3 night backpacking trip departing from Reno

[Bearwithme]

I am looking for trip advice for the Reno-Tahoe area. A friend from Minneapolis will be In Reno win late July and we were hoping to meet up and go out for a 3-4 day backpack.

Last year we did a trip In The southern Sierra mostly off trail in humphreys basin and French canyon and bear lakes basin. We did 15+ miles off trail and 20+ on and off for 4 days. He likes to fish so we toured almost all the lakes of these basins plus a couple others.

I have years of experience on and off trail in most normal and shoulder seasons and conditions. My friend mostly relies on me to plan and lead the trips. We are both reasonably ffit and In our mid/late 40s. comfortable with with 20+ mile days as we start early and walk late. Our speed is mostly slowed by lakes and fishing when they pop up lol.

I have spent little time in the Reno/Tahoe area and am looking for advice on where I might go. My priorities are I. Order of importance. Solitude. Cold alpine lakes and streams preferably with some fish. Scenery and views.

I know late July will still have considerable snow this year and I am comfortable with that as well. I’d like to keep it to micro spikes and an ice axe (prefer to leave the crampons at home and my buddy will be flying so he won’t have them)
Streams will be high I know that as well. So this may limit some areas?

Anyway I’m just starting to plan this trip as I just found out my friend will be out west. I will check back I. With some ideas I have in a week or two but I wanted to get some feedback from some of you who have covered this ground before.

Thanks In Advance.
Bear

[wildhiker]

If you like lakes and scenery, then you should look to Desolation Wilderness at the southwest end of Lake Tahoe. Plenty of trails and room for a 3 to 4 day trip, even if you do 20 miles in a day. But you won't have much, if any, solitude. Check permit availability on recreation.gov. I don't know about snow coverage late July - I suspect there will be quite a bit still. My trips there have all been in August in "normal" years, when there is little to no snow left.

Other than Desolation, if you want to cover many miles in the Tahoe area, you are mostly limited to the Tahoe Rim Trail doing shuttle hikes (or a lot of backtracking). More solitude here, but very few lakes or fishing. Good scenery on the high ridges looking over the lake. I suggest Spooner Summit to Brockway Summit, if you can arrange transportation. This long stretch is mostly on high ridges with great views. You can also make a side trip to summit Mount Rose, and even hike out and back on the high "Rim to Reno" trail (no, it doesn't go all the way to Reno, at least not yet) north of Mount Rose.

-Phil

[Tom Perkins]

There are two trailheads in the Wolf Creek meadows, off HIghway 4, West of Markleeville. You can follow the Carson River, from the High Trail trailhead, either along the river or on the High Trail, up to the Carson Falls, go on up to the headwaters, then access the Pacific Crest trail and head on back toward Ebbets Pass. Then make a loop of it by dropping down either Murray Canyon or Golden Canyon, or come down Wolf creek and then a couple of miles along the road back to the start. If you need to make an extra day, you can go on up one of the Highland Peaks before dropping down. There is a crossing of the river up by the Soda Springs ranger station that can be bypassed off trail on the N.

[JayOtheMountains]

Departing from Reno, as in having the ability to take RTC to a spot then hike from there? Yeah there's a few of those available. You can literally leave the bowl of Reno, hike a bit and be in the Mt Rose Wilderness which gets you out and beyond. If you're willing to do some water drops you can also investigate the ridges to the east, north, and a bit south of town. There's nothing prohibiting backpacking along a dirt road... Just follow dispersed camping rules for the Forest or BLM unity you're in.

From there, I'd ask just how committed you are? With the portfolio of national forest units and accessible wilderness areas nearby this thread probably isn't getting as much traction as you may have hoped for. Asking for a single trail near Reno is a big task without anyone knowing you. There's ample hiking to be found in the northern aspects of the Sierras (Truckee north to Lassen) that are often overlooked as the trails are not always in designated "Wilderness" areas but there are some really interesting lakes and streams you can hike to in these areas. All reachable within a 2 hour drive from Virginia Street. How committed are you? Cause with enough gumption going as far as Bishop on the East Side or anywhere in the Stanislaus National Forest from the West is a good commitment for weekend trips. Going north, Lassen really is a good enough northern point regardless of which way you approach.

If you're really really motivated you can go further. But that's already a lot of options. We haven't even touched on any of the opportunities in the Humboldt Toyabe going East from Reno - which is outside of the topic of this forum, but there are some neat places out in the middle of nowhere if you just look. All doable on a long weekend from Reno. Highways to look at trails from: CA 395, 108, 88, 89, 4, 50, 80, 49, 20, 70, 32, 36. There's far too many options for anyone to give blanket advice. From within Reno (literally starting within town) start with the Hunter Lake Trail; you can link up to the Mt Rose Summit trail and access the TRT from there, which really opens up possibilities.

[Bearwithme]

Hi. I’d just like to say thanks for the advice. I haven’t yet looked at building out this trip yet but hopefully I will in the next couple weeks.

We will have a 4x4 truck and pop up camper so we can drive to a trail head. I was just trying to keep travel short from Reno. My friend may have only 2-3 days or up to 3-5. When I know this I’ll be better able to plan.

My first thoughts were of Desolation wilderness but I am not much for crowds and I hear it’s as busy as the backcountry can get.

Thanks again for your thoughtful responses and I will make sure I post again when we get something planned.

[maverick]

https://www.highsierratopix.com/communi ... php?t=4205

[SSSdave]

Sierra areas north of Yosemite are much lower in elevation than those Bear Creek regions. Desolation is not the kind of wilderness for long hikes. Lakes with heavy fishing pressure and a few with good fish though spotty. Mokelumne just not many lakes as is volcanic geology. So really, you are going to drive further south than you want.

Would recommend the Hoover Wilderness up the West Walker out of nicely low for this summer, Leavitt Meadow at 7.2k along SR108. So from Reno, an easy drive south on US395. Being mostly dark volcanic down low while granite at headwaters lakes, it is more likely to melt out sooner. Dorothy is inside Yosemite as a bonus.

You ought to be able to reach these lakes that have had good fishing in the past. Fremont is just 8.3k so a good fall back to warm. But crossing the river this year may be difficult. Further west 9k to 9.5k has Cinko in the warmest orientation. There are wading stream fords so keeping watch on online remote gauges has value. Also Sentinel Hub satellite for the melt out. Could be a long mosquito season. Good summer to wear waterproof hiking boots as there will be lots of soggy places and snowmelt streams. I'll bet someone else reading this just had a light bulb switch on so may be able to get some early reports on this board before your trip. Have a plan B and C.

https://highsierratrails.com/cinko/cinko_trail.html

https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=38.2021 ... 7&z=15&b=t

https://www.google.com/search?q=cinko+l ... client=img