Desolation trail work

[Paul Wagner]

Now that I am an official part of the volunteer team for the Desolation Wilderness, I am supposed to spend a few days actually doing something there–as if I needed a reason to spend more time in the mountains!

So I spent that last two days hiking up to Maud and Gertrude Lakes, cleaning up the trails as I want. I made sure that campsites were regulation size, shape and location, and even spent a little time chatting with hikers at the trailhead, just making myself available to them if they had questions or concerns.
Of course, I did get to spend two days out on some of the most beautiful trails in the Sierra…

And I hiked some great trails, met some great people, and even watched a Search and Rescue operation…from the trailhead.

And did I mention it was beautiful?

In all, it was good fun.  I spent a few hours chatting with hikers at the Twin Lakes Trailhead,, where I met and talked with more than a hundred hikers. I moved more rocks and branches than I could count, and was thoroughly impressed with the visitors to Desolation Wilderness, who left very little except some footprints.

As usual, here’s the link to all the photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/sUMpzAgjVzyRdi9E7

And a link to the full trip report on our blog: https://www.backpackthesierra.com/post/desolation-trail-work

[AK Granola]

Thank you for your efforts. I recently completed a Tahoe Rim Trail through hike and loved Desolation! Even though there were plenty of people on that stretch, where the PCT and TRT overlap, I found quiet campsites with a bit privacy, and really enjoyed the hiking. I appreciate all the volunteers who help with trails!

[Alex Wallace]

Thanks, Paul. Beautiful area and I appreciate you helping to keep it that way.

I was up at the Twin Lakes TH just a few weeks ago and noticed the new fancy electronic kiosk near the parking lot & campgrounds.

[Paul Wagner]

Here’s an update: I spent another two days in Desolation Wilderness, taking out a few more campfire rings, knocking down some more camp furniture, picking up some more trash, and generally trying to Leave Less Trace than there was before.

If you’re interested in exactly what that means, there are more details (and more photos) here; https://www.backpackthesierra.com/post/volunteer-trail-work

[Paul Wagner]

More trail work that is, this time hiking out of Wright’s Lake to Grouse, Hemlock and Smith Lakes. As usual, the goal was to pick up trash, clean up the trail, and remove any fire rings that might have been built.

Well, there was no trash, really. I did pick up a small plastic Sutter Home White Zinfandel bottle that someone probably dropped, and a few bits of micro-trash, but that was about it. And I found only one fire ring–ironically, way up on the ridge above Grouse Lake where I had decided to camp. I made quick work of that in the morning.

 

But my goodness, there were a lot of unnecessary cairns on this trail—even on the section that I had cleaned up only two weeks before. I must have knocked down at least sixty of the things, some of them directly across the trail from each other! And on the way back down, I found that someone had added another 15-20 of them…so I knocked them down again.

Crazy.

Meanwhile, I heard from a couple of hikers that the fire rings I removed two weeks ago from Twin Lakes were back…and happily, I was able to share that with another volunteer who was headed up that way, and promised to take them down again.

Geez.

I did get a nice sunset–and a few more photos, as well as some wonderful conversations with other hikers. The link to all my Desolation Volunteer photos is here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/sUMpzAgjVzyRdi9E7

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