Rubicon was amazing, we went in at Ice House Rd via Loon Lake, came out at Tahoma with one night camping at Buck Island. It was everything I imagined, only better. Stunning views obstacle after obstacle it never ended until it was over.
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Great hike. Nicely shaded the first two miles as you hike along Caples Lake. The dogs loved running in and out of the water. No worries about them overheating. The climbing starts around 2.5 miles in, but not strenuous at all. Emigrant Lake is beautiful. The views are definitely worth it.
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Great hike with some amazing views. The trail can be challenging with loose debris and downed trees so watch your step.
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Super lovely day, light wind and warmed up by noon. Clear view of Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Peak, Lake Aloha etc
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Great hike through granite and tree covering. Big rock outcroppings surround you as you travel North to South. Try coming in spring when the snow melts. Mud lake has nice camping in 3 sites.
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Great hike out the backside of Kirkwood Resort. Encountered some snow that was difficult to navigate. Temperatures were very pleasant!
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Great hike. This was my fourth time to the top.. the previous 3 times I was obviously in much better condition as I hadn’t remembered it being quite as difficult as is was this time around. As of 7-23-23 there are a couple of snow drifts to navigate around but nothing worth worrying about if your using GIA just use the app to easily navigate around them. They should be gone in another week or two… This was the first time for me after the fire so I was pretty surprised at the damage the fire had done.. I would recommend doing this hike if your in good shape however I am currently not and it was a long day but still fine.
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This trail is great bang for your buck (views for your mile). Sweeping views North to Pyramid Peak, and back East to Silver Lake. The lake itself is small but beautiful, surrounded by a granite bowl, and in early July, it had a tall but narrow waterfall feeding it.
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This trail is great bang for your buck (views for your mile). Sweeping views North to Pyramid Peak, and back East to Silver Lake. The lake itself is small but beautiful, surrounded by a granite bowl, and in early July, it had a tall but narrow waterfall feeding it.
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This trail is great bang for your buck (views for your mile). Sweeping views North to Pyramid Peak, and back East to Silver Lake. The lake itself is small but beautiful, surrounded by a granite bowl, and in early July, it had a tall but narrow waterfall feeding it.
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This is not a hiking trail, but a paved public road. It’s also not one-way, but a two-way road, passable via standard car, etc. It is prone to closure due to storm damage so check status before you plan a trip using this road.
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One of the best Jeep Trails along the coast of Lake Tahoe, there were some parts with steep inclines that were challenging, and some parts with steep stairs due to boulders, Overall loved the experience, and found some good campsites that we camped in on our Jeep Overland.
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Beautiful hike, nice ups and downs with flats for the dogs- burned out from caldor but the fireweed is 🔥🔥
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Excellent hike, great scenery and the trail is well maintained- lots of water for dogs, lakes are killer. Ascent to round mtn is not dog friendly unless it’s part mountain goat 🤘
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Beautiful hike, nice climb, shaded the majority of the way- perfect swimming
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You already know it's a challenging climb - 2800 feet to Ralston Peak elev 9239. You probably already know this was an area heavily impacted by the Caldor burn in 2021. So the hike is a great opportunity to get up-close-and-personal with the impact of the burn.
The early part of the hike goes through a very hot area of the burn. The trees are turned into blackened matchsticks, and the ground is completely scorched. After about a half mile or so, you transition into more typical forest burn - scorched trees still sporting brown needles, and some deerbrush remaining on the ground, with some ground plants now returning.
There's a lot of work going on in the Hwy 50 corridor - tree removal and ongoing work at Sierra at Tahoe. Through the first half of the hike, you may hear the sounds of heavy machinery working. (I hiked on a weekday.) The hike provides great views of the work happening at Sierra at Tahoe. The entire West Bowl is now pretty much denuded of trees - this will change the skiing experience considerably: there will be more skiing lines, and also more view lines into Desolation wilderness. But I digress.
For the second part of the hike, you're now climbing in earnest. You move up and away from the 50 corridor, and now you're looking *down* on the ski area. There's a brief section where you overlook the cut where horsetail falls is, but sadly no view of the falls itself, which I was hoping for on this hike.
