Tracy Salcedo - Best Easy Day Hiking Guide and Trail Map Bundle

Best Easy Day Hikes

Lake Tahoe

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Best Easy Day Hikes Series

Best Easy Day Hikes Lake Tahoe

Fourth Edition

Tracy Salcedo

An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

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Lanham, MD 20706

www.rowman.com

Falcon and FalconGuides are registered trademarks and Make Adventure Your Story is a trademark of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK

Copyright 2019 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

Previous editions of this book were published by Falcon Publishing, Inc. in 1999, 2010, and 2015.

Maps by Melissa Baker

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Salcedo, Tracy, author.

Title: Best easy day hikes, Lake Tahoe / Tracy Salcedo.

Description: Fourth Edition. | Guilford, Connecticut : FalconGuides, [2019] | Series: Best Easy Day Hikes series | Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORKT.p. verso. | Previous editions of this book were published by Falcon Publishing, Inc. in 1999, 2010, and 2015 T.p. verso. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2018054308 (print) | LCCN 2018056303 (ebook) | ISBN 9781493041107 (Electronic) | ISBN 9781493041091 | ISBN 9781493041091q(hardcover/paperback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781493041107q(e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: HikingTahoe, Lake, Region (Calif. and Nev.)Guidebooks. | WalkingTahoe, Lake, Region (Calif. and Nev.)Guidebooks. | MountaineeringTahoe, Lake, Region (Calif. and Nev.)Guidebooks. | BackpackingTahoe, Lake, Region (Calif. and Nev.)Guidebooks. | TrailsTahoe, Lake, Region (Calif. and Nev.)Guidebooks. | Tahoe, Lake, Region (Calif. and Nev.)Guidebooks.

Classification: LCC GV199.42.T16 (ebook) | LCC GV199.42.T16 S35 2019 (print) | DDC 917.94/38dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018054308

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

The author and Rowman & Littlefield assume no liability for accidents happening to, or injuries sustained by, readers who engage in the activities described in this book.

Once and always, for the Friedman and Rodman families

Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the following folks for their advice and help with previous editions of this guide: Mike St. Michel, Lindsay Gusses, Garrett Villanueva, and Don Lane of the US Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit; Dave Nettle of Alpenglow Sports; Gisela Steiner of Tahoe Trail Trekkers; Mark Kimbrough and Morgan Fessler of the Tahoe Rim Trail Association; Hal Paris and Pandora Bahlman of the Incline Village General Improvement District; Roger Adamson, park superintendent of the Tahoe City Public Utility District; Scott Elliott of the California State Parks, Sierra State Parks Foundation; Bill Houdyschell of the forestry division of the Tahoe Donner Association; Bill Champion of Lake TahoeNevada State Park; Dean Lutz, Jeff Wiley, and Susanne Jensen of Tahoe National Forest; and Jacqui Zink, park ranger with the US Army Corps of Engineers at Martis Creek Lake; Bill Schneider; editors David Lee, Charlene Patterson, Erica Olsen, and David Legere at FalconGuides.

Thanks to these folks for everything: the Friedman and Rodman clans; the Salcedo clan; the Chourr clan; Julie Roth and Oliver Aslin, Caitlin Brown, and my sons, Cruz, Jesse, and Penn.

Introduction

When I pulled together the first edition of this little guide, my youngest son accompanied me on many of these hikes. His contentment helped define my best easy baseline: If I could carry him without getting too winded, and if we were out and back before he got irritable, and if I liked what I saw along the way, we had a winner. We ambled through the woods together and I taught him his colors: green for the needles and leaves on the trees, brown for the bark and the dirt underfoot, blue for the sky and the lake and the pack he rode in. Id ask the question: What color is the water? Black, he would respond. He was 2, after all.

Now hes 22, and hes got the color thing all figured out. And me? Well, easy hikes are still the best, in my view. A well-maintained treadway; 6 miles round-trip, tops; great views and maybe a summit or a waterfall along the way; and back at the car, the beach, or the coffee shop before I get irritable... theres no better way to spend a day in the Lake Tahoe area. From shoreline to rim, whether tramping through a wildflower meadow or escaping to the lakeside to slip hot feet into the cold blue lake, Tahoe welcomes. Adventurer, wanderer, seeker, romantic, student, environmentalist, lazy slug who wants no more than a warm slab of granite on which to reclineTahoe is the place to be.

The twenty-nine easy day hikes described in this edition include favorites that never lose their appeal, a pair of fun additions, and brief reprises of trails that didnt make the cut for lack of space. The routes are intended to showcase the various facets of Lake Tahoe and its environs, from lakeside to ridgeline, forest to meadow.

Selecting the best day hikes continues to present a pleasant conundrumthe options are numerous, and theres not a dud in the bunch. The trick has been to pick hikes that satisfy the intrepid visitor and curious resident alike. These hikes range from wheelchair-accessible interpretive trails to mildly taxing treks to high-altitude viewpoints. Some routes are ideal for adventure, some for contemplation, some for a Sunday afternoon outing with the family, and others for winding down on a summer evening after a hard days work.

I hope this little labor of love inspires you to hike farther and more often. Onward and upward.

Tahoe in Brief

People have been drawn to the Lake Tahoe basin for thousands of years. The Washoe traveled up from the lowlands surrounding what is now Reno to fish, hunt, and harvest summers woodland bounty. With the discovery of gold and silver in the mid-1800s, trails once passable only in summer became year-round routes traveled by forty-niners and the entrepreneursshopkeepers, tavern owners, bakers, cattlemenwho followed them. Miners cabins, flumes, and other remnants of Californias gold rush and Nevadas silver rush can be found along trails throughout the Lake Tahoe basin.