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Desolation Wilderness
July 22-25, 2005
Friday morning, after acclimating for an evening in South Tahoe's lovely Motel 6, the Durnell family and Grant boys marched into the Desolation Wilderness.
Over 5 miles, we gained almost 2000 feet, which translated to about a gazillion rest and water breaks.
Even so, we all wanted to join Rob in laying down, but knew if we did we might never get up.
We finally arrived at Gilmore Lake, surrounded by wildflowers freshly emerged from the snow and home to multitudes of mutant mondo mosquitos.
Our family likes to eat well, even backpacking, so we brought quite a pile.
We quickly discovered the only respite from the mosquitos, aside from in the tents, was in the water.
The next morning, we discovered Kirby had hurt her foot, so we wrapped it in an Ace Bandage and told mom to stay with her.
We discovered how close Mount Tallac really is to Lake Tahoe.
PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Durnell
The following day, in an effort to escape the mosquito zone, we hiked down to Suzie Lake. We met a Pacific Crest Trail through-hiker who was hoping to make it to Canada by October--fat chance the weather will hold.
A little above Suzie Lake, a river had cut a cave through some ice.
Bryan thought it was good enough to drink.