Meeks Bay Trailhead Backpacker's Index

MAP

Backpacker Resources and Hiker Information

The Tahoe to Yosemite Trail

Two Previous Pages

Finding Meeks Bay & Introduction to Tahoe to Yosemite and Whitney Trails

Meeks Bay Resources

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Hitting the Trail

The first steps of any backpacking trip are exciting. Any Desolation Wilderness trip is an exciting backpacking trip.

Hiking the 181 miles Tahoe to Yosemite Trail is very exciting.

Hiking past Yosemite to Mount Whitney on the JMT begins a 40 day High Sierra experience you will never forget.

Forest on the ridge alongside Northwest edge of the Desolation Trail out of Meeks Bay Trail head.

Rough Mileages

Tahoe to Yosemite: 181 miles.

Tahoe to Yosemite (PCT): 172 miles.

Tahoe to Whitney: 353 miles minimum, 470 miles max, depending on route.

(more below)

A successful long distance backpacking trip is built on the foundation of a series of short backpacking trips. Each of these short trips builds up both your conceptual and physical skills.

Every section of this guide is full of short and medium distance backpacking in-and-out trips, trail segments from point "A" to point "B,"and longer backpacking loops that can be crafted using lengths of the Tahoe to Yosemite and Pacific Crest Trails.

Don't start with a long, high, hard backpacking trip. Pick a short length of trail or a loop to shake the cobwebs out of your mind, body, and gear. Then hike a medium distance trip.

Once you have a handle on what you are looking at, how your body can take it, and what you need to keep yourself warm, dry, and well fed you are ready for the long trails.

Prior to getting started on the long trails you have a number of External and Internal issues to settle.

By external issues I mean the conceptual framework holding your trip plan together. External issues are your specific route, miles per day, days between resupply and rest. External issues are the logic of your trip plan against the very real physical realities of your trip.

Internal issues are the tools you will physically and personally rely on to execute your External plan. Your level of fitness, skills, and gearing determine if your plan is valid. These are the personal realities of your trip.

Your planning and your ability to execute you plan must be reasonably close.

Pain, injury, and failure results when your internal and external requirements fail to match.

The more pain you will experience on the trail, the less you will see, and even less will you understand.

This pain will condition your experience towards dreadful.

External Issues

Plan:

Route

Distance

Pace

Permits

Resupply

Internal Issues

Fitness

Food

Skills

Gear Selection

Gear

Maps

Meeks Bay Trail Head

6239 feet of elevation.

Above: Looking Southwest from the gate at the Meeks Bay Trailhead. To your Right you can see the descending ridge coming down towards lake level. To your Left you have a dry meadow that is being filled in by lodge pole pines.

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Meeks Bay Traihead

Meeks Bay Traihead is the Northernmost trail head into the Desolation Wilderness.

Meeks Bay is an excellent trail head for local day hikes, short backpacking trips into, or across the Desolation Wilderness.

The Meeks Bay to Echo Lake Trailhead backpacking trip is 30.71 miles.

Meeks Bay is the start point of the Classic Tahoe to Yosemite Trail.

This Trail Guide is set-up for long-distance backpacking, but you can easily use it to craft medium and short distance trips.

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Resources for your Trip

Planning your local hike or backpacking trip into the Desolation Wilderness, or as part of your longer trip down the Crest trails will be aided by:

Desolation Wilderness information

Maps

Mileages and Elevations

Resupply

Weather

Information for Trip Planning

Mileage Information

Let's get some context on the main backpacking routes and mileages in the Northern Sierras heading South from Lake Tahoe to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite: The Tahoe to Yosemite and Pacific Crest Trails.

The TYT and PCT routes run South together through the Tahoe Basin from Middle Velma Lake to the Carson Gap, where the trails divide and exit the Tahoe Basin.

From the Carson Gap the routes split with the PCT taking a route along the Eastern Flank of the Sierra Crest while the TYT turns West.

Meeks Bay Trailhead to Echo Summit

30.71 miles South from Meeks Bay to Echo Summit

Meeks Bay to Echo Summit Maps

Meeks Bay to Echo Summit Miles and Elevations

Echo Summit to Carson Pass

Carson Pass is 12 miles South of Echo Summit on the PCT/TY/TRT Trails

Carson Pass is 42.71 miles South of Meeks Bay on the Tahoe to Yosemite Trail/PCT Trails

To the North of Carson Pass at the Carson Gap the PCT and TYT routes divide.

