 Welcome to Desolation |
Adventures during a six day backpacking trip in Desolation Wilderness.
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From September 7-12, 2002, I backpacked within the granite and alpine heart of Desolation Wilderness, the site of my first solo backpacking trip two years ago. After some further excursions to Henry W. Coe State Park, the Lost Coast, the Russian River, and Big Basin, it was time to return to my roots.
63,960 acres of "subalpine and alpine forest, granitic peaks, and glacially-formed valleys and lakes" cover Desolation Wilderness, which was declared a national wilderness in 1969. Portions of the Pacific Crest Trail and the Tahoe Rim Trail intersect with the wilderness, which is located next to South Lake Tahoe. According to the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, it's the most heavily used wilderness area per acre in the United States.
I pared down my pack to the bare essentials in anticipation of lugging around a sizeable amount of photography gear. Left behind was the bug juice, the citronella candle, the extra fuel canister, the small pot, fork, rope, and various other items. I was tempted to bivy sac it for five nights, but Rae convinced me that the comfort of the tent was worth the extra weight. With food, my pack weighed in around 35 pounds (without water). My photography gear tipped the scale around 20 pounds, which brought the final weight of my pack between 55-59 pounds. Ugh! I'm still very amazed by the accounts of these ultralight backpackers. I can't imagine what it would be like to have a base pack weight of 8.5 to 10 pounds, but it sure sounds nice!
Here's a list of my backpacking gear:
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Lightweight backpacking and serious photography mix about as well as oil and water. My equipment being heavy and power hungry, I was slightly tempted to go from digital to film for the trip. In the end, I decided that having any number of digital photos would be preferable to developing and scanning film. Battery life was my biggest concern, but the three batteries I brought lasted the entire six days. Much of my photo gear was stowed in the Domke F-3XB bag that I slung around the top of the LoweAlpine Contour IV pack.
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Okay, enough about equipment. Let's get on with the trip report!
Here is a map of the route that I took during my trip (click for a larger image). The last time I was in Desolation, I stayed at Gilmore Lake, Camper Flat, Lake Doris, Clyde Lake, and Susie Lake. This time around, one of my goals was to spend the evening at different locations.
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The drive up to South Lake Tahoe took about 4 hours from the Bay Area and was thankfully uneventful. I picked up my wilderness permit from the Lake Tahoe Visitor Center near Fallen Leaf. While I hear that wilderness permits used to be free, I didn't mind paying the $10 fee. After all, that price gives backpackers over 63,000 acres of wilderness to call home! Try that at the local Motel 6 or the Marriott!
In between the Glen Alpine Trailhead and the wilderness boundary is the Soda Spring. It was here where I filled my water bottle with the brownish-colored carbonated country water. In addition to carbonic acid, the water at the spring also includes calcium carbonate, sodium carbonate, sodium chloride and calcium sulphate. It's certainly no competition for Perrier, but the water satisfied my thirst up to Gilmore Lake.
The 3.9 mile hike up to Gilmore has always been tiring for me. I chalk it up to three factors: (1) my pack is at its heaviest, (2) there's a 1440 feet gain in elevation between Glen Alpine and Gilmore, and (3) the altitude. I ran into a number of people who were on day trips up to and down from Mt. Tallac, along with some hikers (i.e. Jason) on the way to Gilmore for the evening.
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After reaching the lake and setting up my camp, I started the ascent up to Mt. Tallac. I turned back when the sun started to go down and I realized that I would be descending in darkness. It can be difficult to see a trail in the dark, and I didn't fancy the idea of getting lost on my first night in the wilderness. I ate my dinner in the dying light before turning in for the night. Unlike the last time I stayed at Gilmore, there were no pack of howling coyotes to make the evening especially memorable!
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Getting accustomed to sleeping in the backcountry typically takes a few nights. My first evening was fairly restless, and I woke up numerous times throughout the night to the sound of my beating heart and the rustling of some furry creatures outside of my tent. It's hard to get comfortable in a mummy sleeping bag in the middle of the night!
