The wind was supposed to stop at midnight. It did not. It continued all night long. Occasional large gusts battered the tent throughout the night. I got no sleep. I do not think Journey slept much either as I could hear her tossing and turning all night long.
It was still windy in the morning. I expected there to be mosquitoes and I bought a new device which supposedly would keep them away but I did not get to test it out because there were none, thanks to the wind. I had to make our breakfast in the tent vestibule again. Journey enjoyed her special breakfast but I could not eat much. We packed up and left early, at 7:30AM.
The photo is Lake Lois Falls. You can tell it is a pretty big cascade but there is still snow covering some of it. If I had waited to come later when the snow was all gone, by then the waterfall would be much reduced in flow. Maybe if I had come a couple weeks later it would be better but I doubt I will ever come back here again even though it is a beautiful place.
Both Journey and I were very tired on the hike back. Due to lack of sleep? Due to the hike being so hard? Due to me still recovering from sickness? Due to all of the above?
There were no mosquitoes so I was very happy about that. The snow was hard and icy on the climb up to the pass. Spikes would have been proper but I did not have mine. Journey was running on ahead in the snow and had no issues. From below it looked pretty treacherous but it really was not because there were footprints I could walk in and dig my feet into the snow.
It was all downhill from the top of the pass but I was just so tired. We stopped at Maud Lake for water and rest. A good decision because there were no mosquitoes there (I figured there would be some at the Silver Creek crossing where we stopped on the way up). Shortly after Maud Lake I stopped for lunch. It was very early for lunch but as I said I was tired. And hungry. After this rest I seemed to gain some energy and was ok for the rest of the hike. Journey, however, was not. She was tired and lagging. Whenever we stopped for a rest, even a short one, she plopped down on the ground. We took quite a few rest breaks and eventually we made it back to the car. It was 2PM. Journey needed the rest of the day and the next one as well to recover completely. I bought her a hamburger on the way home. She deserved it. It was a marvelous overnight trip in the Desolation Wilderness.
I have been sick (again). I have not been hiking in a few weeks. Finally this weekend I felt like 100% again so I thought it would be good to take Journey on one last backpacking trip before summer. I thought about going to Eastern Sierra but I just did not feel like making the long drive over there and Journey hates long car rides so it would not be good for her either. How about something closer to home? How about the Desolation Wilderness?
It was supposed to be windy all day Saturday. That would keep the mosquitoes away. Sunday would be a different story. We arrived at Mosquito City (aka Wrights Lake) just before 9AM. The wind had not started yet but there were no mosquitoes so that was good. The recreation area is not open (which was very surprising) so we had to park before the gate which adds a half mile or so to the hike. The parking lot was already almost full.
We started our hike. The wind started right on time at 9AM. My pack was very heavy. It was 40 pounds because I was carrying all Journey’s stuff as well. I need to buy her a new pack but I have not done it yet so I figured I would just carry all her stuff this time. I am sure she was happy about that. Me, not so much.
About halfway you have to cross Silver Creek. I was a bit shocked how much water was flowing in the creek. It was deep and up to Journey’s belly. She was leery but she did well crossing it.
The total hike is 8 miles one way with 1500 ft. elevation gain. That is not so bad except almost all the gain is in the last two miles before the pass. This was a very tough climb. I was absolutely beat. Heavy pack, no exercise in weeks, you get the picture. Journey seemed to do well but if she was carrying a pack she would have struggled.
When we got to the top of Rockbound Pass it was extremely windy. It was almost blowing us off our feet. We quickly continued off the pass and encountered a lot of snow on the north side. Journey was ecstatic about the snow, running back and forth down the steep slope while I carefully tried to make my way down without slipping and falling. Journey has built in micro-spikes on her feet. Ha ha.
It was very windy at Lake Lois where we planned to camp. There was one group camped at a spot just before the lake and they may have been out of the wind for the most part but there was no other place. We crossed the outlet stream to the spot I camped at last time. It was very windy here but there was nothing else so I set up camp here. Once I got the tent set up I was happy with how it was handling the wind. The gusts were 50mph and they were constant. The tent was being blown to pieces but it was holding up.
I could not cook my dinner because the wind blew out my stove immediately. I tried to block it from the wind with big rocks but that did not work. The only way I could cook is from the tent vestibule which was out of the wind so Journey and I sat in the tent while I made dinner in the vestibule. Journey thoroughly enjoyed the dehydrated meal that mom made for her. After dinner we had 1.5 hours before we had to go on our evening hike. Sitting outside in the wind was out of the question so we laid down in the tent. I forgot my kindle (stupid) so all I could do is listen to the wind batter my tent to bits for 1.5 hours. It was crazy.
In the evening we hiked down to Lake Schmidell. It is only a half mile but a big 500 ft. descent. Coming back up afterwards was tough because I was so tired. There was not much wind down at Lake Schmidell but there were mosquitoes. My goal on this trip was to photograph the two waterfalls at Lake Schmidell and Lake Lois as they were all covered in snow the last time I was here. They are not great waterfalls but I thought the one at Schmidell would be a lot better (pictured here). You could not get up close to it and there were a lot of trees blocking the view. Well, I managed and did the best I could.