Then it's up and the final scramble to the summit. The trail is scantily marked, but using your trail-finding skills you should be able to keep to the trail line without much trouble. Not too much in the way of loose rock, and I only needed to use my hands once or twice.
At the summit you're rewarded with an expansive view of Desolation Wilderness, Pyramid Peak, Mt. Tallac, and of course Tahoe itself.
Now that it's shoulder season, there's not much traffic on the trail. I saw one other hiker the entire way, and the signature book at the peak only collected four or five names on Sunday.
Difficult, but not extreme.
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Difficult but doable trail. The trail is ashy most of the way up, from last year’s fires, so be prepared to be covered in dirt and ash. The trail gets kind of sketchy halfway up, but cairns help mark the way. The best part is at the peak where there’s some scrambling involved. Overall a great hike.
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Great views of Loon Lake. Trail was very well maintained. Started at the South end of the boat in campground over one ridge, then some cross country to Spider lake .
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Ran the trail over the course of 4 days. Let me start by saying this is one of the most scenic and fun trails I’ve ever run. I will follow that up by saying this trail is absolutely no joke and will test your driving skills and equipment. Would do again, maybe just not anytime soon
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Great pre JMT training. Also fun to chat with NOBO PCT era. But darn was it freezing the one night I camped at Showers Lake. Barely slept. I probably should have heated water and put my water bottle under my quilt.
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Lovely. trail head parking filled by 10:30 and this was mid week. But felt like I had the trail to myself, until the lake itself. Very hot day so shade and creek much appreciated along the way, tho’ creek low everywhere and dry at spots
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This is a great hike for getting elevation in without many miles, especially if you’re training for larger climbs. Trail is easy to follow and has superb 360 view. Can even see Lake Tahoe—wasn’t sure that would be possible. Poles are highly recommended especially for short section of rocks near the top.
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This is a challenging hike! Very much so! The view is nice, but it is best and worth it at the top.
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One of the only places to get proper enduro riding in NorCal.
Keep the rubber side down brothers and sisters.
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Saturday November 21,2020. I am not sure if conditions could of been much better today. This was my first time to this area and man what a treat! Can’t recommend it enough. Awesome trails!
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Great for beginner wheeling...was my first “big” trail with obstacles ...probably not for the stock 4x4, definitely need to be lifted with bigger tires and air down...we ran it south from 50 to 88. The beginning and middle were hardest, the latter part towards 88 was easy. Pops out at Caples, and there’s a little single pump gas station with air right around the corner on 88 going toward Kirkwood. Was able to air up even though they were closed. A couple of medium/hard rock crawling areas, ran into a few rigs that took awhile to navigate both. But a real fun trail with great spots to stop off for lunch and views. Just remember to leave it better than you found it please (found ourselves picking up a lot of trash from others).
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Beautiful Fall hike. Gentle hike with a few ups and downs. Lakes and peaks
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July run through the Rubicon from Joon Lake to Rubicon Springs. Tough trail, lots of bangs and scraping.
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Good hike. Pretty easy to find. Not overly crowded which is hard to find during the pandemic.
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Be careful, I had a stock jeep and there was one point in the trail that it requires a spotter with a really good line and all the ground clearance I had to get past. Besides that the rest of the trail was decent
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Crowded parking area for a weekday. Welcome to Covid-19 summer time. Went up the old trail and had some difficulty staying on it and also could use some trail maintenance around a few dead falls. There were a few people at the lake but everyone was respectful so it remand peaceful. Hiked down the official trail on the way back to the trailhead.
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Great wildflowers! Hardly anyone here except got every crowed when you get to the emigrant lake trail. Turned around because it was too busy.
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First time I hiked this route. It has spectacular views of three different basins which are walled with amazing volcanic rock formations.
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One of the best reasons to like this trail is that it’s so remote, most people never make it out this far. You have to start by crossing the Hell Hole Reservoir dam, so be prepared that they may be doing work on the dam making it impassable.
The trail parallels the shore of the reservoir on the south side. It takes ascents and descents along the hillside as it makes its way toward the head of the reservoir. About five miles from the locked gate, you’ll come to a semi-improved camp near the shore. There are about 8-10 campsites with picnic tables and fire pits. They also have old USFS stoves, but most are in disrepair and are not functional. Permits are not required, so camps are first come, first serve. Note that the camp is popular for fisherman traveling by boat so weekends may get crowded.
