via Carson Pass to Big Meadow day hike. This segment of the trail (the Southern most end of the trail) gives an opportunity at Little Round Top (W6/NS-087), This would be a very doable overnighter with rolling out on a Friday night to make Showers Lake area (8 miles), grab Little Round Top first thing, then move over to the Red Lake Peak (W6/NS-062) and Stevens Peak (W6/NS-375) spine. At this rate there is one other kinda far off side peak, and time of day matters. That is Waterhouse Peak (W6/NS-092). Waterhouse is a side trip, rejoin the TRT at Big Meadow via the Scotts Lake Trail. Again, this assumes you have hiked this segment of the TRT, if you have not, then Waterhouse is WAY off the rails, and I’m viewing it more as a bonus challenge!

Luther Pass to Kingsbury Grade: There are four SOTA summits (five if time permits) to be gained on this segment, but there is a LOT of hiking and elevation involved. I have hiked and biked the majority of this segment, and have been on all five peaks at various times, and have activated three of them. Since I am focussing on uniques I will be skipping those three, but will call them out. The focus peaks this summer are Feel Peak (W6/SN-034) and Monument Peak (W6/NS-061). For those with time and ambition, camp at somewhere near Freel or on Jobs Sister and side trip to Jobs Peak (W6/NS-047). I would not consider it for this challenge because it leaves the TRT corridor. This side trip is probably a half day effort if you camped up high but it is another 8 points. Start at Big Meadow where I left off from the previous section. The first SOTA summit you can get is an unnamed and off trail ascent that has about 30-60 minutes of climbing from the trail corridor Pt 9647( W6/NS-084). For future reference a summit named “Pt ####” is named for it’s height as it is not a named peak. I have already completed this summit so I’ll be pushing for Freel, and do plan on camping on top on Job’s Sister. A night DX activation could be fun :D, and I could self spot from up here if needed. This should be a long day backpack in, and yes I am well aware there are two other ways to sneak up Freel, but remember, the goal is stick to the TRT corridor (or very nearby) and complete as many miles as possible! The third summit on this segment is “Pt 9614” (W6/NS-086) Another Nameless summit..and to date, I’m still the only person who has bagged this (under my previous call sign). This write up from that trip is a good lesson on how to handle yourself around wildlife. The nice thing about this peak is it is a few hundred feet climb directly above the TRT. The fourth summit and possibly the hardest to attain is Monument Peak (W6/NS-061) in the Heavenly ski resort. This will require some off trail with a 1000 foot climb to reach the peak from the pass the trail rolls thru. If it is anything like the scramble for the previous peak, it’s very sandy, so 3 steps up, 2 steps down etc..

Kingsbury to Spooner: This is one section I’ve identified as a day hike section. There are two summits on this stretch, and it’s only 11 miles. The two summits are nothing like the side day trips I’ve mentioned so far. Start early at Daggett Pass/Kingsbury Grade and head North. About half way up is Genoa Peak (W7N-TR-007) snag some lunch and do your activation. Genoa is a short off trail climb, it also may have a road since there are antennas up there. Continuing north is Duane Bliss Peak (W7N-TR-014). After this, it’s mostly a descent to Spooner Summit. Once at Spooner if time permits grab Captain Pomin Rock (W7N-TR-027), it’s outside the TRT zone in my opinion, but it is right off the road. Trying to do it as part of the next trip adds a bit of an epic factor. (or skip it, it’s only 6 points)

Spooner to Mt Rose Hwy: is a twenty-two mile stretch that runs along the eastern crest of Lake Tahoe. This is one section I am going to do as a southbound, and not northbound for where the summits lie on the trail. There are five summits along this stretch, three of the summits are 8 pointers, and two are 6 pointers. From Mt Rose highway side trip up Slide Mountain (W7N/WC-004). Head back down to the road and hop the TRT southbound. The next summit along this stretch. Pt 9225 (W7N/WC-005).This is one section of trail that is normally dry, this year might be the exception, but it’s a nine mile stretch of trail that normally does not have water (that’s 3-5 hours of hiking depending on speed). The next peak to snag is probably going to be first thing in the morning and camp will be very near the north end of Marlette Lake. The best access for this peak looks to be from the south: Herlan Peak (W7N/WC-008). I am probably going to camp in this area as I see water nearby. Herlan Peak is the northern most point of three prominent peaks heading north of Marlette lake.
What to do? So, the last two peaks create a bit of a conundrum and will require some massive backtracking up hill to re-attain the TRT. There are two peaks that are pretty much on either side of the trail, however the side trip for this is a large downhill. The peak on the right is Snow Valley Peak (W7N/TR-006), and is right off the Rim Trail. There is a four way junction just before the peak and here is a road that heads all the way to the top as it is an antenna peak. Take the down trail and goto the peak on the left which sits above Marlette Lake and is unnamed: Pt 8728 (W7N/TR-013) . Plan for 60-90 minutes of walking to get to the peak on the left, the TRT stays high on the ridge, so you will need to back track to finish the TRT proper. Plan for that to be a 3-5 hour ordeal. Once back on the TRT you still have two more hours of walking (downhill) to Spooner Summit. This is possibly the hardest slog section just because of the terrain and the water situation. This is one trip report I am looking forward to doing, and hope to have this section done before the Rose to Toads mountain bike race

Rose Highway to Brockway: I am not sure how to address this one. There are only three summits on this section, and they are all at the Rose Hwy side of the trek. First up is Tamarack Peak (W7N/WC-003). Second up is Mt Rose (W7N/WC-001) which is the only 10 pointer on the whole trek. Last up in the same zone is Mount Houghton (W7N-WC-002). I’ve thought about doing these three peaks as a single day hike (and you could probably snag Slide Mountain the same day too). That said, after knocking off the three head on towards the west. One other option is to leave Slide Mountain off the previous section, and go for four peaks in a single day.

Brockway to Tahoe City: Three eight point peaks. The first one is right off the trail, and only a mile in, Gold Star Peak W6/NS-189. Another four miles in are the other two peaks. Mt Pluto (W6/NS-138) which sits on Northstar ski resort. Still within the corridor and is a side trip, but mellow grades. After Pluto, head up to Mt Watson (W6/NS-147) which is right above Watson Lake. This can probably be done as a single day hike, or another opportunity to do a night activation on Watson and camp at Watson lake. It’s another 8-9 miles down to Tahoe City, you are also in Mountain Bike territory here, (or fat tire bike if it’s still snowy).

Tahoe City to DesolationLeave Tahoe City heading Southbound there are two peaks before hitting the Desolation boundary. The first one is Scott Peak (W6/NS-153). This is going to be a 90 minute hike up, and 60 minute hike down, so plan time well. Might be worth to just day hike this as a stand alone summit, and not part of the larger TRT effort. Next up is East Twin Peaks (W6/NS-128). After Twin Peaks, merge with the Pacific Crest Trail and start heading south 11 miles to the first peak inside of Desolation. Lost Corner Mountain (W6/NS-154). I am done with my challenge to finish the TRT (actually finished at Brockway Summit). Now I’m just going to piece together ALL the peaks in Desolation via lots of day hikes and overnights.

Total points: 154 for everything outside of Desolation.
Desolation points: 104
Mileage: To be determined, I am guessing more then the 165 posted miles with the side trips. Maybe 200 ;-).
It would be cool to do this as a single trip, but uh..responsibilities. That’s probably a full 2-3 week effort with some of the side tripping. Guess it’s time to join the TRTA though and get my 165 miler badge.