Echo Summit to Carson Pass Map

Echo Summit to Carson Pass Miles and Elevations

Carson Pass-Gap

The PCT & TYT routes Diverge

Departing the Lake Tahoe Basin Southbound marks the division of the PCT and TYT routes.

Trail Guide Index: PCT & TYT at the Carson Gap

Carson Pass to Ebbetts Pass

The Pacific Crest Trail

Into The Mokelumne Wilderness of the Toiyabe National Forest

Carson Pass is 26.78 miles North of Ebbetts Pass on the PCT

Carson Pass is 56.22 miles North of Sonora Pass on the PCT

Carson Pass is 130.02 Miles North of Tuolumne Meadows on the PCT

Meeks Bay to Tuolumne Meadows following the PCT route spans 172.73 miles

Carson Pass to Ebbetts Pass Maps

Carson Pass to Ebbetts Pass Miles and Elevations

Pacific Crest Trail

Section Mileages from Tahoe to Yosemite

Meeks Bay to Echo Summit: 30.71 miles

Echo Summit to Carson Pass: 12 miles

Carson Pass to Ebbetts Pass: 26.78 miles

Ebbetts Pass to Sonora Pass: 29.44 miles

Sonora Pass to Tuolumne Meadows: 73.8 miles

Meeks Bay to Tuolumne Meadows following the PCT route spans 172.73 miles

Carson Gap to Lake Alpine

The Tahoe to Yosemite Trail

Into The Mokelumne Wilderness of the EL Dorado National Forest

21.41 miles South from the Carson Gap to Lake Alpine on the TYT

Into The Carson Iceberg Wilderness of the Stanislaus NF

34.64 miles South from Lake Alpine to Saint Marys Pass on the TYT

Into The Emigrant Wilderness of the Stanislaus NF, then Yosemite

82.24 miles South from Kennedy Meadows to Tuolumne Meadows on the TYT

Meeks Bay to Tuolumne Meadows following the TYT route spans 181 miles

Carson Pass to Lake Alpine map

Carson Pass to Lake Alpine mileages and elevations

Last Page: finding Meeks Bay Trail Head     

South: Desolation trail junction

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Meeks Bay Trailhead

Let's get Started!

Considerations on planning your trip

The Hiking Plan

Resupply Plan

If you are pulling a trip down the long trails down to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite, you've already figured out your resupply plan. You resupply plan is your statement about your assumptions and capacities.

Resupply Planning

Resupply Points

Days between Resupply Points

You've worked out how many days it will take you to hike from Meeks Bay to the Echo Lake Chalet, on to the Lake Alpine Lodge, and finally to our last resupply point North of Tuolumne Meadows at Kennedy Meadows Pack Station.

Miles Per Day

This means you now know how many miles a day you are going to have to hike each day, which additionally given you a good idea of about where you are going to camp each night, which gives you a pretty good idea of how many nights it will take you to get to each of your resupply points.

Calories Per Day

Knowing the number of days of hiking between resupply points allows you to plan your initial food and resupply package requirements. How many calories a day you need, and how much these calories weigh are going to determine how much your food weighs.

Days Off

You should also consider the number of days off you will need along the way, and how many days you can hike before you need a day off. The normal work week is five days on, two days off. Days off should be coordinated with beautiful locations along the trail. But, planning is an abstraction concerning you capacities that does not express the raw physicality of the backpacking experience.

Though backpacking is a beautiful experience, it demands direct physical engagement with difficult terrain that will tax every physical system in your body. It is vital that your estimate of your capacities can support your hiking plan.

Don't think that you will "magically" adjust to your expectations and requirements.

Be Realistic

Each step you take from the trailhead is taking you further from our social infrastructure, from help and support. The pains and dangers of backpacking are just as real as the pleasures backpacking will bring you.

Which you are going to experience depends on the accuracy of your hiking plan's reflection of your capabilities, and is going to determine the balance between pleasure and pain. So be reasonable.

A reasoned approach to the physical demands of backpacking will minimize the dangers of exhaustion, injury, and unnecessary suffering on the trail. A reasonable approach demands physical preparation prior to backpacking, and a good hiking plan on the trail that reasonably reflects your capacities, your skills, and your level of fitness.

