Suggestion for 30-50 mile loop in Desolation

Marko,

I'll post a more detailed response when I have some time later, but for now:

I've been to Desolation Wilderness twice in the last few years, and both times I did some permutation of the following loop:

Parking lot / bus stop @ Emerald Bay -> Eagle Lake -> Dick's Lake -> over Dick's Pass -> Lake Aloha -> over/down Mosquito Pass and past Clyde Lake into Rockbound Valley via the Rubicon Trail -> through the valley and up the Velma Lakes Trail back towards Velma Lakes and Lake Fontanillis -> back to the parking lot past Eagle Lake.

I think this loop is at least 30 miles, but I'll check and post an actual count. If you wanted to extend it, you could kick around some of the trails to the west of the Rubicon Trail / Rubicon River (e.g. past Lake Doris / Lake Doris / Lake Schmidell). It's kind of difficult to extend it otherwise without going over your mileage limit, based on a quick inspection of the map.

How many miles per day are you hoping to do? There's good camping by virtually all of the lakes, but my favorites are Dick's Lake, Lake Aloha, and Lake Fontanillis (night 1, night 2, and night 3, respectively). That would make for a short/medium day 1, medium/long days 2 and 3, and a short/medium day 4.

Thanks for the reply. I'll probably do 10-15 mile per day. The good news is I have time off so I'm flexible about the time, anything up to a week. I haven't herd much good stuff about fly fishing in Desolation, but if there are some places that would be nice too. I've seen some youtube videos and some of those spot look like they would be fun place to go cross country, if only to find a secluded camp.

My first ever trip as a child was in the Desolation Wilderness with my dad….some great memories of that place!

Ill have to get my map out to give some ideas about trip ideas since its been a few years.

BUT….I do have to say there is some GREAT fishing there! Just have to do some research into which lakes. Some of the lakes get winter kill, and dont have any fish…but some are packed with fish! Ill check out my map later this weekend and post some trip ideas

Yeah, Desolation Wilderness is perfect for first-time backpackers (The two times I went, I brought a friend that had never been, and my dad who hadn't been in ~30 years. Both trips went fantastic–except for getting smoked out by the Yosemite wildfire last year). You get a taste of the High Sierra, yet it's extremely accessible.

Marko, I can't speak to fish (unless you're talking about Goldfish crackers, I ate a cornucopia of those). Looking at my map (I'll try to find a .pdf copy somewhere and mark it up), it looks like it would be possible/easy-ish to go cross-country to the SSE of Lake Aloha / west of Lake of the Woods. You could go: Lake Aloha -> Lake of the Woods -> Ropi Lake -> cross country (roughly: Osma Lake -> Pyramid Lake -> Waco Lake -> American Lake -> Channel Lake -> Desolation Lake).

It's about 5 miles from the Eagle Falls trailhead (I think I called it the Emerald Bay parking lot, which isn't strictly true–but it's close to there) to Dick's Lake, which I'm pushing since it's my favorite campsite there. I haven't done this, but I'm pretty sure if you walked off-trail to the western shore of the lake, you could find a nice secluded campsite somewhere on the rocky outcroppings overlooking the lake).

There are a variety of loops doable within or around Desolation. Two weeks ago I hiked from Echo, followed the PCT past numerous lakes to where the PCT is NE of Rubicon Reservoir, hiked off trail down to Rubicon Res. and tied into Rubicon trail and hiked back to Lake Aloha via that. This hike has you repeating the first/last 7.5 miles. If using Aloha I time my exit for a Friday or Saturday as that trail head is extremely popular. If you go further N_W there is a jeep trail and you will run into people. A version of that loop entering from any of the Tahoe trail heads would be excellent. I typically access from the west because I live extremely close.
ETA For me Desolation is very conducive to off trail travel. Generally, if the topo lines don't touch- it can be traversed. There are numerous lakes to add to a given loop for extra miles/scenery.

I'm a bit prejudiced here but I think I know somebody who can help a great deal. He's not an 'online guy' but I'll get him to log in and take a look at your thread…..