My brother and I are planning on hiking from Tuolumne to Tahoe. The roughly 187 mile trail appears to have little in the way of resupply. Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this without carrying 10 days worth of food?
Unfortunately we are not in hiking shape so doing more than about 18 miles a day would probably not be feasible.
jalanjalan
When we did it, we dug in a cache in the picnic ground at Sierra Pass.
Your other alternative is a mail drop to Kennedy Meadows Resort (209-965-3900 www.kennedymeadows.com), an 11 mile hitch west on highway 108.
A poor third alternative is a 30 mile hitch east to Bridgeport.
The Sonora Pass picnic grounds is a day use only area so you should be able to catch a hitch easily enough, especially towards the end of the day. Alternatively, you could always offer to hire a ride down to KM and back.
Bob Bankhead
Tuolumne to South Lake Tahoe is more like 150 miles. One option is to hitch from Sonora Pass to (I forget the town) from HWY 50(?).
Suge
There are two logical spots to resupply between Tuolomne and Tahoe. From the road crossing at Sonora Pass (76 miles north of Tuolomne Meadows) you can go either west 11 miles on route 108 to Kennedy Meadows Resort or east to the town of Bridgeport. Kennedy Meadows Resort (phone 209-965-3900) has cabins, a small general store, and a restaurant and bar. You cannot mail a maildrop package to the resort but must send it by UPS. Address it as follows: (your name), Kennedy Meadows Resort and Pack Station, 57 Miles East of Sonora on Hwy 108, Sonora CA 95370. Bridgeport is a much longer hitch but has more of a selection.
From Sonora Pass, your next logical resupply is Echo Lake Resort. It’s right on the trail, a couple of miles north of the U.S. 50 crossing, 76 miles north from Sonora Pass. It houses a post office and a small general store. You can send yourself a maildrop c/o your name, General Delivery, Echo Lake CA 95721.
Snowbird
I see this related thread to your TYT one.
To reiterate: we hiked from Meeks Bay to Tuolumne which was 185 miles, done in 15 days. It was a rather rugged but beautiful stretch.
We resupplied @ (1) Echo Lake (2) Lake Alpine and (3) Kennedy Meadows.
Thanks for the Sonora Pass correction, I had the name slightly wrong.
Snowbird’s info as usual is spot on.
Bluebearee
If Sonora Pass is too close, take the next step north to Ebbetts Pass, which is a fairly simple hitch to either Bear Valley to the west, or Markleeville to the east. I don’t know why this stop isn’t favored, because Grover Hot Springs SP is just outside of Markleeville and provides a nice hot spring respite which, after several hundred miles, might seem welcome.
I’m more a section hiker these days, but that would be my choice.
4wheelbob