A handful of weeks ago Tanya + I pointed the #yourlead van toward Lake Tahoe for a few days of trail roaming + wifi-poaching. I could explain all the little details, boring you to sleep…or I can toss a few numbers + handful of photos at you. I’m willing to be you prefer the latter anyway, so if you promise not to judge my lazy version of “recapping” enjoy the basics of our trip to Lake Tahoe!

Mount Rose

10 miles RT // 2,193 feet gain // Strava Stats

We hit up Mount Rose the moment we got into the Lake Tahoe area, chasing the sun up then back down the mountain for a day of high miles + lots of elevation gain. The main route up Mount Rose treated us with a waterfall, bear-worthy willows, snowy ice luges + a crazy windy summit right at sunset. Perfect timing…

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Tahoe Meadows

10.7 miles looping // 1,867 feet gain // Strava Stats

All of our jobs required a fair bit of adulting on Thursday we had to get creative to find a little trail reprieve from reality. To keep it simple, we headed just down the road from the Mount Rose Trailhead [where we crashed the night before] to Tahoe Meadows. We had big plans for running part of the Tahoe Rim trail but when the boardwalks showed up at Tahoe Meadows we detoured through all three meadows + an elusive dam we never actually saw.

Galena State Park

4 miles RT // 659 feet gain // Strava Stats

Friday was our big day of adulting — we had two book signings, two Sportsman Warehouse store visits + 7 hours of remote work on deck. So, obviously, I headed out for an early AM jaunt…to get lost, kicking off our entire day about 30 minutes behind schedule. Add to that the true struggle we had finding a shower in Reno it was not a stress-free morning. Whoops. I’m actually kind of bummed to get only a tiny taste of the Galena State Park trails — they were fantastic.

[spoiler: we survived, all meetings were done on time-ish, impromptu lunch in Reno was amazing + we found a freaking awesome coffee shop in Carson City, NV…go to Comma Coffee!]

Tunnel Creek Trail

6.4 miles RT // 1,419 feet gain // Strava Stats

After a late night of internet’ing our way through remote work we tucked into the trailhead parking lot for Tunnel Creek, unsure if we were allowed to park overnight. This was our first true night of “ummm, this may not be allowed” stealth van life’ing so we made a point to be up bright + early to get onto the trail…therefore justifying our overnight stay. It’s weird + probably didn’t matter but I’ve become a very firm believer in “trail karma”. Our route was simple…up the Tunnel Creek Trail until we got hungry enough to turn around + head back down [then off to Truckee for breakfast, our treat for roughing it for days!].

After our days in Tahoe we headed west for a few days in Lassen Volcanic National Park before making the trip north to Bend, the Columbia Gorge + Seattle…stories I pinky promise to share in the same concise, photo-filled way I just dumped Lake Tahoe onto you. Because, words are a lot of work to digest + I’m always full of stories/tips if you want specifics, just shoot me a message or email!

**A handful of PC’s go to Tanya in this post — basically, if I’m in the photo Tanya was the photographer!**


2 Comments

Hannah · July 24, 2021 at 8:45 am

I ran my first trail race at Galena (and was sooo not prepared). Thanks for the nostalgia!

Favorite links 7/24 - Prepare For Adventure · July 24, 2021 at 9:26 am

[…] former home - some of Tahoe’s trails. (Random fact: I ran my first trail race at Galena […]

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