I started hiking late by my standards around 9:45 am. I initially wanted to do a dayhike up to Mt. Tallac, but I decided to make an ascent up Dick's Peak, since it was on the way to the day's final destination, Fontanillis Lake. A few hours after I left Gilmore, I arrived at the primitive trail to Dick's Peak. I stashed my pack behind some trees and took only my photo gear with me up the 800 foot ascent.
At 9974 feet, the view from Dick's Peak makes me wish I could fly. The view of the Lake Tahoe basin is truly incredible. There's even a rock ring for those adventurous enough to spend the evening atop Dick's. That's something that I'll be game to do one of these days. I bet evening sky would look absolutely amazing.
I stayed atop Dick's Peak for an hour, chatting with Derek and some other hikers who had made their way up. Derek informed me that Agassi and Sampras were playing in the U.S. Open that day. For the next several days, I kept wondering who had won! Although I wanted Agassi to win, it was still nice to see Sampras back in the winner's circle; he's certainly endured his share of premature obituaries in the tennis media the past several months. I was also curious to see how my Chargers fared against the Bengals. Little did I know they were slaughtering the hapless Bengals on the gridiron!
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Dick's Pass wasn't as difficult as I remember it being, but it's still no cakewalk with 50-60 pounds of gear on your back. I really took advantage of my wooden hiking sticks, which helped to lessen the load on my legs and knees while climbing onward and upward.
The hike down to Dick's Lake and Fontanillis went by pretty quickly once I left behind the switchbacks of Dick's Pass. There are a number of great campsites at Fontanillis Lake. If you ever stay there, be sure to investigate the area around where the trail meets up with the lake.
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I had another evening of tossing and turning in my sleeping bag before the sun rose on Day 3 in Desolation. I was packing up and taking photographs around 8:50 am when the pack of women who were staying at Dick's Lake the previous evening passed me by. I never saw them again, so I wonder which route they took. I definitely noticed a greater number of people in Desolation Wilderness this time around.
Originally, I wanted do take the McConnell Lake Trail from Camper Flat, located to the west of Fontanillis. Along Camper Flat, I met two hikers from New Hampshire who had been doing the loop earlier in the morning. They recommended that I stay at Leland Lakes for the evening instead of McConnell Lake. Based on their recommendation, I hiked toward Lake Schmidell instead of the 4-Q Lakes upon reaching Camper Flat. Between Schmidell and the Leland Lakes is a killer climb of 500 feet in three-quarters of a mile. Already tired from the 1200 feet of climbing from Camper Flat to Schmidell, I slowly trudged my way up between Red Peak (9307 feet) and the unnamed peak (8654 feet) to the north of Schmidell. I had a nice conversation between a father and daughter hiker combo, who were returning from a dayhike to the Leland Lakes.
I think a lake's perceived beauty is directly proportional to how difficult it is to reach them. After cresting the top of the pass, I was greeted with a wonderful and expansive view of the Leland Lakes, along with a 400 foot, switchback-laden drop to the waterfront.
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I took up some prime real-estate along the beach of Leland Lakes. My beachfront property gave me a great view of the stars in the evening, and I was able to get a nice shot of the Ursa Major (aka the Big Dipper) that night. After I had set up camp, I hiked without my gear around the entire lake. It was nice just to walk unburdened by a pack. Leland Lakes reside in a remote area in the NW section of Desolation Wilderness, so there's few people there. I highly recommend spending a night there if you come to Desolation!
It seems like everytime I come to Desolation, there's one day which I aptly term the "day of the pack mule." I use that term to describe a day where I'm hiking for hours on end, mile after mile. Day 4 from the Leland Lakes to Susie Lake was my pack mule day for the trip. Originally, I was going to follow the McConnell Trail back to Camper Flat and descend down to China Flat for the evening, but I was concerned about how long that would have taken me. I ultimately decided to return back to Schmidell and to head to China Flat via the Blakely Schmidell Trail.
