To say this past weekend’s jaunt into the woods was
exceptionally challenging or admirable is a stretch but it made my heart happy
and laid another brick in what has been an excruciatingly long road to
recovery. I have to thank Erik for sticking with me through it and agreeing to come on all of my ad-hoc adventures no matter how small, daunting, or ill-planned.
Erik and I went up to
Desolation Wilderness this weekend on somewhat last minute permits to prove that I could
frolic around in the wilderness with 40 or so pounds strapped to my back.
Rockbound Lake
Saturday morning we departed the Bay at the leisurely time
of 9am and moseyed up the ranger station off of 50 to see if I could get better
permits than those acquired online two weeks ago. If nothing else, the most
valuable takeaway from this excursion is the Internet is a filled with lies and
there are always more permits magically available for taking in person at a
ranger station. The friendly ranger listed off a dozen additional zones open to
us and we settled on the northwest corner of Desolation, sacrificing large
granite walls in hopes of avoiding people and “jeepers” (redneck men driving
recklessly on rocky dirt roads)*.
We started our 7 mile hike in from Loon Lake, which is actually a manmade reservoir created back in the 70s to preserve snow melt overflow from Buck Island and Rockbound Lake above. Loon Lake is massive.
Loon Lake
After 4 miles of gentle uphill on a dirt trail adjacent to the
lake you turn to the right to get on Rockbound trail. The trail quickly turns
from dirt to chunky rock and gravel. A couple more miles and you’ll pass Buck
Island, another large impressive reservoir about half the size of Loon Lake.
From here Rockbound Lake comes up quickly. A little bushwhacking took us down
to the water and subsequently fellow backpackers. I was disappointed to see other people in my wilderness and so Erik set out to find
a more secluded spot. Some light scrambling and tree traversing gave us access
to our own little island.
Rockbound Lake from our mini island
Of course water that beautiful could not go untouched. If
you have the fortune of securing a mini island in an alpine lake to yourself
you have to go swimming. The water was perfect.
Campsite, Rockbound Lake
It is easy to forget how striking the stars can be without
the light pollution of cities; add in a crescent moon and the Milky Way was
really quite stunning.
Some damn artistic trees
Buck Island Reservoir
The hike out was uneventful and lovely. Back down to Loon
Lake for a quick swim before hopping in the car and sitting in the parking lot
that is I-80 on Sunday afternoons.
Loon Lake
Desolation Wilderness is a pretty special place and makes
for an easy win if the mountains are calling and you can’t ignore them any longer.
This certainly won’t be my last trip up
this season.
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