Mt. Tallac

To prepare for the Mt. Whitney trek, Erin and I tackled Mt. Tallac on June 4th, 2016. We drove up from the city after work on Friday afternoon and stayed in Sierraville, on her family's property. Saturday morning we arose around 4am to drive to South Lake Tahoe and the Tallac trailhead.

We were on the trail by 7am, summited around noon, enjoyed lunch and the views for 30 minutes or so and descended and finished by 3pm. There was far more snow on the trail that we expected. We luckily befriended two brothers, one who had previously summited, and it was truly only with their assistance that we were able to summit. The trails were far too obscured by snow and poor conditions for us to otherwise have made it. We ended up hiking all the way down with our new pals Jerry and Erick and certainly befriending them made this a trip to remember.

Distances: 9.5 miles with approximately 3,500' in elevation gain; from 6,400' to 9,735'.

Food: kale pesto pasta with chickpeas, mushrooms, and roasted squash (sort of like this recipe) and nori granola

Here we are, pretending like we aren't upset that we both forgot sunglasses.

Erick scrambling up rocks, as an alternative to trudging through the snow as Erin preferred.

Pretty early on in our ascent, I was already so over hiking through the snow. Thank goodness for the trekking poles! They made all the difference.

Thankfully, the amazing views back to Lake Tahoe and the surrounding peaks were an ever-present incentive to continue ascending.

On our way down, we spotted a bear maybe 100' in the distance. Erin and Jerry beelined it away from the animal, but Erick and I stuck around to take photos. Of course.

This was a trying hike for me, as I didn't have much water nor a proper pack, but it was a great day regardless and I'll always look back on it fondly.