Tahoe Rim Trail Association Enjoys Busy Summer
December 28, 2022 | Member Submitted
Originally published in the Tahoe Daily Tribune on 12/23/22. View the original article here.
Written by Morgan Steel. Photos provided by Tahoe Rim Trail Association.
Fortunately, the sun rises early in the summer. At the Tahoe Rim Trail Association, we soak it up and maximize each precious moment of sunny smoke-free skies.
Our early mornings are a burst of activity. At the office, tools are loaded and coolers of drinks are prepped as the work truck heads off to one of several weekly workdays to meet enthusiastic volunteers ready to dig into maintaining the Tahoe Rim Trail’s 200-mile system.
Downstairs at our gear storage, our dedicated youth programs instructors are wrangling the newest crop of preteens, ready to turn in their phones for backpacks. They’ll spend the next four days exploring Tahoe’s trails on their Youth Backcountry Camp.
West of our office out in Desolation Wilderness, our backcountry trail crew of staff and volunteers are packing up camp for the day and preparing to head towards Phipps Creek to finish a tread maintenance project. Sixty some trail miles away, our intrepid guided Thru Hike turns south from Mt. Rose on the tail end of their 15-day journey around the TRT.
To cap off this busy day, our Taskforce Trailhead crew is setting up shop at Van Sickle Bi-State Park to spend the morning greeting trail users and providing trail information and essential tips on trail etiquette.
As the sun makes its languid journey east to west, TRTA staff, participants, and volunteers make their mark on the trail ensuring a world-class experience for trail users today and in the future and inspiring others to protect this incredible resource in the Tahoe Basin. Summers on the Tahoe Rim Trail are a blur of activity, and 2022 has been another productive year for the Tahoe Rim Trail Association. Specifically, we’ve
• Hosted more than 60 public workdays on the trail
• Cleared over 400 down trees from the trail corridor
• Guided 326 new Tahoe Rim Trail advocates on the trail
• Implemented 20 trailhead outreach events
• Provided backpacking trips to 195 youth, 73% of which were provided on scholarship
• Reopened and repaired sections of trail closed due to recent fires
• Protected essential Peregrine Falcon habitat
• Completed a 1.3-mile reroute of the trail northeast of Tahoe City
• Assessed and maintained over 150 miles of trail
• Planned major trail improvement projects for upcoming seasons,
• Received the incredible support of over 400 volunteers who have provided more than 17,500 hours of service to recreation in the Tahoe Basin.
Morgan Steele is executive director for the Tahoe Rim Trail Association.