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At the trailhead to Lake Schmidell, I ran into Andrew, Ezra, Hutch, and John, with whom I hiked down to China Flat and beyond. We made very good time, and we decided to truck it past Clyde Lake all the way to Aloha Lake. That long hike changed my schedule a bit, since I wasn't planning on being on the other side of Mosquito Pass until the next day. That change turned out to be a very good one, since I had a great time hiking with and talking to Andrew, Ezra, Hutch, and John.
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I hiked alone to Susie Lake after saying my goodbyes to Andrew and company at the corner of Lake Aloha. By the time that I reached Susie Lake, I had been hiking for nearly nine hours! I wanted to stay at the place where Bruce and I had dinner two years ago, a bluff overlooking the valley containing Grass Lake, but I couldn't find it. I settled for a small campsite where the trail tails away from Susie Lake on the way to the Glen Alpine and Gilmore Lake.
When I finally set up my campsite, I nearly collapsed, as I was soooo tired from all the hiking. I don't know what the mileage was for the day, but it was very, very long. I eagerly scarfed down my ramen for the evening before going to sleep. It was the best sleep that I had all week.
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On Tuesday morning, I woke up early to continue my search for that valleyfront property Bruce and I were before. I found it within minutes of jumping on the trail back towards Susie and Heather Lakes. On the Lake Heather side of Susie Lake's stream crossing, you'll see a row of rocks to your right. If you follow the trail beyond them, you'll descend to a bluff that offers a fantastic view of the valley overlooking Grass Lake. Forget the lakefront, the valleyfront is the best place to stay at Susie Lake! I raced back to my campsite, where it took me ten minutes to take down my tent and pack up my backpack. Ten more minutes later, I was back at the bluff setting up my camp for the day.
For the day, I did a day hike from Susie Lake to Lake Jabu, which was recommended by those two hikers from New Hampshire I met on Sunday. I decided, however, to take the backcountry route to Jabu from Susie Lake. Instead of following the Pacific Crest Trail to the PCT-Aloha Trailhead, I took the rugged valley route overlooking Grass Lake. It was a tough and technical hike to Jabu this way, taking me 4.5 hours to reach the top of Jabu Lake. I didn't make it to the top of the Cracked Crag (8782 feet), but I can't see how the view could have been much better from atop Jabu.
It took me less than two hours to return to my campsite at Susie Lake via the known trails from Jabu Lake. In the evening, I gorged on what remaining food I had left in my food bag and took a number of night photographs.
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The only drawback that I can think of from the day was not having enough water. On these long hikes, you really need to stay well hydrated.
My last night of restless sleep had me waking up around 5:00 am on Thursday morning. The sun had not yet broken through the horizon, and the Orion Constellation was to the East of my tent. I took my final night photos before getting up for the day. I had a filling breakfast before packing up and heading towards the Glen Alpine Trail. I ran into Bob on the switchbacks towards Grass Lake, and the two of us continued our descent while talking about junipers and Bob's life history.
Eventually, I made it back to my car at the Glen Alpine Trailhead. Six days in the wilderness completed! Overall, I found my time in Desolation to be both intense and invigorating. There's something about being in the wilderness which refreshes both the mind and the body.
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Your Safeway Club Card is useless in the wilderness, and there's no corner market to hit late in the evening. All the food that you're going to eat on the trip has got to go in your pack. Since I've been on a number of trips over the past two years, I knew exactly how much food to bring. It's a good idea to bring an extra day's worth of food on a trip, as you never know when bad weather will cause you to be off schedule. For water, I used my PUR Hiker microfilter, which worked great to rid my drinking and cooking water of giardia, cryptosporidium and other unsavory bacteria.
Here's what I ate over the course of six days:
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I was rarely hungry except during the time before dinner. The Clif Bars satisfied my cravings during the day while hiking and anything that I scarfed down during dinner filled me up while tasting great. I found that freeze-dried foods to be a little on the expensive side for what they provide. I think I would have been fine eating just ramen and the Lipton noodle dishes the entire trip.
Bears are present in Desolation Wilderness, but they tend to stay in the lower areas around Echo Lake, since that's where more humans and food are located. For this trip, I brought along an Ursack, a bear-resistant bag made from aramid fibers, the same fabric used to make bulletproof vests. In the evenings, I tied the food-laden Ursack to a tree and was confident that no bears or rodents would be having a scrumptious dinner on my behalf.
