Escape From Tinkers Knob!

Saturday was a spectacular day to hike Tinker Knob from the Donner Train tunnels. 11 Bay Area Hikers joined me on my quest to bag my 3rd peak of the Lake Tahoe 6 Peak Challenge. Here is the quick recap!

We started out from the Donner Tunnels at 8am sharp and hiked the PCT through Sugar Bowl up towards Mt. Judah and Roller Pass.

The weather was nice and clear with a light breeze at times. The forest was lush and green, and you could hear the birds.

After making it to the past the pass we encountered a sizeable snowfield covering the trail. We did not have good trail reports other than there was a little snow to pass but this was quite a detour.

We made our way up and over the snow with only one hiker falling but sliding down on their butt uninjured. This was the most difficult part of the hike because of steepness of the hill and the snow conditions.

We pressed on along the PCT which was very exposed and atop of the ridge all the way to Tinker Knob.

The trail splits off from the PCT to Tinker and it is a bit of a rocky scramble but manageable. We hit the summit at about 11:15am. It was a clear 360 view of Lake Tahoe and all the other peaks.

Many congratulations and pictures were taken. The group took a well-deserved rest and began the trek back to the cars at 12pm.

The group spread out along the trail back to the cars. Everyone was enjoying themselves and taking many pictures.

We did encounter the snow on our return and decided to retrace our steps back. The snow was deteriorating more quickly as we made our way back down. Footing was sketchy to say the least and again another hiker slid down uninjured

I was one of the first ones back with two others to my car at about 2:45pm.

In total we hiked about 15.2 miles, gained about 3064 in elevation, in about 6 hours. It was a great day to be out at Tinker Knob with a great group of Bay Area Hikers. Thanks to all who came!

If you have any questions about my hikes, feel free to message me and I’ll tell you more. If you’re interested in following my hikes, you can find me on my Facebook page, Jason’s Hiking Adventures, Bay Area Hikers, Instagram @jasonshikingadventures, Social Hiker, and AllTrails. I have posted a link to the route we took below. Thanks for reading!

Link: https://www.alltrails.com/…/placer-county-hiking-7a614fd