We returned to desolation wilderness again last weekend, joined by Melissa and Brea. Note: It was not snowy like shown in the trackplot.

We weren’t able to get a walk-up permit for our original destination of Lake of the Woods, and instead decided to stay at Tamarack Lake Friday night. Brea drove us up to the Ralston trail head at about 2:30 and slogged up 2400 vertical feet over 3 miles . . . we were all burned by the time we made it to the trail summit. As we continued on the trail, you could see the lake about 1/2 mile in the distance, and so we decided to bushwhack our way over there to save a couple of miles. This evolved into some rock scrambling, which I think scared the girls who hadn’t been to Horsetail a couple of weeks before (Cynthia only complianed mildly). Melissa became especially concerned when she saw a snake amidst the rocks and had to face her phobia. We finally made it down to the lake level and found a nice campsite as dusk was settling in. I managed to fish a bit, but lost two flies snagging tree branches and didn’t didn’t have much time with the fly actually in the water. It was super frustrating, because the fish were feeding all around me, and I knew I would have had a good chance if I’d had a little more time. As it got dark, bats came and were chasing my fly line around. Unfortunately, the camera we’d borrowed from Dave died at this point (I borrowed it at the last second before leaving and hadn’t had time to charge it), so we didn’t get any pictures of the next two days.
Saturday was relatively easier as we headed to a small, unnamed lake near Lake Aloha about 4 miles away. Most of this followed the Pacific Crest Trail, which I’d seen described in books as a “freeway” . . .it lived up to it’s name with lumber reinforcement and even boardwalks in some spots. Arriving around noon, we found a heavily used camp with a elaborate windbreak made from piled rocks. Chipmunks lived in it and got into our trash and some granola I’d forgotten was in my bag when we were away from camp – basically everything we hadn’t hung. Cynthia and I went for a rock climb on a nearby high point, and we got a really cool view of most of the desolation valley. Lake Aloha was very dry – more like scattered mini-lakes – but we could see most of the other mid-valley lakes on the map in the and vowed to check them out on a future trip. Returning to camp, I waded into the muddy bottom of our lake with my rod. . . there weren’t any fish in it as far as I could tell, but it was good practice casting with and against the wind, and a relief to not have to worry about getting snagged on brush.
The next day was the had longest distance (~8 miles) and best views of the trip as we woke early and retraced our steps via the Ralston again, but this time turned to take the half mile summit path all the way to the top of Ralston Peak- these were the best views of the weekend, and when I most wished for a working camera. We made it back to the car at about 11:45 for a total trip of 16.2 miles, and stopped on the way back in Placerville for some In’nOut burger. Cynthia had really stepped up our meals on this trip to yet another level (I had lemon and shrimp rice with egg drop soup the first night, pasta carbonara with chicken the second), but my animal style cheeseburger was especially fantastic.

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