Days 83
Start: South Lake Tahoe, CA
Finish: Middle Velma Lake
Daily Mileage: 19.5
PCT Mile: 1110.7
After our two days of rest, Cookie Monster and I headed back to the trail. The main road went straight back to the pass the trail crossed over, and in 20 minutes we had our hitch back to the top.
Some quick trail through the first burn area in quite a while, and we arrived at Echo Lake which is a popular trailhead. Being a weekend, the parking lot was packed and there was good business for the water taxi that takes people to the other side of the lake to save them 3 miles of walking. Obviously I needed none of that, so an easy stroll along Lower then Upper Echo Lake.
The lakes were nice despite the noise, and it was a nice walk along them. However, being a Sunday, I was facing the mass exodus of weekenders leaving the wilderness and coming back to their reality. Probably better for me that they were leaving and not going in, though many didn’t seem aware of hiking etiquette that the uphill hiker has the right of way.
I entered the Desolation Wilderness area where the hikers were leaving from, which is also a popular backpacking spot. This is the last major area on the trail that requires a bear can because the bears have become adept at defeating bear bag hangs, though many hangs I have seen over the years leave something to be desired. I will be glad to be rid of my bear can after this section. It is so awkward to deal with in my pack, and is a couple pounds of extra weight.
The Desolation Wilderness is named as such since it is a lot of the same granite as the Sierra that has been carved by glaciers over the eons. The rock is hard to break down, so not much life has grown back in the 10-15,000 years since the last ice age. The glaciers did carve out many lakes though, and the solid granite is good at holding water, so the area is littered with many lakes.
The first major lake we came to was Aloha Lake, which seemed anything but Hawaiian. The far shore was defined by a mostly barren mountain range that was still half covered in snow. It had the overall look of what I imagine the Sierra could look like if everything hadn’t been frozen when I had walked through. It was a great sight to take in, and a great first break spot for the day.
Moving on, we walked along the lake and a few snowfields that were hanging on and descended a valley that had a chain of smaller lakes in it. All were scenic, but not quite as breathtaking as Aloha Lake. It is quite relative though. It is a beautiful area well deserving of its popularity, and it was all amazing throughout the day.
After a lunch break at one of the many lakes, we shortly started climbing a nice easy climb up to Dick Pass. The climb was on the south side and only had a little snow in the upper reaches. Attaining the pass, there were amazing views of Dick Lake, dotted with mini icebergs of the last of the winter ice.
However, the instant we crossed over the 9,400 foot pass to the north side of the mountain, we were met with the expected snowfield. It was still quite heavy for about a mile down and mostly obscured the trail. It was nice and compact and consolidated though which made for easy enough footing, but always easier to travel snow than trail. One of these days soon we will leave all of the snow behind and just have dry trail to travel. I love the snow, but that will still be a welcome day.
Then it was just a short jaunt through the woods to Middle Velma Lake where we camped for the night. You can’t camp close to the shores of lakes in the wilderness, so no tent photo ops, but this would be the last lake within the wilderness, so I figured we had to stop here for the night.
It was a great day with tons of spectacular scenery of lakes ringed by mountains mostly free of vegetation due to being giant masses of granite. Truly great hiking, and glad that we didn’t rush through this area like many of the other PCT hikers who didn’t want to carry their bear can through it.