My Next Big Adventure

If I had my druthers, I'd reattempt Oregon next summer.  Unfortunately, there's this little thing called reality that is getting in the way.  The reality that I have a really good job that I enjoy and worked hard to get.  The simple fact is, I won't be able to bank enough leave to take a month off from work next summer.  It was also incredibly generous of my employer to allow me to leave for four weeks and I don't want to push my luck by asking for a month off two years in a row.  I'm also taking a year to lick my financial wounds from a pretty expensive year - not just my trip to Oregon but all kinds of other things. This stuff is why you don't see many 40-year-olds on the PCT. We have all these gosh-darned responsibilities that keep us from doing the fun stuff we want to do. It sucks being a grown up.

So in the meantime, I'm pondering what to do with myself next summer.  I don't want to take a lot of time off for backpacking, so I can ensure that I have enough leave to do Oregon in 2016.  So, as the kids say, the obvious answer is obvious.  I'm going to do the Tahoe Rim Trail.  Lake Tahoe is only about an hour and a half from where I live.  It's also one of my favorite places on Earth
.  It's also not terribly long - only 165 miles, so I can do it in a leisurely week and a half.

Probably the best thing about doing the TRT is that it's my hood.  I grew up in Reno, so as a kid I was up at Tahoe at least once a week in the summer.  It's absolutely my favorite environment.  I love going up there when it's hot and dry and the pines and sagebrush smell so good with the combination of decomposed granite and pine needles crunching under foot.  I just love Tahoe in the summer time.

The TRT itself isn't ideal.  It's busy with hikers and mountain bikers - at times you feel more like you're in Disneyland than in the woods.  The mountain bikers especially make it less than ideal.  They chew up the trail and you're constantly stepping aside for them (even though they're supposed to yield to hikers).  But you know what?  Whatevs.  A big chunk of my hike will be in the middle of the week and I doubt I'll see much of anyone.

TRT here I come!  Meanwhile I have a long winter to get through.