Beyond the camp, I found that the trail petered out after about a mile. There’s a way to get to the headwaters of the Rubicon River, but I couldn’t find it.
The entire area is characterized by granite outcrops, sub-alpine wildflowers and tall cedars and pines. There are reports of a lot of rattlesnakes in the area but I didn’t see any. Poison oak is present on the trail; uncharacteristic for this elevation. Also, there’s plenty of evidence of bears in the area. Caution should be taken.
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Absolutely destroyed me!! Lol but so worth it! The views from the summit are amazing!!
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Good easy to moderate hike. Trail parallels the creek and has lots of cool pools or places to take in the scenery.
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I’ve been on this trail quite a few times over the years. But this is my first hike on this trail in over two years. And it is DEFINITELY a nice one that brings me back. As well, it is a fairly challenging trail. This makes it good training for other climbs elsewhere (think Shasta and Whitney), as well as a good hike for general fitness.
One thing I DID notice this go-around is that some work has been done on some sections of this trail since my last hike here. Specifically, steps have been made at some of the steeper sections. This helps to make the descent a whole lot less treacherous.
As of May 25, there is still snow on the ground for around the last half mile and 400 vertical feet of climbing. But this is nothing too serious. It can easily be negotiated even without microspikes. There are no dangerous icy spots. And post holing is not too much of an issue. You sink into the snow just enough to make coming down safe and relatively speedy.
On the other hand, if you REALLY don’t want to hike on snow, I suspect that this part of the trail will be largely (if not entirely) clear within the next two weeks. If not, hiking on snow should at least be avoidable.
So come on out and hike! This is one you won’t regret.
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This was a trip along Comsunes Mine Road and and a partial run of Plummer Ridge.
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Started from the Horsetail Falls parking lot, followed the Horsetail trail to its end before turning left to scramble up the class 3 granite. Then made another left turn to get to follow the contour lines to climb the ridge towards Pyramid Peak. Reached the Summit above the large boulder field, scrambled back down and hiked out by Rocky Creek to Hwy 50 before walking back along the 50 to the car. Took us just under 11 hours.
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Water flowing everywhere over slabs of granite with mesmerizing patterns. The trail isn’t on most maps so it’s easy to miss. Best to go when the snow is melting or a couple days after a rain.
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Short and sweet. We swam in the lake. Looks like a nice place to camp. I think you get much bang for you buck in terms of a short hike but feeling like you're remote and getting a good dose of nature.
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Great hike, going to Winamucca Lake first is an easier accent than going to Round Top first. Next time we will add 4th of July Lake, adding 3 miles and another 1200 feet of elevation gain to theb hike.
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Have always wanted to do this hike. Thought by now the snow would have been melted - No! Approached base from Winnamucca Lake side. Loose lava on way to top. Beautiful views!
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This loop is for enduro dirt bike riding at Georgetown OHV. A very good venue with a wide variety of trail types. Some very technical sections.
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Went looking for noservice4wd. Got lost for a bit but found them at the end near hell hole lake.
Hit giant mud hole and got some rocks stuck in front left wheel and brakes.
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Hard to get to the trail head, too many wineries offering excuses to bail out on the hike. Trail has had minimal maintenance so you have to step over or under some downed trees but it doesn’t require much effort. Lots of old railroad ties makes you wonder about the history of the area. Nice trail for the dogs with a couple of water crossings in May that will probably dry up in the summer but it ends with Steely Creek at the end. A great picnic spot.
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This is a short hike with a lot of vertical. 3.2 miles and 4000ft straight up. There is no trailhead and you have to park on the south side of 50 and run up the bank on the north side then pick up one of the several use trails going uphill. There are few views going up the canyon until you climb up onto the ridge at mile approx 2.5 and then the views are beautiful. North easterlies of 10-20mph had blown away the smoke from the deadly Camp fire and there was no indication of smoke or fire. The last 250 vertical is all big boulder Class 2, and does not work for dogs. Views on top were great. Big Lake Aloha below looked empty with just a few ponds. I was hoping for a way down there so I could make a one way out to Lake Echo next year but I guess that is not so easy. All told a good workout. Took me and my daughter 5 hours out and back.
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