What
Hiking the unified routes of the Tahoe to Yosemite Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Tahoe Rim Trail South through the Echo Summit Trailhead into the Meiss Country Roadless Area.

Hiking South
After crossing the footbridge 1.41 miles South of Echo Summit we begin climbing, winding our way up, around, and through massive granite formations shrouded in deep forest that make up the East flank of the sheer granite gorge we are entering.

This is not the "wide-open" granite terrain of the Desolation Wilderness. Not at all.

We are climbing 1120 feet of elevation over the next 1.48 miles from the bridge to the highpoint (8760 feet) of this bit of trail up the gorge under Peak 8905. This next segment rates as an Intermediate-1 trail with bits of H-3 difficulty thrown in for good measure.

Character of the Terrain
The trail climbing South of Echo Summit past the footbridge is very "closed-in," with most hopes of long views subdued by the jagged sheer terrain and dense forests in and around the gorge.
We note we are hiking Southwest up along the East flank of a narrow cut in the terrain bringing us higher and deeper into the steepening gorge along the "inside" route, opposite the sheer cliffs dropping into Christmas Valley on the East flank of this same arm of the ridge.

Thus our position climbing through this gorge/ravine is only going to give us little slices of fragmentary views we can get glimpses of to our Northeast, at Lake Tahoe, through narrow breaks in the forest and rock cover as the terrain briefly opens-up and quickly closes-in around us as we climb.
We find an exception where our trail turns East out of the gorge through a gap in the top of the ridge arm to a very comfortable and well-used overview/break spot about halfway up along our climb.
I've noted on the map where I believe the top of this segment of the trail has been re-routed around the outside of the ridgetop.
Nonetheless, we'll stop and take it all in from there, and use the perspective these clear views of our surrounding terrain our break spot gives us to better situate ourselves in context with the landmarks decorating the South end of the Tahoe Basin.

Ahhhh!
This close-in terrain South of Echo Summit has a unique feel and appeal all its own. There is a quiet, muffled beauty of close rock and forest here, accented by a palatable pressure generated by close-in spaces. We get a very different "feel" here when compared against the almost vacuum-like feel we experienced hiking across the wide-open grandeur of the expansive exposed granite terrain across much of Desolation Wilderness.

Run yourself through these divergent "open" and "closed" environments, through Desolation Wilderness and Meiss Country in quick succession, to better take note of the very different "feel" each environment induces.
My take on these shifting "feelings" generated by shifting environments is that every environment induces humans to take up the best perspective and practices necessary to deal with the practical requirements of that particular environment.

We experience this automatic internal environmental adjustment as a change in how our perception actually "feels." The mechanisms of this adjustments are spread across and even below the range of our human perceptions.
Important environmental information is gleaned from our fundamental abilities to sense pressure, humidity, scent, and temperature changes. More subtle and sophisticated are the psychological shifts in awareness and attitude accompanying changes in the environment. Here in this close-in gorge our perception is registering the great shift in environments from Desolation to Meiss Country, which is stimulating our senses.

Things have changed. We are watchful, almost nervous trading in the security of long views for the security of close-in cover. Things have changed.

We can feel reality consolidate and close in around us as we shift from the wide open spaces of Desolation Wilderness into the narrowing confines of the bottom end of the Tahoe Basin.

To our West-Northwest across the gorge we can see a series of granite ridge-arms descending off the rim of the Tahoe Basin above and beyond the limits of our gorge, which here is also part of the East flank of the Sierra Crestline. This presents us with views of walls of majestic granite emerging out of their dense forest coverage as granite waves rising out of a rough green ocean of trees, as seen in the image above. Surf's Up!

Studying the map shows how we are hiking South and Southwest following the cuts in the granite terrain up this tight little gorge with its set of cascading nested flats under Peak 8905. About halfway up we can see where we turn East out of the gorge following the view through the ridgetop gap into a magnificent overview-break spot.

Bottom of the Basin
Our trail is in fact heading away from Lake Tahoe, pointing South and Southwest to follow the convoluted curve of the Sierra Crest wrapping around the the Southwestern-most bottom end of the Tahoe Basin.
Hiking our first climb over the bottom of the low ridge arm separating Echo Summit from Frog Lake brought us into the watershed of the South Upper Truckee draining the South end of the Tahoe Basin.

Hiking over the Shoulder of Peak 8905 brings us back onto the Western Flank for a short distance, until we begin straddling the Crest of the Tahoe Rim South to the point we turn decisively back into the Tahoe Watershed a short distance South of the Schneiders Camp trail junction.