Note: Ursack is not approved for use in places such as Yosemite or Sequoia National Park. You'll have to bring a Garcia Bear Canister or other approved food storage device if you're planning to go there.
Like the previous time I visited Desolation Wilderness, I met people of all ages, sizes, and backgrounds during my stay. Many of them helped to make the trip much more interesting and memorable.
Clearly struggling under the weight of my heavy pack, I was passed on the way to Gilmore Lake by Jason. He was doing an overnight at Gilmore with a MountainSmith hip pack with about 20lbs of gear. I was certainly envious of his speed as I slowly made my way up switchback after switchback to Gilmore. We both stayed at Gilmore Lake for the evening. The next morning, he ascended Mt. Tallac while I slept and packed up my camp in preparations for my journey to Dick's Peak and Fontanillis.
Atop Dick's Peak was Derek, a former Bay Area resident now living in Reno. Below is a picture of Derek calling his wife at 9974 feet! Derek informed me that line of sight might be beneficial for getting good cell phone reception. Maybe that's why my phone didn't work the last time I was in Desolation!
David was taking a photo break at the trailhead to Dick's Pass when I hiked into him. From New York, David was heading down the Tahoe-Yosemite Trail on the way to Yosemite, 150 miles away! He said that he resupplied every 7 days or so. He recounted a funny story about these ultralight backpackers who suffered in the evenings swatting away bugs while he slept peacefully in his bug-free tent. Hmmm... maybe there is a drawback to ultralight backpacking, no?
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At the trailhead to Lake Schmidell following my night at Leland Lakes, I started hiking with Andrew, his son Ezra, and Ezra's friends, Hutch and John down to Lake Aloha. I found out that Ezra and Hutch worked on the production of Red Dragon and HBO's The Wire. Cool!
On such a long hike down from Schmidell to Lake Aloha, it was good to have been able to hike with and talk to somebody. I enjoyed my time speaking with the four of them until we split off at the trailhead near Aloha.
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I bumped into Bob as he was hiking to Lake Aloha in search of a rare form of Juniper plant that grew in isolated areas of Desolation Wilderness. I found out that Bob's 79 years old and retired living near Marshall Station in Fresno. He was a pilot in WWII, flying a few missions in an A20 in the Pacific Theater.
While hiking back from Jabu Lake, I ran into Lucky, his two sons, and his daughter-in-law at Heather Lake. They were looking for a campsite to stay for the evening and asked me some questions about the sites along Heather and Susie Lake. Turns out Lucky is a fellow Mountain View resident and his son and daughter-in-law were from San Diego!
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A tripod is an indispensable item for any backpacking trip. Yes, they can be heavy, believe me, they are worth it! My Gitzo G1128 and Acratech Ultimate Ballhead combination weighed in at roughly 3.5 pounds (2.5 pounds for the tripod, 1 pound for the head).
The TC-80N3 Timer Remote Controller for my camera was another essential piece of equipment. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to take many of the pictures that are in the photo gallery. Most cameras have a timer mode of 10 seconds or less, which is not enough time to position youself in a scene during a self-portrait. The TC-80N3 allowed me to set the camera to take pictures after a specified delay or during an interval (i.e. every 5 seconds).
The stars were out in full force in the evenings, and I took the opportunity to capture some wonderful nighttime long-exposure photos. The Canon EOS-1D isn't the best camera for long exposure photography -- the Canon EOS-D60 is much better -- but the results were still quite acceptable.
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I have a number of panorama shots that I'm in the process of stitching and converting into QuickTime VR format. I have shots from atop Dick's Peak, Lake Jabu, and the Leland Lakes which are especially cool. Stay tuned for the rest of them. In the meantime, here's a shot of Andrew, Ezra, Hutch, and John overlooking Lake Aloha (click on the image below to see a larger version).
I took about 700 photos during my latest trip to Desolation Wilderness. I've posted a choice sampling of around 90 in the photo gallery below. Enjoy!
