2003 Desolation Wilderness Backpacking Trip - Day 1
(Thursday, 28 August, 2003)

When we arrived at the ranger station at 11'ish to pick up our permits, the ranger un-recommended my planned entry route, saying that the trail has not been maintained in years and might be dangerous. My Tom Harrison map of the Desolation Wilderness showed the trail as a red line, like any other, but we weren't inclined to ignore the ranger's advice while travelling loaded. Perhaps on another visit I will check out that trail, as it saves over a mile if one's destination is south of Lake Aloha, as ours was.

It took longer than expected to drive along the twisty and very narrow road along Fallenleaf Lake to the Glen Alpine trailhead. A coyote ran across the road as we drove in, newly-caught prey in its mouth. At the trailhead, after some last-minute adjustments, we hit the trail at right about noon. Given the longer-than-expected trail in, I was a little concerned that we would run out of daylight, but with about 8.5 miles and 2000' of climbing, and 7+ hours of daylight, it wasn't a big worry.

It was a mostly well-graded trail/road to Glen Alpine Springs (as it must be, since there are some residents along the trail and they need to be able to drive to their homes). Soon after setting out, a returning day-hiker made a snyde remark about my trekking poles ("there's no snow here"). I completely fail to see why folks feel the need to make such comments, especially since trekking poles have been around for years and are in common use. Does this person comment on every hiker he meets using them, or am I just lucky? Enquiring minds want to know! We passed Glen Alpine Springs, which looked to be an organized group camp area, with a little visitor center, but we decided to keep going and stop there on the way back. Two backpackers were there, but we just nodded to them as we hiked by.

Shortly past Glen Alpine Springs the road turned into a proper singletrack trail, passing a spur trail to Grass Lake. The gentle grade vanished as we trudged up the switchbacked trail. We came to a hiker who'd passed us a bit earlier. He asked us how far it was to the Grass Lake turnoff - seems he'd overshot his goal by nearly a mile (and a lot of climbing) - oops! We continued climbing, gaining almost 1000 feet from the Grass Lake junction in 1.6 miles. We turned left at another intersection, enjoyed an easy half mile jaunt past a couple of lily ponds, then joined the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) as we hiked southwest towards Susie Lake. The trail here was rocky and not very comfortable to hike on, but we had good views of the Cracked Crag. We were also pleasantly surprised to see a good number of wildflowers along the trail: Sierra Onion, Yarrow, Fireweed, Pinedrops, and Explorer's Gentian, to name but a few!

Susie Lake is a lovely lake, variously reflecting Dick's Peak, Jack's Peak, Mt. Agassiz, and Mt. Tallac, and we got to see plenty of it, as the trail curves around half of its shoreline. We stopped by the south shore and had a tasty lunch of Mediterranean pannini sandwiches that we brought from City Grill in Fremont. After enjoying our break, we set out again, this time headed for nearby Heather Lake. The trail continued to be murderously rocky, but the views were very nice as we climbed a short ridge. Atop the ridge, we came to Heather Lake, not quite as lovely as Susie Lake, but pretty in its own right. For the first time we had a good view of the Crystal Range, with prominent Pyramid Peak (our goal for the following day). We continued to see many wildflowers including Sneezeweed, Sulphur Flower, Stonecrop, and Larkspur. The trail went right along Heather Lake's north shore for a little ways, then climbed gently eventually dumping us out at the north end of Lake Aloha a little before 5pm.

I'd seen Lake Aloha from afar on a dayhike up Mt. Tallac, and it was even stranger-looking up close. Its a mostly shallow lake, populated by myriad islands, many with a single dead tree or two on them. Truly a bizairre sight. We took a short break here to enjoy the views and rest before heading out for the final 2.5 miles of the day's journey. We were fairly tired by this point, having neither acclimatized (we were at over 8000' by this point), nor practiced wearing our backpacks recently, but thankfully the day's climbing was done. It was a nice hike along the lake and around the back side of the Cracked Crag, but we were mostly focussed on getting to camp and dumping our packs! We passed a fellow on his seventh day of a Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) thru-hike and briefly chatted before continuing on towards American Lake. We decided not to bother trying to get to American Lake itself, as it was a ways off-trail (did I mention we were tired?), so after a little bit of searching, we found a nice place to camp near an unnamed lakelet. It was just after 6pm, leaving us ample time to set up camp and cook dinner before darkness arrived.

We had a yummy dinner of chicken, rice, and bean burritos with melted cheese. Our cheese hadn't fared well on the warm journey, melting and managing to ooze partially from its ziploc baggie. Perhaps fake (like Velveeta) cheese would survive better? I'd left the ground cloth for my tent at home to save weight; its absence didn't seem to make any difference, and simplified the setup of our tent. We put our bear cannister in some secure rocks so it wouldn't roll away, cleaned up our kitchen, and hit the sack shortly after the sun set.

Trip Home

Next Day

• Day 1 - Glen Alpine to near American Lake
• Day 2 - Dayhiking Lake of the Woods, Ropi Lake, Toem Lake, Desolation Lake, "Fun Lake," Channel Lake, and American Lake
• Day 3 - near American Lake to Gilmore Lake
• Day 4 - Gilmore Lake to Glen Alpine
• Pack list