Day two - today's goal, continue south, past Marlette lake and Spooner summit, to a ridge overlooking South Lake Tahoe, called South Camp.
From Marlette Peak camp, it's mostly an easy downhill towards Spooner. As you approach Snow Valley Peak, you are above Marlette Lake. It isn't too often that you look down and see one huge lake, and also see another lake behind and below that one. The Marlette/Tahoe combo is impressive! I'd recommend getting to that area, if even on just a day hike.
The entire east side of the Tahoe basin is very dry, and since the TRT follows the ridges, there just aren't many water sources along the trail.
Water management; how much to drink, how much to carry, and where to find the next source, quickly becomes important to you. After a morning of downhill to Spooner Summit (oh, the irony of going downhill to a "summit"!), and knowing that the next camp doesn't have a water source, we needed to find and carry a lot of water on the afternoon's long (7 miles) and hot acsent to South Camp. No water at Spooner Summit, despite the 30-odd cars parked there from day-hikers, so down we hike to Spooner Lake. Add a couple more to the 165 miles, why not? NASTY tasting water, and we found out later that day, while removing socks, that there is
at least one leach in that lake. One less leach? Not exactly the pristine alpine late that I expected. Really glad that we didn't have a night stay there, or get into the water deeper than our knees.
Crossing Highway 50, at Spooner Summit, can be a challenge. There are two lanes of traffic in each direction, with a turn lane in the middle, so it's pretty wide. We felt like we were in a life-sized game of Frogger.
Half way between Spooner and South Camp, we came across several anti-government signs, plus two pickup trucks and their camp, just off an old dirt road. Felt like we were intruding on an Idaho "compound" or something! Keep your eyes down, on the trail. No eye contact, you tell yourself, no eye contact!
That section from Spooner to South Camp, is very dry and very hot, so the extra water helps. Just beware of the freakin' separatists in the woods...
Speaking of strange days, the strangest thing, while lying in our tents, in what feels like the middle of nowhere, we could here some music playing, yes music. I can only guess that there is a bar, with a live band, down there somewhere on the road near Cave Rock, or Zephyr Cove. Surreal feeling; miles from anyone, but still hearing live music.
Water management; how much to drink, how much to carry, and where to find the next source, quickly becomes important to you. After a morning of downhill to Spooner Summit (oh, the irony of going downhill to a "summit"!), and knowing that the next camp doesn't have a water source, we needed to find and carry a lot of water on the afternoon's long (7 miles) and hot acsent to South Camp. No water at Spooner Summit, despite the 30-odd cars parked there from day-hikers, so down we hike to Spooner Lake. Add a couple more to the 165 miles, why not? NASTY tasting water, and we found out later that day, while removing socks, that there is at least one leach in that lake. One less leach? Not exactly the pristine alpine late that I expected. Really glad that we didn't have a night stay there, or get into the water deeper than our knees.
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