Lake Tahoe Backpacking Trips
Backpacking Desolation Wilderness with the EveryTrail Team
Emerald Bay, California, United States
13.8 miles
13.8 miles
"testing our product" is a great excuse for a weekend trip to Tahoe's Desolation Wilderness. The engineers at EveryTrail (Benoit, Matt, Michael, Paul, Werner, and I) drove up early Saturday morning for this weekend trip. We parked around 1 and had a quick breakfast of wraps with hummus, tomatoes, cucumbers and cheese, put on our packs and started our trek. The first 2 miles were steep but had some great views overlooking...
I drove up to Tahoe at 4am with Loren, David, and Thomas for this 2-day backpacking trip. We started at Glen Alpine and hiked 2 very steep miles along a very poorly maintained trail. So poorly maintained that we lost the trail and had to scramble up the rocks and through the thick brush. Then it started to pour and we heard thunder, things couldn't be much worse. Eventually, the skies cleared,...
Emerald Bay, Velma Lakes & Tallac - Desolation Wilderness Area
South Lake Tahoe, California, United States
18.0 miles
18.0 miles
Starting at Eagle Falls near South Tahoe, my med school friends Ben (now in EM at Stanford) and Joe (now in EM at UCSF) joined me for a loop backpack trip through Desolation Wilderness. We traveled along the PCT for part, sleeping at the Middle Velma Lake the first night and Gilmore Lake the second night. Easy peaks on this route are Dicks Peak just off of Dicks Pass and Mt Tallac....
Lake Tahoe: Echo Lake to Aloha Lake and Beyond
South Lake Tahoe, California, United States
15.3 miles
15.3 miles
A journey into Desolation Wilderness that started early in the morning on Saturday. With a lot less mileage than normal, we started off from the parking lot at Echo Lake in the direction of Lake Aloha. Unfortunately, there is no public potable water at the parking lot, so we had to start the trip with minimal water. Also, I had slept less than a couple hours the previous night, and I could immediately...
Another great backpacking weekend in the Sierra, brought to us by Rebecca (Calipidder)...We hiked from the trailhead at the Wilderness Parking lot by Loon Lake, to Buck Island lake. It's about 6 miles. The first part of the hike, along Loon Lake was mostly flat and shady. The second section, leaving Loon Lake, and climbing up to a pass between the two lakes was more exposed, and very "rocky". The altitude and...
An epic adventure: up, Up and UP to a series of alpine lochs (err... lakes) in the high Sierras, with Daphne, Panza and Dingo, Beth and Toby, Mig and Allison and Sierra and Pepper. Five humans and five dogs add up to BIG fun!
This was my first trip into Desolation Wilderness and it was exactly what I had hoped.... except for the beginning when I forced to park in the "overflow" parking and walk a mile on asphalt to get to the trailhead. Wrights Lake is packed with people and it was a little unnerving until I hit the trail. They soon thinned out as the trail ascended and I saw only a few other...
This trip was not a good idea.That is not the fault of the hike (although it's not the best hike, see below), but because I was completely out of shape when I did it and because the only weekend I had available was when it seemed most of the Sierra was on fire and filling the air with smoke. But that was the weekend I had, so I went.The hike itself is...
Being one of my first hardcore backpacking trips, it was quite a wake-up call as to what things are truly necessary. Most important thing: high calorie fuel!Views were spectacular. I'm writing this description after having done many more hikes, and thinking back; these views of desolation were among the best.This was a 3 day 2 night venture with plenty of leisure time, and great for any beginner or novice.
