Desolation Wilderness, June 2020
More snow than we expected
NOTE: see map of our trip on the last page of this photo essay.]
It was such a thrill to leave our shelter-in-place bubble and escape to the mountains. With everything that's happened in 2020, you may not recall that the 2019-2020 snow year was 53% of normal so we were surprised to see so much snow at 8,000 feet in June. Although June is typically considered early season backpacking in the Sierra, we expected little to no snow. Luckily the temperatures were mild so our trail-runners and wool socks dried quickly after getting soaking wet.
New Spring Growth
In places where the snow had melted, there were lots of signs of new spring growth, including our first wildflower sighting of the season.
Ice Sculptures
The ice on the lakes was melting quickly and we came across these incredibly beautiful shapes.
Reminiscent of Andy Goldsworthy
More of nature's art: this ring of wood wedged between the granite boulders and a snow field reminded me of an Andy Goldsworthy sculpture.
Second Night Campsite
When you apply for a permit in the Desolation Wilderness, you agree to camp for your first night in a preassigned zone. Because we got our permit at the last minute, we had to select a less desirable zone south of Lake Aloha. For our second night, we scouted out this beautiful campsite 100 feet from the shore of Lake Aloha - well worth the extra effort to move camp and scramble around off trail to find.
Auxiliary Dam Wall
Lake Aloha is actually a reservoir, not a naturally occurring lake. I first learned this on our PCT section hike from Sonora Pass to Donner Pass and I wrote about it in the photo essay from that trip. The topo maps for the region show a number of built structures including a spillway and that's one of the things that inspired us to choose this trip (besides the gorgeous scenery). We both really wanted to find the spillway (and it's not easy to get to when there's still a lot of snow and large areas of 6' deep melt water).
The Spillway
After a lot of scrambling, sliding around on snow and backtracking we managed to find the spillway. The dam was originally constructed in 1865 as a source of water for mining and consists of one main dam and 11 auxiliary dams constructed from native rock.
Commemorative Plaque
The spillway dam was enlarged in 1917 and commemorated by this modest concrete plaque. It is located in a difficult to reach remote location and even though I'm not a fan of dams, I have to admire the sheer physical effort that went into building it.
It's difficult to decipher some of the writing but it looks like:
Built
Sept 15 - Oct 15, 1917.
H.M. Bylless & Co
Engineers - Chicago
GEL - HMC
G.A.
Est. Elev
8210
Spillway Video
Here's a video of the spillway in action. The dam at Lake Aloha is now operated by PG&E to provide hydroelectric power to Sacramento. When the Desolation Wilderness was created in 1969, PG&E secured a non-wilderness right-of-way for this dam.
Mysterious Mylar Balloon
We often find balloons in the wilderness (where else do you think all those released helium balloons land?). This one was more interesting than most because of the inscriptions on it - leaving us with a mystery: who was "Baby"? The writing on the balloon reads:
RIP Baby.
Gone but Never forgotten December 25th 2012 - June 5th 2020.
We love you!! Le'Loni
Devine <heart>
Love you Baby, Sleep well, Dad.
Sorry Baby. We miss you already - Love Mom <heart>
Treasure loves you - Lee Wills <heart>
~Devon (Boyfriend)
Abandoned garbage
Whoever left this was blatantly disregarding the leave no trace principle of "pack it in, pack it out." We found this during our cross country adventure and the offenders had purposely stuffed a plastic bag with their empty beer cans and food packaging under a rock, hoping that no one would ever see it so far away from a trail. We always carry a large plastic trash bag with us for emergencies (usually to cover our packs if it starts to rain) and this time it was used to pack up this mess and haul it out. But this wasn't the most disgusting garbage we found, I saved that for the next slide.
TravelJohn!
On our last morning we woke up before sunrise. I went down to the lake to take photographs - it was so beautiful. I noticed this white plastic bag floating near the shoreline that had shown up overnight. Rob pulled it out and stuffed into the garbage bag. When we got home, I sorted through the trash to pull out recyclables and I was totally disgusted when I looked more closely at that white plastic bag - it was a TravelJohn! disposable urinal. It was floating in the lake next to where we had pumped water and washed our hands and faces. Ugh! Why would you carry this in the wilderness? Is it that bad to get out of the tent at night to pee? And couldn't you have carried it out instead of letting it get into the lake? Oh, I have so many questions!
Parting Shot
Here we are, two happy campers. It was such a boost to our morale to get out into the wilderness to sleep under the stars, do some exploring through the snow and well, even pick up some trash! Don't miss the map on the next slide.
Lake Aloha Trip Map
Here's a shaded relief topographic map of our trip. We began at the Echo Lake Trailhead off of Highway 50 near Lake Tahoe and camped in two different campsites. The orange shows where we hiked on trails and the green shows our cross country explorations.