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Superb man!...very cool!
-- posted by thegeneral @ Monday, September 16 2002, 12:40 pm EDT
...can you hear the sound of whining in the background? "I wanna go to the mounnntains again!" Thanks for bringing it all back! Love the Ostrich (wood birds) the Cobra, hearts and night pic's. And yes, a peak/ridge hike with sleep-outs on the peaks would be fabulous. Allways wanted to do that. Some day!
-- posted by Bruce Boyd @ Monday, September 16 2002, 18:08 pm EDT
Beautiful pictures as usual. I didn't have time to fully read up, but thanks for all the detail. This is one of those pages you can come back to many times and still see something new! (I especially like the packlist and 6-day menu for those of us flirting with the idea of getting into backpacking).
-- posted by Loren @ Monday, September 16 2002, 20:26 pm EDT
Sounds like a great trip! The stitching job on the above panorama is fantastic - I assume you took a number of shots swiveling the 1D on the tripod? Did you stitch them in photoshop or using some panorama software?
-- posted by Alex King @ Monday, September 16 2002, 20:59 pm EDT
Wonderful and supurb account of your trip. I felt like I had traveled along side you! :)
-- posted by Gabe McMillan @ Tuesday, September 17 2002, 0:09 am EDT
Adam, as usual I am in awe! Superb pics, and detail in your monologue. The anticipation of my arrival to Desolation in one week, has been heightened more so than a kid on Christmas eve! - can't thank you enough for the visuals of what lies in store.
-- posted by Charlie Murphy @ Tuesday, September 17 2002, 15:49 pm EDT
Alex:
I might have handheld that particular panorama shot with the camera. The trick is holding the camera in portrait mode and shooting with a reasonable focal length like 24mm. This lessens the amount of distortion at the edges that can cause havoc on panoramas. I stitched them using the Canon PhotoStitch software. The other 360 degree panos I did using a tripod at 15 degree increments. You'll see those soon!
-- posted by Adam @ Wednesday, September 18 2002, 11:58 am EDT
I like the nighttime shots. I wonder if there's any way to capture that crystal clear sweep of the milky way that you find at altitude. I suppose that would be a very challenging shot, being nighttime and the stars having such varying degrees of brightness.
Anyway, great stuff Adam. Thanks for the account. I need to head off to the mountains myself. Hopefully next week before the season ends. I'm thinking Sonora Pass.
-- posted by jim @ Wednesday, September 18 2002, 14:37 pm EDT
Really nice trip report! I'll have to come back and study it in detail later.
-- posted by BillCat @ Wednesday, September 18 2002, 22:28 pm EDT
Love your pictures, hope you don't mind I make them my desktop background.
-- posted by Dan @ Monday, September 23 2002, 11:24 am EDT
hey Adam.. Good job. very well and artistically done.! Looks like you had lots of fun.!
-- posted by Najeeb @ Wednesday, September 25 2002, 13:48 pm EDT
I remember Lake Aloha being quite beautiful when I visited during a Scouting trip. Phenominal journal, Adam! Maybe I can pick your brain sometime before I take my snowhoeing trips this winter...
-Adam--posted by Adam Steffes @ Monday, December 9 2002, 13:03 pm EST
Your pictures and accounts do justice to what a magnificent place Desolation Wilderness really is. Desolation Wilderness was my first backpacking trip when I was 8 years old (I am 34 now). I have been backpacking in many other places in California and other states but Desolaton Widerness is a special place for me and I have been there more times than anywhere else. It is unique in it's beauty, it's ruggedness and it's fragility. My favorite spot is Pyramid Peak near Lake Sylvia and Lyons Lake. The view from Pyramid peak is magnificent and have I often thought of spending the night there (with the marmots). My wife and I are planning a trip for this coming season to the North East of Desolation. We're still working out the route but maybe we will see you on the trail?
Tom--posted by Tom Arnold @ Tuesday, January 7 2003, 21:57 pm EST
Tom:
Thanks for the wonderful comments, Tom! Pyramid Peak seems like a great place to stay in the evenings during the summer. I wish I had the time to camp out on top of Dick's Peak this past trip, but I didn't bring my gear up with me when I ascended the mountain. Next time!
