On the weekend of June 22nd 2007, Hiking-n-Stuff's “insert club name here” went on a backpacking trip into the Desolation Wilderness, beginning from Wright's Lake and making camp at Island Lake (8,000 ft). The group was nine strong the first night, losing one backpacker the following day to international jet lag. There was no snow left on the trail to camp, but residual snowfields, not yet chased away by summer sun kept the group from summiting Mt Price without ice axes. However, Little Pyramid (9441 ft) and a satellite of Price were climbed from camp.
Island Lake itself provided much fun and amusement, from a floating mat of wet, squishy grass to the ongoing possession and capsizing war over the inflatable lounge chair, though the lake itself was quite cold.
Posted by squishy on Monday, July 02 @ 18:19:16 EDT (606 reads)
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May 26th 2007 Lake Sylvia
Toxo and Adam heard the call of Desolation once again on the last weekend of May. This time, they followed the trail much traveled in the southwest region and arrived at the shores of Lake Sylvia in the afternoon to be greeted by a few groups of day hikers. After setting up camp and consuming their daily requirement of Knob, they ran up to the plateau surrounded by some of their favorite Desolation Peaks: Pyramid, Price, and Agassi. Above is a picture from a frozen crater lake looking towards Pyramid.
Unfazed by fresh bear tracks in the snow, they returned to the plateau the next morning and almost conquered Agassi, stopping about 10 ft. shy of the true summit due to questionable climbing conditions. They found themselves refreshed and joyful on the way back to civilization that afternoon, as hard as it was to leave the wet and fertile Wilderness behind.
Posted by toxoplasma on Thursday, June 07 @ 15:59:06 EDT (509 reads)
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Horsetail to Ropi 2007
On May 20th the group gathered for our 1st backpacking trip. We tested our new backpacking gear and scouted the Desolation Wilderness to check the melting snow level. Adam, toxo, lew, aeger, luis and squishy all took part, lugging our 35lb+ packs up 1000ft to the top of horsetail falls and beyond. To our surprise the snow had given way early and we were able to reach Ropi lake before pitching camp. Our campsite was second to none, we had great views of Pyramid Peak and the whole Crystal range not to mention the lake and moving water all around us due to the snow melt. Lew was brave enough to dive in the half frozen lake, and we also summited a small peak nearby and explored the waterfalls and other features of the area.
