The Desolation Wilderness is an incredibly beautiful and pristine area just southwest of Lake Tahoe on the border of California and Nevada. My good friend Jason and I planned an adventure trip, as we often do, and decided to invite Marc, Marissa and Brina to come along. I whipped up this little website to chronicle our journey.
Better late than never! Delta and Hurricane Ernesto conspired to keep me from making it to California, but eventually I made it! I rented a sexy PT Crusier from Avis, went to go pick up Jason and Marc, then we hit Interstate 80 eastbound from San Francisco on the way to Lake Tahoe. We stopped at REI in Berkely to pick up some last minute gear, then enjoyed intense traffic all the way to the Cali border.
By the time we made it to our reserved campsite at Sugar Pine Point State Park, Marissa and Brina were already there - tired but good spirited. After setting up the tent, Jason nearly set fire to the picnic bench while trying to make coffee. Sadly, I didn't get a photo of that -- but here's a picture of his more successful second attempt the next morning
Also on the trip were three well-behaved and terribly cute four-legged backpackers. Denali (pictured right) is Marissa's 15-week old chocolate labrador. Also with us were 2 year old Gretchen and 10 year old Hunter, Brina's two dogs.
As an official gadget geek, you know I had to bring a variety of toys and tools on this trip. I got a chance to really test the limits of my Treo + GPS setup. Here's what I had with me:
Overall, I was very pleased with the setup. The OnCourse was extremely accurate, and PathAway did a great job of tracking our position and providing all the trip stats that I could ever want -- it was practically impossible to get lost. With the PathAway track, I was also able to create this cool Google Earth rendering of our path through the wilderness.
We got up early Saturday morning to get started on our adventure. Jason and I went to the ranger's station to pick up our backpacking permits while the rest of the group cleaned up camp. We met a few hours later at Meeks Bay trailhead, which was to be the endpoint of our 3 day hike. At the trailhead we loaded up the gear, locked up the PT Cruiser, then all piled into Marissa's 4-runner for the short drive south to Eagle Falls trailhead.
The first part of the hike was tough. Mostly uphill, we gained a total of 1338 feet in 5.5 miles. The heavy packs on our back didn't help the situation, either. This first leg took about 5 hours, but it was totally enjoyable and we encountered amazing scenery. Along the way we passed by a ton of day-hikers, but by the time we reached the lake it felt like we were all alone.
We stopped for a short time at Lower Velma Lake to rest and let the dogs take a swim. Then it was a short half-mile to Middle Velma, where we quickly found an awesome campsite that would be our home for the next two nights.
Camping in the wilderness has its challenges. You have to be cautious of bears getting into your food, and no big fires are allowed. Jason was captured on video demonstrating his skills in the great outdoors.
Well, the original plan was to only spend one night at Middle Velma, and hike through in the direction of Meeks Bay (and our PT Cruiser) by Monday. But, Hunter (the dog) wasn't feeling so hot on Sunday morning, so we decided to stay at our killer campsite and just dayhike on Sunday. Brina and Marc stayed behind with Hunter while Jason, Marissa and I headed up to Phipps Peak with Denali and Gretchen. This hike was about 5 miles each way, with a steep, rocky climb climb at the end. Amazingly, we did the round trip in less than five hours. From atop Phipps Peak (9200 feet) we had incredible views of the wilderness -- it was well worth it.
View the hike path in Google Earth
The path back out the way we came was much easier and faster going downhill (imagine that!). We were back at our cars by noon, and on the road back to San Francisco by 2:00. Good times!
See the rest of my pics on Flickr
And even more pictures from Brina's camera
View this trip in Google Earth
Copyright © 2006 by Nate Clark - nate (at) nateclark.com