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Background Information

Hours Per Day/Miles Per Hour

Consider that the length of the effective hiking day during the month of July is 14 and 3/4 hours. Consider holding a 2 mph average over those 14 and 3/4 hours. That's 29.5 miles. Yeah, sure. Now let's be reasonable.

The basic consideration about the length of your hiking day is your base level of fitness. Few people can hit the trail and do 2 mph for almost 15 hours on a flat surface, let alone through high angle and high altitude mountains with a heavy pack, day after day.

Stay Within Yourself

You must not only stay within your physical capacities, you also must stay within your psychological limits. Though challenging yourself is fun, the physical pain of backpacking should not be greater than the pleasure. This is a subjective measure, but it is really important to get the balance between pain and pleasure right. This will set the overall tone of your trip.

Understanding these factors will determine the length of your hiking day at the start of the trip, the mileage you are capable of covering during those hours, and the number of days you can comfortably repeat this mileage and daily time under pack on the trail.

I strongly recommend that you "stay within" yourself, especially during the first few days of a long duration high mileage trip. It is much preferable to start slow and get stronger and faster on the trail than it is to start fast and fade.

Start Smart-Finish Strong

Pushing hard on the first days of a backpacking trip is common among aggressive males, and often results in debilitating blisters, sore muscles and strains, and lots of unnecessary pain. Even if you are very strong and capable of instant high mileages, it is very wise to bring yourself up to full exertion slowly.

You are shooting for repeatable performance over many days consisting of many miles each day. You will find that this requires adjustments of various factors to suit the circumstances.

Daily Plan

First is the amount of daily trail time. I wake earlier, and hike later in the day, as I head down the trail. My time on the trail increases every day I am on the trail.

Second is lunch and break times. Long days with high mileage requires an excellent daily trail plan. My typical Summer day includes two hour-long lunch breaks, with at least three additional "take off the pack" breaks. One lunch consists of a cold lunch of cheese and crackers, and a wide variety of snacks. Lunch two consists of a hot lunch of ramen or soup, coffee, and a wide variety of snacks. That's 3 and a half hours of breaks per day, over the length of a 14 3/4 hour day.

I look at the map each morning, check the locations of the major climbs, access to water, the best vistas and overlooks, and try to time my breaks advantageously to enjoy the best combinations of these features. In any case, I always stop to enjoy the magnificent views and scenery, and to meet cool people.

You've got to determine the proper balance between work, rest, food, and mileage for you. Your plan for daily mileage and the number days between resupply points should reflect a balance that suits you physically as well as aesthetically.

Give yourself the time to enjoy the environment you are hiking through.

The Hiking Plan is Finished in the Gym and Jogging Trail

So far, my hiking plan brings me down to 11.5 hours of trail time per day. At 2 mph we are looking at 23 miles per day. Now that's more like it. But that would still be a crazy figure to base the first days of my trip plan on. I will be so tired that I won't have any fun at all.

Unless I've been running 7 miles through hills every other day for a few months, while pursuing a healthy weight-training program. In that case I should hit the high mileage quickly. Each degradation in preparatory fitness degrades my initial mileage capability. The worse shape I'm in, the longer it takes to make high mileage on the trail. Or the more it hurts. Or both!

You must honestly access your level of fitness and fit it into a hiking plan that is sustainable over the time and distance of your trip.

It is likely you will have to plan your daily mileage to start with a short work day, and increase the length of your hiking day and hiking speed as you and your body adjust to high elevation, a heavy load, and long miles.

And a lighter pack. Consuming a day's food lightens my pack each day by 2 to 3 pounds.

More on Planning

Considering mileage, food, and physicality

Comments?

Preparation and Planning Sections under Construction

Trail Guide

Backpacker's Forum

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Onward!

Next Trail Guide Page South: Desolation trail junction

Previous Trail Guide Page: Finding Meeks Bay Trail Head

The First Trail Guide Page: Resources at Meeks Bay Trail Head

This trail segment's Topo hiking map

Meeks Bay to Lake Genevieve

The trail guide pages move North and South down the Successive Tahoe to Yosemite, Pacific Crest, and John Muir Trails.

The maps allow greater flexibility. Each map has dots that link to the trail guide page for that position.

The miles and elevations pages are the same, with each location linked to that specific trail guide page.

These features allow you to easily check out specific locations on the trail while quickly moving from trail section to trail section.

Hike North

Meeks Bay Trailhead

Hike South

1st Desolation Trail Junction