El Dorado National Forest - Loon Lake Trip

Dates: July 11-12, 2009 Duration: 2 days, 1 night Mileage: ~10 miles Group Members: Nick McGuire, Amanda Eberle (co-guide), and 8 participants Pack Weights: Nick (~37 lbs) Contacts: Pacific Ranger District - 7887 Highway 50, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 (530)-644-2349 Notes: My first trip guiding with UC Davis' Outdoor Adventures. We had originally planned to go to the Carson-Iceberg wilderness but when we turned off Hwy. 50 near South Lake Tahoe to head south we found out that two of the highways we needed to drive on were closed due to a bike race. We decided to turn around and head back towards Desolation Wilderness and drive up to Loon Lake and camp just outside the wilderness boundary so we didn't have to get a permit. Route Map Available! Outbound Travel: Left Outdoor Adventures around 7:30AM and headed east on Hwy 50, turned around when we found out the roads were closed when we got to Luther Pass Rd near South Lake Tahoe. Headed to the Ranger Station outside Pollock Pines to pick up a map and verify that we didn't need a permit. Then headed back to Icehouse Road and drove North towards Loon Lake. A motorcycle accident in front of us stopped both lanes of traffic for about half and hour so we didn't reach the trail head parking lot till around 12:30PM. Day 1: Left the Loon Lake parking lot around 12:45PM and hiked for about 30 minutes before stopping for a lunch break. We continued to hike along the trail which follows the south shore of the lake for a ways and soon noticed that some dark clouds were moving in from the south west. We were several miles in when it started to sprinkle a bit but luckily we were close to one of our possible destinations, Spider Lake. We quickly headed off the main trail and down to the western shore of the lake where we lucked out and immediately found a large well established campground. We setup camp, filtered water and cooked dinner, all of which was punctuated by scattered bursts of rain. Scouted out a tree for a bear hang after dinner and setup the rope before scavenging for dry wood for a campfire. Roasted marshmallows and chilled by the fire till around 11PM when everyone retired to either the tent or the megamid we had brought. Three of us, including Amanda and I had planned on sleeping out under the stars and thankfully I had brought a tarp so we had something to cover our bags with and hide under when it rained off and on. It probably rained 3 or 4 times during the night but never very heavily so we didn't get too wet. Day 2: Amanda and I woke up around 6:00AM and made breakfast for ourselves and one of our participants who was up. No one else had gotten up by the time we were finished so we went back and chilled in our sleeping bags for a while till everyone else got up around 8AM. Boiled some more water, started breaking down camp slowly, and filtered some more water too. Although it was still partly cloudy the weather was pretty warm and the lake was way too inviting so Amanda and I went for a swim. The water was actually really nice although we both got cold after 15 minutes or so and got out. Finished breaking down camp and headed out around 11PM. The trip back was quick although we stopped for a little while to do a short map & compass seminar. We reached the trail head parking lost a little before 3PM.

Home-bound Travel: Left the trail head parking lot just after 3PM. The road changed names at one point and we thought we were on the wrong one so we ended heading back up towards the parking lot before we realized that the roads just overlap and the road we were on was still Icehouse Rd, even though the sign said different. Made it back to Davis around 6PM.

Home-bound Travel: Left the trail head parking lot just after 3PM. The road changed names at one point and we thought we were on the wrong one so we ended heading back up towards the parking lot before we realized that the roads just overlap and the road we were on was still Icehouse Rd, even though the sign said different. Made it back to Davis around 6PM.