Over the last 25 years I’ve spent a lot of time on the Tahoe Rim Trail. While the trail is as beautiful as the first time I set foot on it, the number of users has dramatically increased in the last five years. This has led to more litter, more trail damage, increased fire danger and conflicts between user groups (bikers, hikers, runners and equestrians). Tahoe Rim Trail Association, with support from Tahoe Fund’s Take Care Tahoe, has initiated a new program to try to help with the problem: Taskforce Trailhead. It brings volunteer trail lovers to trailheads throughout the Tahoe Basin to provide information on the trail.
This group reminded me of what could be the reason for increased impacts on our trails: a lack of understanding of the difference between a walk in a city park, where garbage cans and toilets are readily accessible, and a hike into the undeveloped national forest where you need to bring out what you brought in. It all comes back to treating the land with the respect it deserves.
Volunteers will pass on helpful tips such as where are the views and water, while also reminding users about Leave No Trace principals such as peeing and pooping etiquette for humans and dogs. Oh, don’t get me started about people who leave their dog’s poop bags. What are they thinking? That there is a poop fairy?
Leave No Trace Principles
- Plan ahead and prepare
- Travel and camp on durable surfaces
- Dispose of waste properly
- Leave what you find
- Minimize campfire impacts
- Respect wildlife
- Be considerate of other visitors
In addition, Taskforce Trailhead members will remind people to bring out whatever they take in, and perhaps, bring back some of the litter that other trail users have left out there. The approach will be to provide information gently to those who are interested in it, but not bombard folks as they head out on their dirt adventure.
Manning the trailhead
I decided to join Taskforce Trailhead and attended the first training session at the Rim Trail’s Brockway Summit Trailhead in June. I knew this was a busy section, but until you hang out at the trailhead for a few hours you don’t realize how truly busy it is.
Use Tim’s Tips for Pooping in the Woods
Read about the harmful impacts of dog poop bags
Explore Tim’s Top Tahoe Rim Trail Picks
Follow Tim’s Tips for practicing Leave No Trace
More than 100 people passed by our little booth in just a few hours. Users included several thru hikers who had been hiking for days and were carrying amazingly small packs for such a long trip, and a few segment hikers who were taking on the 20-mile section as a day hike. The overwhelming majority of people, however, were just out for their first fairly quick jaunt to Picnic Rock (or as I call it Flintstone Rocks) a 3-mile out and back.
While it was a bit shocking to see all those people, it was quite encouraging that for the most part, the hikers were willing to stop and chat and were appreciative of what we were trying to do. They understood the importance of picking up and bringing their dog’s poop out, of not leaving any trash and of not short cutting the trail. And as first-time hikers, they are just the people you want to reach with information about proper trail etiquette.
The only true concern I had was the large multi-generational group that didn’t know how far or where they were hiking and wanted to know where they might find a restroom on the trail. We explained that there were no restrooms and that it was important that if they had to go, to be sure and get off the trail and bring back out any toilet paper they might have used. The TP discussion initiated a look of shock from several of the hikers, while several others you could tell had already decided that they would rather pee in their pants than go in the woods.
This group reminded me of what could be the reason for increased impacts on our trails: a lack of understanding of the difference between a walk in a city park, where garbage cans and toilets are readily accessible, and a hike into the undeveloped national forest where you need to bring out what you brought in. It all comes back to treating the land with the respect it deserves.
The following week, I set out on my own to the Tahoe City trailhead. It was hot when I arrived at 9:30 a.m. and for the next few hours I saw more people heading back to their cars than heading out onto the trail. I’m sure they had visions of getting wet in Lake Tahoe dancing in their heads. Here, I saw a different mix than those at the Brockway trailhead. A passel of locals was heading back from quick runs, as well as a steady stream of mountain bikers who were too focused on getting over the rocky trail in one piece to stop and chat.
But I also ran into a fair share of groups that had never been on the trail before who appreciated all the information I could throw their way. The highlight for me were the thru-hikers just starting out their two-week journey around the entire trail, although after I was blabbing away for a while about where to find water and camp, I’m sure they were anxious to get hiking.
If you love Tahoe Rim Trail and would like to make a small contribution to keeping this precious resource beautiful, think about becoming a volunteer for Tahoe Rim Trail’s Take Care Taskforce Trailhead. Given what a tough year and a half it has been, spending a few hours talking about trails to a stream of hikers is quite encouraging. The people you meet are excited about being in nature and think it is awesome that there is a person at the trailhead passing on tips. And hopefully you will impart some good stuff into the noggins of a few folks who otherwise may have dropped their litter onto the trail.
Sustainable Truckee also has a Trail Host Ambassador program to patrol trailheads in Truckee. | takecaretahoe.org, tahoerimtrail.org, visittruckeetahoe.com
Tim Hauserman wrote the official guidebook to the Tahoe Rim Trail, “Tahoe Rim Trail: The Official Guide for Hikers, Mountain Bikers and Equestrians.”
