Water Water Everywhere at Desolation Wilderness
Trip dates: May 28-31, 2021
With it being a low snow year this year, Desolation Wilderness was more accessible than usual over Memorial Day weekend. So I grabbed permits for my roommate/backpacking baby (she calls me her backpacking mommy because I’ve been showing her the ropes) to spend three nights backpacking, starting at the Loon Lake Trailhead.
We drove to her parent’s house in Placerville on Thursday after work, then finished up the 1.5 hours of driving we had left early Friday morning. The gate down to the trailhead was closed, so we parked off the road just before the gate. We arrived around 8:30 am and there were already a few cars parked, so it was a good thing we got an early start with it being a holiday weekend. The road walk down to the trailhead was less than a mile long, and there were (clean and unlocked!) bathrooms at the trailhead, which was a very exciting discovery.
Day 1: Strolling to Rubicon Reservoir
We reached the trailhead and started our hike to our destination for the first night, Rubicon Reservoir. It didn’t take long for us to hit our first set of blowdowns/fallen tree jungle gym. We lost the trail for a bit trying to navigate one giant set of blowdowns and I was very thankful for my GPS (BTW, I use Avenza Maps for navigating basically everywhere that isn’t the PCT).
After passing the first few sets of trees, the trail was easy and mostly flat with beautiful lake views. Note to self/everyone: dehydrated tabouleh does not make the best backpacking lunch.
After a short climb, we made it up to the wilderness boundary! It wouldn’t be much longer until we’d arrive at the reservoir to set up camp and spend the afternoon enjoying the water. Until the mosquitoes chased me into my tent just before sunset. They weren’t terrible, but enough to be annoying.
We felt like we had the place to ourselves, minus the gang of Canadian geese and the aforementioned mosquitoes. I kept saying, “I am very spoiled”. I feel that way every time I get to spend the weekend falling asleep to frogs croaking and waking up to birds chirping.
Day 1 total mileage: 12ish
Day 2: Rivers and rivers and rivers, oh my!
We packed up camp and got an early start on our way to Dick’s Pass. Day 2 is where things started to get more challenging/adventurous. Semi-sketchy river crossings first thing in the morning are one way to wake up. The Rubicon River at Camper Flat was moving quite fast, but we made it across. Surviving sketchy river crossings and being greeted by beautiful old Sierra Juniper trees makes everything ok.
I didn’t get photos of the other river crossings of the day because I had my camera in a dry bag in my pack. But…there was a lot of water. Especially once we were about a mile into the Velma Trail and after we got on the PCT. Snow melt had turned the trails into a series of tiny creeks once we hit about 7500 feet. The first crossing of the Rubicon River was the only one that felt a little bit questionable. The water was moving more slowly at all other crossings.
We sloshed our away along the swamp that was the PCT for a couple of miles and finally made it to the drop dead gorgeous Fontanillis Lake. We were pretty tired from a day filled with river crossings, elevation gain, and patchy snow, so decided to stop a few miles short of Dick’s Pass. Finding a place to camp was a challenge due to all of the snow, but another backpacker tipped us off to a good spot. I heard a clap of thunder and immediately set up our tent, just in case. My afternoon thunderstorm paranoia was warranted, because just as we’d finished cooking a pot of mac n cheese (made fancy with the addition of sun-dried tomatoes) for dinner, it started hailing on us. I inhaled my food as quickly as possible and took shelter in my tent.
The rain and stuck around for most of the evening, so we hunkered down in the tent and read until it was dark enough to fall asleep.
Day 2 total mileage: 8ish
Day 3: Good morning Fontanillis! Goodnight ATVs!
The previous night’s early bed time meant that I was awake before sunrise. At first light, I popped out of the tent to roll the rainfly back, crawled back into my sleeping bag, and watched as the sun began to hit the mountains.
After enjoying the sunrise, we had a quick breakfast and made our way back down to the trail. Our first creek crossing was within a minute of getting back on trail. It must have been the caffeine talking, because for some reason I thought I could make it across the creek on logs when I already know I’m terrible at that. I was about halfway across when I fell on my ass and ended up with a sizeable gash on my leg. At least the water was cold so I didn’t feel the cut happen. Lesson (re)learned: when there’s the option to wade, I should always wade.
We retraced our steps back to just outside of the Desolation Wilderness Boundary to camp for the night. I got my obligatory picture with a PCT trail marker.
Day 3 was another day filled with river crossings, so my camera stayed in its dry bag in my pack for most of the day. I decided to risk my phone’s life and kept it in my shirt pocket all day. Luckily it never fell out into a watery grave.
We set up camp outside of the wilderness boundary, about 6.5 miles from the trailhead so we could get a relatively early start driving back to Oakland the next day. Monday is when the crowds were out in full effect, along with a crowd of ATV folks across the lake from us. I guess that was an ease into returning back to noisy Oakland.
Day 3 total mileage: 12ish
Day 4: The end
Our last few miles out were quick and easy. Either I have a terrible memory or the wind was just as bad by the trailhead as it was up at Fontanillis Lake on Saturday night, because there seemed to be an extra blowdown jungle gym to climb through on the way out. I find it fun to navigate blowdowns…keeps things interesting!
Day 4 total mileage: 6.5ish
All in all, this was a REALLY great trip. Not too easy, not too hard, and what a payoff Fontanillis was! 10/10 would hike again (but not in the summer or on a holiday weekend, too crowded).
I want to start taking more video of my hikes, so I made a conscious effort to record a lot on this trip. Here’s my video of the two-day hike out to Fontanillis.
Also, life changes are happening! After 12 years in the Bay Area, I’m saying goodbye for greener (mountainier?) pastures. After spending some time in Florida later this summer, I’ll make my way to Salt Lake City in August or September. So I would love some outdoorsy Utah adventure recommendations if you’ve got them!
Till next time…
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