When I signed up to "Adopt" the American Lake zone of the Desolation Wilderness for this summer, I got more than I expected, and in more ways than one.
My first challenge was to figure out how to get there, because none of my maps showed a trail there. When I called the volunteer coordinator about it, he was unsure. He suggested that I might try climbing Horsetail Falls, but that would leave me on the wrong side of the river--a river that was in full snowmelt flood, and impassable. And he had tried to climb the falls twice, and turned back because it was too steep and too damn scary.
Great.
I spent some time poring over topo maps, and came to the conclusion that a route might be possible just to the north of Lake of the Woods. It was worth a shot. And so i packed up, caught the ferry across Echo Lake, and hiked up to Lake of the Woods. When I got there, I was told a group a rangers were working nearby, so I tracked them down, right along the route I had seen on the topo map.
They assured me that it was probable possible to reach the zone via that route, but I would be wading at least thigh high in lake water. The more they thought about it, the less they liked that idea. A lengthy discussion ensued. Tim, the most experienced of the rangers, suggested that I could try the south end of Lake of the Woods, past two smaller lakes, up over a granite ridge, and down the other side.
It was worth a shot.
I hiked down around the end of Lake of the Woods, past the two smaller lakes (only one has a name, Frater) and then looked at the ridge. There appeared to be at least one route that would work. I scrambled up and over it and discovered that I was now looking down on Desolation Lake, in the American Zone. Hooray!
There were no people or campsites, but I explore the canyon up to the next lake, carefully climbing up a series of granite ramps that took my higher and higher. When the next lake came in view (it has no name at all) I decided to call it a day. The route north looked complicated, and i would have to clamber off to the east to avoid a series of steep cliffs.
I set up camp and enjoyed the view. But I have been studying those topo maps again. It looks like there might be another way into this isolated zone, over a different ridge farther north, that would give me access to the upper part of the canyon.
That will have to wait for next time.