Dates: August 13-14, 2011 Duration: 2 days, 1 night Mileage: ~XX miles Group Members: Nick McGuire, Amanda Eberle Pack Weights: Nick (~32 lbs) Contacts: Pacific Ranger District - 7887 Highway 50, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 (530)-644-2349 Notes: Single night weekend trip up to the Desolation Wilderness. Figured we would try a new area so we headed up to Loon Lake and set our sights on an unnamed lake in the remote Zone 5 (Brown Mountain) without any trails. Reserved a permit online for the first time at http://www.recreation.gov/ Route Map Available! Outbound Travel: Left Davis at 7:30AM. Reached the Ice House Rd turnoff at ~8:45AM and parked in the Wilderness Parking Lot (free) at Loon Lake Campground at 9:30AM. Day 1: Left the Wilderness Parking Lot at Loon Lake around 9:45AM heading east on the main trail towards Spider Lake and the entrance into Desolation Wilderness. The trail conditions website had said (as of 7/9/11) that there was snow in Zone 1 (Rockbound Lake) but that the trail was free of snow. The conditions for Zone 5 were unknown with the possibility of snow. There was no snow in sight anywhere that we could see except for the tallest distant peaks to the south which had patchy snow on the north side. We stopped for lunch along side Buck Island Lake a little after noon and reached the Wilderness Boundary sign at 12:45PM. We continued along the main trail along side Rockbound Lake until we reached the creek crossing that feeds its South end. Just before we reached it we ran into a small troop of rangers on patrol, showed them our permit and discussed our plans before moving on. Since our destination goal was a small unammed lake at the source of the creek we figured we would attempt to use the creek as a handrail to make the cross-country trip up to it. As we feared the terrain closest to the creek was rather wooded and brushy making route-finding difficult. By staying a short distance away from the creek to the North we were able to slowly pick our way up the hillside through less dense forest and brush although there were a couple spots that were a bit challenging. We eventually made it up to flatter terrain that had more granite slabs than trees and were able to reconnect with the creek. We hiked along it for a ways, meandering back and forth, losing it at times navigating through patchy forests and around marshes. After several hours with no lake in sight (although the terrain and landmarks indicated we must be close) we decided to climb up a small bluff that would give us a better vantage of the area. Partway up we finally spotted the lake, which we had gone past, likely due to the fact that the creek coming out of the lake was dried up and instead the main creek we had been following was being supplied by runoff from higher up. We made are way down to the creek, hiked halfway around the lake and found a couple trees to set up our hammock around 3:30PM. The location wasn't perfect, more brush than granite, but was the best we could find. No signs of anyone around. Ate dinner and went to bed around 8PM. Mosquitos pretty bad around 8PM by the lake although we had already encountered a lot along Loon Lake in the shady wooded areas and our hike up along the creek. Day 2: Woke up around 7:00AM and had breakfast. Broke camp and head out just after 8AM. We knew from the previous day that the region north of the creek alongside Rockbound Lake looked less brushy and not too steep so we figured we could head almost straight down to the lake. We were able to successfully navigate towards a long crest of rock blocking most of our view of the lake and headed down a slot to its north-west. With a clear view of the lake and the terrain ahead we were able to make almost a straight-shot all the way back to the main trail along the mid-point of Rockbound Lake. The terrain here was mostly granite slabs and low brush so it was much easier going and were were able to make it down in only 50 minutes (8:55AM). Right as we stepped back onto the trail we ran into the same ranger who had checked our permit the previous day and shared our experiences with him. He and his troop had been patrolling the campsites around Rockbound Lake sighting a lot of campfire violations. Continued heading out on the main trail reaching the Wilderness boundary at 9:05AM, turnoff for Spider Lake at 10AM and finally the parking lot at 11:40AM. Home-bound Travel: Left the trailhead parking lot around 11:50AM and made it home sometime a bit before 2:30. Bad traffic in Placerville per usual at the 3 sets of stop lights.