At that point we are entering the very Southernmost end of the Tahoe Basin where we begin curving with the bottom of the U-shape Christmas Valley, which consists of the Sierra and Carson Ranges running parallel to each other before intersecting at the bottom of the "U" at Carson Gap.
Looking East from the few vantage points we have South of Echo Summit climbing to Peak 8905 we find we are gazing across Christmas Valley at the volcanic features decorating the very Southern end of the Carson Range.

South Upper Truckee River
Meiss Meadow is the Southernmost confluence point of the watershed draining the mountains wrapping around "bottom of the U," which is the South end of the Tahoe Basin.
Meiss Meadow is a shelf below the mountaintops that collects all the runoff from these converging mountain ranges wrapping around the South end of the Tahoe Basin.

The headwaters branch of the South Upper Truckee feeding Meiss Meadow bisects the meadow where it flows out of the ravine it cut in the Southernmost end of the Tahoe Basin from its Source in the Carson Gap.

That upper slash of the South Upper Truckee reaching up to the top of the Tahoe Rim in the bottom end of the Tahoe Basin is the natural feature our combined TYT-PCT follows out the South end of the Tahoe Basin.

Meiss Meadow is the collection point for the massive runoff from the half-circle of Tahoe Rim Mountains rising above the meadow and wrapping around the South end of the Tahoe Basin on either side of the Carson Gap. Meiss Meadow is quite a pretty scene during Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.

The mountains running Northeast from Carson Gap making up the mountains wrapping around the East Shore of Lake Tahoe are in the Carson Range. The mountains running Northwest from Carson Gap are part of the Sierra Range.
Further down-river and down-mountain below Meiss Meadow a complex network of creeks and tributaries draining length, width, and heights of the narrow U-shaped Christmas Valley all flow down into the South Upper Truckee, through the township of Meyers, and into Lake Tahoe just beyond.

From our current position just a couple of miles South of the Echo Summit Trailhead we can see granite-walled ridge arms rising to our West up to the Sierra Crestline above us, capping this segment of the Western Wall of the Tahoe Basin running down to the Carson Gap.

Turning East gives us a view, from the places that is possible, across Christmas Valley of the earthy burnt red volcanic terrain and features that characterize the majority of the Carson Range. We have taken note of the more volcanic, barren, and sage covered terrain making up the Eastern Range wrapping around Lake Tahoe Basin we have observed since we started hiking South across Desolation Wilderness.
(Views East & Southeast open up on the next page).

Out of the Tahoe Basin
Our still unified Southbound TYT and PCT routes exit the Tahoe Basin through the Carson Gap that I identify as being the point where the Carson and Sierra Mountain Ranges converge at the Southernmost end of the Lake Tahoe Basin.

From the Carson Gap the Southbound PCT points itself Southeast towards Carson Pass where hikers on the Tahoe to Yosemite Trail encounter the first of three potential trails pointing them Southwest along the Tahoe to Yosemite Trail.
We'll either select one of three potential routes to get from the Carson Gap to the top of Round Top and the Sisters, or we will continue South on the PCT through Carson Pass.

Below our current position here, a bit South of Echo Summit, sits Christmas Valley, or Lake Valley as it was known in earlier days. The South Upper Truckee runs South to North through Christmas Valley bringing its collected runoff out of the Southernmost end of the Tahoe Basin to the Lake.

Expansive Overlooks and Obstructed Views
This terrain offers many excellent short-views of nearby sheer rock and dense forest, and every now and then a long view Northeast of Lake Tahoe or a brief glimpse East into and across Christmas Valley at the bottom of the Carson Range through trees and terrain.

Fantastic granite walls rise towards the top of the Tahoe Rim drainage to our West. Fantastic terrain. But, this is a very different kind of fantastic than we experienced in Desolation Wilderness.
It is interesting that we are already experiencing a very wide range of wilderness experiences, of terrains and topography across a small number of miles, and we are just getting started exploring the North Sierra!

Cool Break Spot Coming Up
There's a spot further down the trail, a little over halfway up the climb bringing us over Peak 8905, where we can actually see Round Top sitting to our South outside of the Tahoe Basin, and get a good look up, down, and across Christmas Valley giving us some good looks at the topographical features of South end of the Tahoe Basin.

On the majority of the trail between the Frog Pond trail junction and the top of Peak 8905 above the Sayles Canyon trail junction, we are deep within a complex forest and rock terrain. And we are climbing.

Very Nice.

Comments-questions-experiences in here?

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