(continued) Day Two of our three-day excursion was an off-trail adventure up and over the northern ridge to visit Island Lake and Twin Lakes on the other side. Cool wind and hot sun dominated the day. We loaded one day pack with a water filter, duct tape, bear bait, trail mix, cheese and salami, and a few “fun size” Snickers bars (what is so fun about something being tiny? Unless we’re talking about puppies, of course. But I digress.) We took turns carrying the day pack while the other person carried a simple rope sling with a light water bottle.
A short but steep hike up sliding granite blew my mind as I contemplated the power of ice creeping along to form these majestic, massive granite canyons. My bruised hips and sore shoulders were grateful to be free of a big pack for the day’s excursion. My neck, on the other hand, missed the protection from the piercing high-altitude sun afforded by my pack.
We made the climb in just under 20 minutes. From the top we looked out to a smoke-filled Central Valley to the south and a pristine set of granite mountains surrounding Island Lake and Twin Lakes to the north. The cold wind howled, but the bite of the high-altitude sun prevailed as we scampered down over loose rocks and granite toward Twin Lakes. Heat on my neck indicated yet another blunder: a complete failure to pack sunscreen.
At this point most of our troubles were behind us, with only one error ahead. From Twin Lakes we read you can head down the creek that ultimately feeds Wright Lake to find the “enchanted pools.” It being a rather dry year, they were more like unenchanted ponds, but the broad swaths of granite that water slides down in wetter seasons were amazing and fun to hike along. We came to a large pool with forest to the south that we hoped to access. But we were on the east side of the pool, near the Twin Lakes Trail, which we took briefly as we tried to navigate around a gorge.
Deja View
With a little bit of scrambling down and through bushes, we got ourselves over to the west side. I could see a path in the forest but decided to head west. The point of this part of the story is we made choices: looking at the landscape, you could see a forest down below, and it seemed there was a place to shoot the gap towards our lake to the west, but it wasn’t certain.
As we emerged from the forest, however, something strange happened: we saw fence posts. When you are in a wilderness area, this is like a contamination, and a bit like the moment in a dream when something is so outrageous you realize you must be dreaming. Something was amiss, but there wasn’t much to do about it but trudge onward and over. As we moved from forest to meadow and continued along, Michael said, “I wonder if this is that meadow we saw at the start of the hike yesterday.” Indeed, it was. We were back at Square One for the third time in two days.
The hike back was about the same as the day before. Having no bag made it easier, but a long day and diminished snack and water supplies made up for that. But at least we knew where we were headed.
We reached our camp, ate, made some tea, and laid on granite to watch the start of the annual Perseids meteor shower. A few shooting stars and moments of appreciation and we promptly passed out.
The next day a swim across Tyler Lake was my major accomplishment, and getting back to the car without popping any of the five blisters on my feet (yeah, that rule about breaking your shoes in before a hike? I broke that one too). A burger and fries at Mel’s Diner in Placerville was the highlight of the four-hour drive home. That was a bit pathetic for a highlight, as we realized there was a real Placerville grill just down Main Street that we missed out on for a chain, but a strawberry shake never tasted so good!
Desolation Wilderness lies off Highway 50 in the Sierra Nevada, just south of Lake Tahoe. Permits are required for overnight trips and day use learn more here.
Key facts The drive from Santa Cruz is about four hours long. The trailhead parking lot fills up, so arrive early!
Little extras I couldn’t live without: Bear hang (duh), map (double duh), Chapstick, sunscreen, sunhat, tea, duct tape, compass.
Back to Blundering into Desolation
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