-adam--posted by Adam @ Friday, January 10 2003, 14:57 pm EST
Adam:
Excellent! Made me remember my first trip to Desolation long ago. I loved the detailed information you provided but did I miss the part about where your newton was packed and how it came in handy for fighting fires or something......
Great stuff here.
Dale--posted by Dale Steele @ Sunday, January 19 2003, 1:08 am EST
Adam, I really like the layout of your website. I like the detail about the gear with the links, the food list, and the trip description. It is very thorough and I would love to put somthing like that together for some of my adventures. My first backpack trip at the age of 14 was in Desolation Wilderness (Twin Lakes)
and I have never stopped visiting this great place. I am now 42 and visit Desolation in all seasons. I have made a habit out of sleeping on top of the peaks. My tent has been pitched on Dicks Pk, Jacks Pk, Mt Tallac, Pyramid Pk (7 times), Peak 9441(above Island Lake). I have pared my 3-season weekend pack weights down to 22 pounds and my winter pack weighs anywhere from 27 to 35 pounds depending on wether or not I am packing and/or wearing snowshoes and/or crampons. I always pack a tent for protection from the elements and besides, I sleep much better when I know the rodents and creepy crawlers are not going to get in bed with me. My photographic equipment is not sophisticated, usually just a disposable camera and once in awhile a basic SLR for taking time exposure shots at night. I plan on climbing Pyramid in the next month or so (and spending the night on top of course)it will be my tenth ascent of this peak. I have some interesting night photos capturing the lights of Sacramento and South Lake Tahoe from the tops of these peaks. I would like to share some of my Photos and the details about my pack configurations with you, if your interested let me know. Most of my favorite pics have been scanned and saved as jpegs so I could e-mail you. I am new to digital photography and recently aquired a Cannon PowerShot S200 which I will put to use on any upcoming adventures.
Thanks again for the great example of a very thorough trip description.
Sacramento
--posted by Greg Elzea @ Friday, May 9 2003, 3:43 am EDT
Very nice pictures, story, and site. I am heading up to Desolation Wilderness in two days for my first trip and I can't wait! We're not going as far in as you did, but this is our first time backpacking so I'm ok with starting light. :)
Anyhow, thanks for the pictures and story!
Jesse--posted by Jesse @ Thursday, June 19 2003, 5:11 am EDT
Enjoyed your comments and pictures. Just came back a few weeks ago from Desolation Wilderness. Went with 6 other buddies. Had a great time.. Best time of my life .. 6 days of hiking.
Mike Keller
--posted by mike keller @ Thursday, September 4 2003, 16:46 pm EDT
Man, what photos. I never have seen the results of the EOS 1-D, from your stuff, it appers to be worth it. Datail, saturation. Thanks for getting the mountain juices flowing again in these Kansas bred, flatland trained, muscles and lungs.
--posted by Cal @ Thursday, September 25 2003, 17:45 pm EDT
I am psyching myself up for my first solo something or other. I\'m so glad I stumbled across this. Thanks!
--posted by Steven @ Thursday, May 6 2004, 14:22 pm EDT
I enjoyed reading the detailed report, as well as looking at the photos. As someone who has a fair amount of experience in mountain photography, I would say that you burdened yourself with your kit without much benefit. A lowly film-based Canon Rebel + 24-85 + 75-300 used on tripod would have given you better image quality than the 1D with your lenses, at a fraction of the weight. As it stands, the weight of your kit was close to the weight of the 5x7 inch kit that I carry for backpacking !
--posted by QT Luong @ Thursday, June 23 2005, 20:27 pm PDT
fantastic. i hope youre still getting out. ill be doing a solo trip in west virginia's Roaring Plains area for three nights coming up. Just found this site looking for packing recommendations! 8) thanks for the fantastic photos, looks like i need to be getting out there soon.
--posted by matty w @ Wednesday, September 27 2006, 9:23 am PDT
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