And this time from a three-day trip into the Desolation Wilderness, so that I could show my lovely wife what I've been doing up there, and where I've been spending my time.
Once again we started with the Echo Lake boat taxi, and then hiked up to Lake Aloha. And once again we left the southern tip of the lake to work our way west toward American Lake. From there, it was hunt and peck cross-country to Channel Lake, where we set up camp on the eastern shore. There are no trails, and the terrains is tricky.
Much of my time in this area is spent taking out illegal (too close to water) campsites and taking apart (illegal since 1990) fire rings. And every time I go up, and find more of both,. Sigh.
Those are before and after photos, below. Lots of dirty work.
Meanwhile, it's a spectacularly beautiful area. The granite was scraped clean by glaciers 10,000 years ago, and it's still pretty darn clean today. The deepest glacial gouges are now lakes, surrounded by long ridges of beautiful stone.
On our second day, we hiked down past the outlet of Channel Lake and followed Pyramid Creek to the cascades that tumble into the nameless lake downstream. And then, since we were curious, we found a route past the steep cliffs to get down to that lake as well, and beyond, all the way to Desolation Lake.
In the afternoon. we hiked the shores of American Lake and Lake Aloha, finding more campsites and fire rings. We restored some areas,and marked others for future work. And we enjoyed the peace and quiet of the High Sierra.
The last day was a simple hike out and back to the trailhead.
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