Plan B due to snow in the Lake Tahoe area

[wildhiker]

PointeAuBaril - when you say you plan to return to Glen Alpine trailhead via the "Tamarack Lake trail", do you mean the trail that runs down the canyon directly west of Angora Peak? That is a rough trail with some seriously steep and rocky sections. After my wife and I did it in 2000, she said she would never do it again. But then, we did it again with our daughter (so handy for a loop trip) in 2015, and this time my wife said emphatically she would never, ever, do that trail again!
-Phil

[PointeAuBaril]

[/quote]

The only large stream is out of Susie that has a log jam crossing below the outlet. By now ought not be an issue. My own trip in that basin is in a few days. Latest caltopo High Res image shows remaining snow along that route patchy. Most lake side areas of that zone melted out a week or two ago so greenery and wildflowers ought to have enough days to now be out in force especially heathers, monkeyfowers, shooting stars, and buttercups.

Looks like we would cross that stream out of Susie lake about halfway into the second day. Thanks for the info, hopefully it's all good.

PointeAuBaril - when you say you plan to return to Glen Alpine trailhead via the "Tamarack Lake trail", do you mean the trail that runs down the canyon directly west of Angora Peak? That is a rough trail with some seriously steep and rocky sections. After my wife and I did it in 2000, she said she would never do it again. But then, we did it again with our daughter (so handy for a loop trip) in 2015, and this time my wife said emphatically she would never, ever, do that trail again!
-Phil

That's correct. Beginning at the middle of the northern side of Lake Aloha, my GPS says that it's 5.56 miles back to Glen Alpine trailhead with only 792 feet of elevation gain, and 2,395 ft of downhill. I see the steep section you're referring to - there's a huge drop off near the end that starts just west of Echo Peak - so it looks like virtually all of that 2,395 ft of down hill is concentrated over a two mile stretch. Did you guys do it going up or going down? Is the stream out of Lily Lake easy to cross?

It looks like exiting by retracing our steps is probably a better bet. This is 6.5 miles, 795 of gain and 2,378 ft of descent. This avoids that incredibly steep section on Tamarack - which doesn't sound fun after doing some additional research.