When we got back up to our camp at Lake Lois the wind had died down. It was still quite windy but it was not crazy wind. We got into bed and (tried) to go to sleep.
It was Mother’s Day. I thought I would invite my wife on a hike. This would be her first hike since her hip surgery. I thought a 2 mile round trip hike with 500 ft. elevation gain would be a good one for her. She thought so as well. Journey was like: Huh? Mom is coming hiking with us? Woo hoo!!
The plan: Little Robinson’s Valley Falls. Tara has never been up to Robinsons Flat before. Shocking perhaps, but all the hikes up here are very difficult, so perhaps not. Along the way, I pointed out all the significant locations: Mumford Bar, Beacroft, Ford Point, West Fork New Canyon, Tadpole, Canada Hill, Sailor Flat, New York Canyon, and finally Robinsons Flat. She was like: I don’t care. None of these places mean anything to me whatsoever (joke). I was like: But these are my favorite places in the world!
We arrived at the trailhead. No one was around at all. There was still a tiny bit of snow at the beginning but that soon disappeared. Journey had the zoomies running back and forth on the little snow patch as we started hiking. She was very happy. There were quite a few gnats but not any mosquitoes. They were a bit annoying.
It took longer than I expected hiking down to the waterfalls. Tara had trouble walking on the loose rocks and had to go very slowly. There were quite a lot of them. Journey hiked close to mom the entire way, waiting patiently for her and not running ahead. We made it down to the upper falls. It was late now so I left Journey with Tara while I quickly went down to the lower falls. I took some photos and hurried back. We had an hour to make it back up the hill before sunset. We did it, getting back to the car just as the sun was setting. Tara did very well on her first hike after surgery. It was a grand ole Mother’s Day at my favorite area in Tahoe National Forest.
I did not really want to hike this weekend. I had too much stuff to do around the house and to get ready for my big hikes coming up next week. However, my wife was out of town for the day and I had Journey all to myself. She needed to get some exercise no matter what. I decided to head up to Ice House for a quick and easy hike. Jaybird Canyon Falls should be flowing very well.
The weather people said it was supposed to be cloudy by around noon with rain coming in later in the afternoon. That did not happen.
We arrived at the waterfall at about noon. There were clouds but they were very light clouds so the sun was shining through and it was quite bright. We ate our lunch at the falls and waited around for quite a while. Journey was very patient and laid down in the grass while I waited for the clouds. I managed to get one decent photo of the waterfall I think. On the drive home the heavier clouds did seem to roll in so I think it would have been much better if I had gone a couple hours later than I did. C’est la vie, right?
It is not a difficult hike but Journey seemed to be lagging and quite tired on the climb back up to the car. Was it too hot for her? I don’t think so. Was she still tired from playing too much fetch with mom the day before? Probably. Anyway, we had fun. It was a lovely afternoon in Eldorado National Forest.
I had to take the day off work because my daughter had a big dance show in San Francisco. Why they did this in the middle of the week I have no clue. Anyhow, we did not have to leave until the afternoon so that meant I could take Journey on a good hike somewhere in the morning. But where?
We had a big April snowstorm last weekend. Two feet of snow in the mountains. Too little too late, I think. If we had this storm in March it would have been many feet of snow. Nonetheless, an April storm is beautiful. I love it. It would be nice to go up into the mountains and hike in the snow and see a good (or great) waterfall. Bassi Falls here we come (again).
The forecast indicated there would be possibly 1.5 feet of snow in this area. I thought that might be too much for Journey. And also, parking could be a big issue if they had not cleared the trailhead area off Ice House Road. I decided to try it anyway. We got up there at sunrise. Thankfully they had cleared some space to park and there was only about a half foot of snow. I was surprised about that. I wondered if all the snow had melted in two days or they just never got the amount forecast. Probably the latter.
Even a half foot of snow was difficult for Journey. It was crusty and she was sinking in. She was struggling but the good thing was someone had been in here already with snowshoes. If we walked in the snowshoe tracks it was a lot easier. For the most part Journey did this. She let me go ahead and she followed in my steps but she had problems if she wandered off the tracks at all. If she had a choice between going in the snow or through a huge puddle, she always chose the puddle. She is smart and also silly.
I brought Journey’s water but I forgot my own water. That was stupid. Thankfully it is an easy hike and I did not need it (also, I may have drunk some of her water – hummm). I saw fresh bear tracks in the snow. That is the first time this year I have seen any, but no bear unfortunately.
We arrived at the waterfall and I took my usual photos. There was less water flowing than when I was here in April last year. I thought it would be better today. I had also thought there would be more snow at the waterfall but it had mostly all melted. Oh well. It was a fun day in the snow at Bassi Falls.
