Backpacking Meiss Country Roadless Area: TYT and PCT

Echo Summit is the middle Lake Tahoe traihead option for backpackers hiking Lake Tahoe to Mount Whitney. Located South of Meeks Bay and Desolation Wilderness, sitting on the edge of the Tahoe Rim, Echo Summit also offers easy local backpacking access South into the Meiss Roadless Area, a special zone in the LTBMU.

There are numerous potential short and medium distance trailhead to trailhead trips and one good loop launchable from Echo Summit, if you are not pointing it far to the South.
 

Trailhead: Echo Summit

Topo Map: Meiss Roadless Area

The South Upper Truckee trailhead in Meyers is the Southernmost trailhead for Long Distance backpackers heading to Mount Whitney from the Lake Tahoe Basin. A 5.51 mile climb brings us to Meiss Cabin, where we find our junction with the combined Pacific Crest and Tahoe to Yosemite Trail routes in the Southwest corner of the Lake Tahoe Basin.

above: New sign, new trailhead configuration, and new route for lower section of the South Upper Truckee trail finished in '08.

South Upper Truckee access into the Meiss Country Roadless Area offers beginning hikers a small taste of the beauties and difficulties of High Sierra backpacking close to civilization. A wide range of moderate one to three day backpacking trips can be crafted around the Meiss Roadless Area 

Trail Guide: South Upper Truckee Trailhead

Topo Hiking Map: Meiss Roadless Area