Tahoe Rim Trail: Fundraising and preparations

This year has been crazy for pretty much every single person on the planet.  Like many other Americans, John and I have been struggling with unemployment and cabin fever since March, but as the summer has wore on, some work has been coming in the door, and we have also become slightly more ambitious with hiking goals.

So, when a fellow thru-hiker and friend, Rob (trail name Donner) asked us if we would be interested in hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail with him in August, we knew we had to seriously consider it. The Tahoe Rim Trail is 165 miles long and does a loop around Lake Tahoe in California.

The idea of getting on an airplane fills me with dread, but once in California, this particular trail seems like a reasonably good idea because we could do the whole thing without hitchhiking or shuttling vehicles.  Because this trail is a loop, and goes right through (or very close to) two towns in order to resupply, it seemed like a fairly safe option given the current global pandemic.

Rob also pitched the idea of doing this hike as a fundraiser. Hiking for me has always been a selfish endeavor, and given everything that has happened, from the pandemic to the death of George Floyd and the massive protests worldwide, we felt like running away into the woods was not exactly a productive response.

The three of us have benefitted tremendously from our experiences in the outdoors and we decided to fundraise for an organization that would allow us to give those experiences to others.

The non-profit that we are fundraising for is called Big City Mountaineers, and it gets kids who would otherwise not afford to have outdoor experiences on week-long backpacking trips. These are kids that need this kind of experience the most: 85% of the kids that Big City Mountaineers take out are under the poverty line, and 15% have experienced homelessness.  Going on a backpacking trip will be a confidence boosting experience.

These expeditions will translate into life-long benefits for these children and teens! Selfishly, I also hope this creates new advocates for protecting our wilderness refuges.

We are trying to raise a lot of money, $5000 to be exact, enough to fund one whole Big City Mountaineers expedition. We have already exceeded $3,000, but we really need help to raise the rest.  Please visit the link today to learn more about the fundraising effort, this worthy organization, and our trip! Click here to donate and learn more! Even small donations are very helpful.

We will be posting updates on our trip on this blog, so feel free to follow along.   In preparation for our trip, we’ve purchased KN-95 masks (to make the plane flight less risky) and this weekend the three of us will be going on a shakedown backpacking trip locally to make sure we have everything we need, and to discuss logistics.

Please donate and support our cause! Thank you 🙂