David C. Antonucci has suggested this as the route Sam  took from Carson to Tahoe.  "This route meets all the criteria described by Twain in Roughing It. It is more fully described in Chapter 3 of my book, Fairest Picture - Mark Twain at Lake Tahoe,"  

• 11.9 miles ("We were told that the distance was eleven miles.")
• Traversed flat ground west of Carson City ("We tramped a long time on level ground...")
• Ascended the first of two summits with no lake visible due to topography ("...toiled laboriously up a mountain about a thousand miles high and looked over. No lake there")
• Descended the ridge and crossed a valley, Franktown Creek ("We descended on the other side, crossed the valley...")
• Ascended a second summit ridge with Lake Tahoe still not visible due to topography and forest cover ("...toiled up another mountain three or four thousand miles high, apparently, and looked over again. No lake yet.")
• Lake suddenly appeared due to the widening of the canyon and the absence of forest cover ("We plodded on, ... and at last the Lake burst upon us...")
• Full view of Lake Tahoe in its entirety from a high elevation that created a visible reflection ("It was a vast oval. ...shadows of the mountains brilliantly photographed upon its still surface...")
• It is traversable by two men on foot in one day, as per Roughing It, with no impassable terrain or hydrologic obstacles.