I love the trail

Backpacking between Lake Tahoe and Mount Whitney puts you into intimate contact with some of the most beautiful trails in the world.

The basic routes between Lake Tahoe and Mount Whitney are the Pacific Crest Trail and the Tahoe to Yosemite Trail routes.

The Northern Sierra

The Pacific Crest and Tahoe to Yosemite routes through the Northern Sierra between Lake Tahoe and Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite share a considerable amount of trail, while yet being significantly different routes between Lake Tahoe and Tuolumne.

After joining together just West of the Tahoe to Yosemite's Meeks Bay trailhead, the Pacific Crest and Tahoe to Yosemite Trails share the same route around the Southwest end of the Lake Tahoe Basin. At the Southern end of the Tahoe Basin these classic trails part company.

The Pacific Crest Trail continues South through Carson Pass to Ebbetts Pass along the Eastern flank of the Sierra on its way to Sonora Pass. The Tahoe to Yosemite Trail varies from the PCT by splitting off onto the Western flank of the Sierra to reach Saint Marys Pass via Lake Alpine.

The Saint Marys Pass sits a half-mile West of Sonora Pass at the 9600 foot crest of Highway 108. From this near point of these two trails, their route varies radically until they come both come together again shortly after they enter the Yosemite Backcountry.

The Tahoe to Yosemite Trail continues South out of Kennedy Meadows, which is located 8 miles to the West down Highway 108. From Kennedy Meadows the TYT crosses the Emigrant Wilderness to enter Yosemite through Bond Pass.

On the other hand, the PCT continues South through a small section of the Emigrant Wilderness just by crossing the "street," Highway 108, at Sonora Pass. The PCT crosses Leavitt Peak before turning East to follow the West Walker River up to the Dorothy Lake Pass entrance to the Yosemite backcountry. Dorothy Lake Pass and Bond Pass are the two ways into the top of Jack Main Canyon.

From Jack Main Canyon to Tuolumne Meadows the Pacific Crest and Tahoe to Yosemite Trails follow the same route except for the brief and delightful section where the TYT breaks off to pass by Tilden Lake where the PCT rounds Wilmer Lake.

The Southern Sierra

The John Muir and Pacific Crest Trails are virtually indistinguishable through the Southern Sierra between Tuolumne Meadows and the Whitney Portal.

The main differences between the PCT and JMT between Tuolumne Meadows and the Whitney Portal South sit in a very short section of the trail between Thousand Island Lake and Reds Meadow.

The Southern point where the PCT and JMT part company is at the head of the canyon making up the Northern headwaters of the San J river. This trail junction sits just East of the Eastern End of Thousand Island Lake. The Pacific Crest Trail heads East from this junction to cross around the headwaters of the San J River follow the PCT along the barren exposed Eastern flank of the Canyon, composed of degraded volcanic material.

The John Muir Trail turns South at the trail junction on the East side of Thousand Island Lake to follow the Western flank of the San J River canyon South down to Reds Meadow. The Western side of the canyon is crafted through granite, and winds its way down to Reds Meadow past Garnet and Shadow Lakes through much more cover than the barren route of the PCT along the Eastern flank of the canyon.

Between these two routes sits the River Route. The River Route drops down the center of the drainage itself, between the Eastern and Western Flanks, to follow the San J river down to either Agnew or Reds Meadow, depending on where you are cutting off the trail to execute your resupply plans at Mammoth Lakes.

The beauty of the River Route is that this trail is through the softest trailbed and most deeply forested route of the three trail routes from the trail junction at the East end of Thousand Island Lake down to Reds Meadow.

For the whole distance South of Reds Meadow all the way down to Crabtree Meadow, where the John Muir Trail finally turns East to exit the Sierra across Mount Whitney, the Pacific Crest and John Muir Trails share the same trailbed.

The Trail Itself

Every part of this trail guide is based on the physical existence of the trails themselves. The great trail work that makes our backpacking experiences in the beauty of the Sierra Nevada Mountains possible directly depends on generations of trail and rock work by trail crews reaching all the way back to the late 19th century.

Prior to the introduction of trail crews, High Sierra trails had been deeply carved by sheep and cattle herders. The herders had been proceeded by huge human herds of first gold, then seekers of silver. Prior to the metals booms in the Sierras the East-West trails in the Sierra were faint routes followed by Western settlers who were either capable of self-sufficient travel over difficult terrain, or were in deep trouble.

Prior to the advent of Western settlement, the trails across and around the Sierra were a sophisticated network of Indian and animal trails that allowed for both access to not only the local Summer resources of the Sierra, but allowed for trade between the tribes that inhabited the Eastern and Western flanks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains before the Western settlement.

Today these trails have a different purpose. The purpose is the same in that the trails are designed to access to resources, but the resources that we access has changed from the indian's use to gather game, acorns, and fish into a virtual superhighway of trails.

Though our trails today provide long distance access to the same high elevation reality that the original inhabitants experienced, our trails only allow us short visits as struggling transitory visitors across the very same terrain that these people prospered within.

This makes our visits to the Sierra quite privileged. No culture has possessed the resources we are able to bring to bear to allow us to penetrate the depths of nature and the Sierra. Our sophisticated gear, our high calorie food, our custom walking and packing technology, all sit upon our fundamental ability to carve rock and craft trails that give us unprecedented access to the length and depth of the whole Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.

Trail Culture born on Hard Rock

Our ability to craft trails and equip backcountry travelers has stocked the trails with a wide range of cultural expressions.

On today's trails the backpackers, horse packers, hunters, day hikers, fishermen, and short-distance backpackers mix with a wide range of scientists, trail runners, a few rangers, and a couple of occasional lost tourists to provide a wide range of experiences, perspectives, and expressions of cultural interpretations of what it is to travel through the wilderness for extended periods of time.

Backpacking is not the only way to travel across the various unique and challenging environments that these trails make their way across the Sierra. But independent of how you travel the Sierra, or what perspective you take on the Sierra, these trails are the foundation of your approach.

The trails reflect the character and demands of the terrain, and the backpacker reflects all three.

These trails are crafted by humans to follow the seams and access points created by nature through the various types of terrain. Sierra trails range through a wide variety of terrains from forests of deep dark pine and fir forests, through bright green meadows, over soft terrain and across rivers and through seasonal drainages up into fields of massive boulders to cross great high altitude fields of shattered rock to finally pass though cathedrals of sheer granite until they finally cross through High Sierra Passes carved through hard granite.

Trails, Trail Work and Trail Crew Forum

The variety of terrains is infinite in each's variety, and each changes with the different season, presenting different looks, smells, traction, and experience.

Each type of trail, from a hard rock granite surface such as that on the South Side of Donohue Pass, to the shattered granite on the West side of Goodale Pass, through sections of deep sand heading down Jack Main Canyon demands a different hiking style, and a different approach to its specific requirements.

Between Lake Tahoe and Mount Whitney we are going to experience a wide variety of trail condition, trail surfaces,

We will introduce our difficulty scale for rating trails in this section, highlight the unique character, design and execution of certain trail sections, and discuss some of the differences between the main Pacific Crest, Tahoe to Yosemite, and John Muir trail routes between Lake Tahoe to Mount Whitney.

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Topic: Trails, Trail Work, and Trail Crew