Intro to Sierras, Mont Tallac

Stats:

Roundtrip: 9.9 miles
Gain: 3,266′
Summit:9712′
Temperature: 60-70F
Trail & Map View Here.

It’s been literally 1 year since I properly hiked. Living in SF is not convenient for reaching good peaks in a day. I know that when you talk to people you hear different things. They all think that there is so much to do around SF. Yes and no. If you like nature, yes, you can get in 30 mins in the nature. But if you care about a big mountain with at least 3000ft elevation gain, then you have to drive 3-4h. Which is not a day thing, unless you want to fall asleep driving back!

However, if you want to go away for a few days, then an entire different universe opens up! The Sierras are absolutely amazing!

Last weekend we went for a few days and embarked on a few hikes. The hikes start at very high altitude, above 6-7000ft. Good part is that you have great views, and bad part is that it takes a while to get acclimatize. But I loved the challenge of the latter. Although I am super out of shape, I enjoyed a lot the comeback and I’m super excited to start the training and go back up! Camping in the car is not such a bad idea giving the benefits.

Mount Tallac

We started with Mount Tallac. 9.9mi round trip. 9,712′ alt. 3200 ft el gain.

The hike starts at 6,446 ft and it gains 3200 ft. All this is fine if you are used with the heat and the altitude. And of course if you are in shape. Which I wasn’t. I also carried my dog for the last mile, which is also the steepest.

All in all, the hike has a long almost flat “approach”. While I was walking on the flat part I was thinking that that was a bad news, meaning that the entire elevation gain will be on the last miles, which means it will be super steep. And that was exactly the case! We were scrambling our way through the last piece of the mountain on big boulders. It felt I was back in Seattle, on Mailbox Peak. That mountain is pretty much the same with boulders at the end, if you go in the summer otherwise they are covered in snow!

All the great memories from Seattle flooded in. I was struggling on Mt Tallac while remembering that the last hike I did in Seattle was on Mailbox which was even steeper than this one and I was carrying 40 pounds in my backpack. And now I had 13 pounds (my dog) in my backpack and I was struggling soooo much!
The mountain is beautiful with two lakes at the bottom that are nice to go to even if you don’t go all the way to the top. Although you can’t beat the top! You see the forever blue Lake Tahoe and great views with other mountains and beaches! Highly recommended!

Comments and Learnings:

BRING MORE WATER! One thing to remember that when it’s hot and on high altitude you need water to survive! It will help you whether it’s cold or hot or high altitude! All three of us (including the dog) had only 3 liters of water. Which was gone by the time we summit. That meant that on the way down we were out of water and we were in a hurry to go down fast so we survive the thirst!