A month ago, a couple of friends and I decided on a three day backpacking trip in the Desolation Wilderness. By the time we left, California was enduring two large scale forest fires. Also per usual, we did little to no planning.
Our original itinerary had us doing around 30 miles with 6,700 feet of climbing. This so called "plan" changed on route.
3 days
26.5 miles
7,600 feet of elevation gain
9,974 max elevation
Map
Our day started on Friday August 3rd. We arrived at Twin Lakes trailhead around 10:30 am and set out for Rockbound Pass.
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| Saw a marmot about 10 minutes in. |
There were quite a few trail intersections on the way to Rockbound Pass. All of the signs are fairly clear on where they lead to, but we were not paying attention and made a wrong turn around 3/4 of a mile in. Eventually we figured it out and retraced our steps.
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| A nice sign |
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We eventually made it back to our correct trail and started our way Rockbound Pass. The smoke was a little tough so we took it slow as we made our way up.
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| Entering the smoke |
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| A brief stop at Maude Lake |
A couple miles after Maude Lake is when the ascent begins. Just keep on grinding and you will make it to the top.
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| A view of Rockbound Pass from a distance |
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| So close! |
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| View of Lake Dorris from the pass. |
We eventually reached the pass and began our descent towards China Flat. The smoke had just begun to fade away making hiking much more pleasant. When we reached China Flat, we took a left and continued on towards Camper Flat
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| Hiking our way toward Camper Flat |
Eventually we made it to Camper Flat. We set up camp for the night and enjoyed a well deserved dinner.
We woke up the next day, ate breakfast and broke down camp. We modified our original itinerary and decided to head straight for Mosquito Pass.
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| A little break in the meadows |
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| Little Pyramid Peak |
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We were feeling pretty good and moved fairly quickly toward the pass. The smoke had cleared up a fair amount from the previous day so we were definitely moving a lot faster than the previous day.
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| Mosquito Pass is just around the corner! |
Eventually we made it to Mosquito Pass. We took a quick break and dropped most of our gear and began our ascent towards Jacks Peak.
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| Our objective off in the distance. |
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Almost all of the route was class two with a little bit of class 3 which is easily avoided. A bit of a slog, but still enjoyable.
We took a little break at the summit but it was quite windy on the summit so we were up and down. I did not manage to take any photos, but my friends did grab one of me.
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| The fetal position is the only summit celebration. |
We descended the same way we came up to where we dropped our gear. From there we grabbed our cooking supplies and made our way to Lake Aloha.
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| Lake Aloha |
After spilling my dinner and a little bit of rest we headed back up to the pass. From there we set off towards Mt. Price.
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| Up we go! |
After a little climbing, we found a nice place to set up camp. We thought the rocks would do a good job of blocking the wind, but we were oh so wrong.
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| Our little campsite. |
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| Bear canister did a great job and kept a vicious California Bear out. |
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| Sun setting |
We played some cards and watched the sun go down. We thought we would have an alright night but were we oh so wrong. The rocks did little to protect us from the high winds. The temperature at night definitely felt pretty close to freezing. We toughed it out and were up by 5 am to get an early start on the next day.
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| Used a rock as a tripod. |
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| Our objective |
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| Looking towards China Flat |
The wind was still going so we decided to skip hot breakfast and settle for bars. We broke camp and were heading towards Mt. Price by 6am.
We moved our way towards Mt. Price fairly slowly. It was a bit cold, but at least the wind had mostly gone away by the time we made it to the ridge. We took the easiest saddle that was closest to the peak itself. Up until then it had been only second class climbing. This is when the short third class began.
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| Nick crushing the ridge line. |
Most of the climbing was fairly straight forward. None of the moves were very hard, but some were a bit airy and definitely require commitment. Route finding was not particularly hard as well. You are either on easy to hard fifth class or third class terrain. After some slow climbing, we eventually made the summit!
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| Partners on the summit! |
From there we took a break and began our descent. Our original plan was to descend to Twin Lakes and follow the trail there back to the parking lot. After looking at the descent from Mt. Price and our map, we decided to shoot for Smith Lake instead thinking it would be easier. In reality it was not that bad, but kind of a pain. We had to do some back tracking a couple of times but made it to the lake in good time.
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| Traversing towards the pass |
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| Descending to reascend |
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| Smith Lake after descending from the pass in the top left corner |
After we made it to Smith Lake, we just followed the trail towards the Twin Lakes Trail. When we made it to that trail we took a left and followed it to the parking lot.
All in all, quite a fun and relaxing trip. The hiking and climbing was great but the company was even better. I would highly recommend the Desolation Wilderness anytime.
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