Sunday, July 06, 2008

One Week Ago

One week ago, we started a backpacking trip into the Desolation Wilderness Area southwest of Lake Tahoe. 'Twas my birthday.

The trip started with a water taxi three miles up Echo Lakes.
52-Lower Echo Lake Boat

53-Christina Lower Echo Lk Boat

54-Chunlin Lower Echo Lk Boat

And then we had to start walking. A couple hundred yards in, we were on the Pacific Crest Trail.
63-Echo Valley PCT

Shade was appreciated. Chunlin danced to Christina's ipod.
68-Chunlin Ipod Tamarack PCT

At Lake of the Woods, we stopped for lunch.
77-Christina Chunlin Naptime

It was a good thing we rested so long, because my shortcut leaving Lake of the Woods wasn't all that great.
82-Christina Chunlin Woods Hill
Who would've thought that there wasn't a good trail all the way around the lake? Big boulders and cliffs kept pushing us further and further up the hill. A perfectly good trail sat unused on the far side of this hill, a quarter mile away. But we pressed onward.

We waded across Pyramid Creek and climbed up the cliff on the other side.
99-Channel Hill American Lk
It certainly wasn't the quickest way to our destination that I took. Coming back on Tuesday, we didn't take the quick route either. But now, after two circuitous cross-country routes, I know the best path to take.

It was getting late. Six o'clock or so. I was worried we weren't going to make it. We could've camped many locations along our route, but we had a permit for the Waca Lake area, and that was really where I wanted to camp. When we finally caught sight of Waca Lake, we dropped our packs.
102-Waca Lake

Chunlin started cooking soup. I went to find a campsite. I had wanted to camp between Waca Lake and Lake Aloha, but cliffs blocked us, so we camped on the hill southeast of Waca Lake.
106-Chunlin Waca Camp

This turned out all right, however, because it gave us a great sunset.
116-Waca Pond Lake Sunset

After 2.25 days of vacation, I've posted 121 photos on flickr. No such thing as too much of a good thing!

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