Conditions in Southern Deso
Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 8:30 am
My girlfriend, Sport wanted to hike to above HT falls. Last Saturday we departed from Twin Bridges to investigate the conditions above the falls.
I would like to share a caveat to any person thinking of taking this route. “Take my advice… don’t listen to me.”
The following is quoted from Jeffrey P. Schaffer’s “The Tahoe Sierra”, page 208:
“Not only is the trail unofficial, it is, in places, essentially non-existent. It is also one of the most dangerous routes mentioned in this book. Supposedly a number of hikers have fallen to their deaths trying to follow it.
If you need a guidebook to stay on route, you shouldn’t be on this sketchy trail…Also, if you haven’t hiked this route, don’t hike it alone – you might have to be rescued.”
I would also like to thank HST poster Oleander for giving us some very good route finding tips in a PM.
Normally I post my TRs in the fishing hole but I really don’t have any fishing to report and I thought many people here could benefit from this report on conditions in Deso.
This picture gives you a good idea what the trail looks like.
Here is another good picture of the trail.
Here is a picture from above. There is also a lot of steep boulder scrambling. Look at those all-terrain dogs! Eventually we made it to the top and then hiked along Pyramid creek. I tried to catch a little brookie whenever I came across a pool like this. It was a very beautiful and picturesque day. Once again, I have to give Sport most of the credit for these pictures. It is a good thing she does the photos. If it was me you would get a lot pictures with my fingers on the lens. We began to cross a lot of snow as we gained elevation. Eventually we reached the lake. Ropi was about 80% frozen over. There were some open areas. I tried to catch a fish but had no luck. It was a waste of time. Everybody knows "They" have gillnetted all of the waters in Deso. The frog thing ya know.
This picture doesn’t do a very good job of showing how hard frozen the lake was on the north and west sides. There is still a lot of snow on the north and west side of Ropi as well.
We had a great time. There was only one other group of campers and they were quiet in spite of being very young. There were only a few mosquitoes at dusk. The nighttime temps had to have been in the thirties.
We headed back the next day. We investigated an alternate route down the cliff. This is a picture of where the trail construction crew decided the trail needed a guard rail. Our alternate path led us to a manzanita choked path nearer the falls. We back tracked a little to the west and found ourselves on top of a 20 foot cliff. I was standing on the edge of the cliff, looking down, with my backpack off and a rope in my hand. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a gentleman appeared. He offered his help. He ended up catching both of our backpacks, finding the safest crevice to climb down and even provided a foot hold where there was none. I also had to climb half way up to grab each of my dogs by the scruff and pass them down to him.
We thanked him and he made a comment that could be the theme of HST. He said, “Up here, we have to rely on each other”.
Thanks for reading my TR.
-Russ
I would like to share a caveat to any person thinking of taking this route. “Take my advice… don’t listen to me.”
The following is quoted from Jeffrey P. Schaffer’s “The Tahoe Sierra”, page 208:
“Not only is the trail unofficial, it is, in places, essentially non-existent. It is also one of the most dangerous routes mentioned in this book. Supposedly a number of hikers have fallen to their deaths trying to follow it.
If you need a guidebook to stay on route, you shouldn’t be on this sketchy trail…Also, if you haven’t hiked this route, don’t hike it alone – you might have to be rescued.”
I would also like to thank HST poster Oleander for giving us some very good route finding tips in a PM.
Normally I post my TRs in the fishing hole but I really don’t have any fishing to report and I thought many people here could benefit from this report on conditions in Deso.
This picture gives you a good idea what the trail looks like.
Here is another good picture of the trail.
Here is a picture from above. There is also a lot of steep boulder scrambling. Look at those all-terrain dogs! Eventually we made it to the top and then hiked along Pyramid creek. I tried to catch a little brookie whenever I came across a pool like this. It was a very beautiful and picturesque day. Once again, I have to give Sport most of the credit for these pictures. It is a good thing she does the photos. If it was me you would get a lot pictures with my fingers on the lens. We began to cross a lot of snow as we gained elevation. Eventually we reached the lake. Ropi was about 80% frozen over. There were some open areas. I tried to catch a fish but had no luck. It was a waste of time. Everybody knows "They" have gillnetted all of the waters in Deso. The frog thing ya know.
This picture doesn’t do a very good job of showing how hard frozen the lake was on the north and west sides. There is still a lot of snow on the north and west side of Ropi as well.
We had a great time. There was only one other group of campers and they were quiet in spite of being very young. There were only a few mosquitoes at dusk. The nighttime temps had to have been in the thirties.
We headed back the next day. We investigated an alternate route down the cliff. This is a picture of where the trail construction crew decided the trail needed a guard rail. Our alternate path led us to a manzanita choked path nearer the falls. We back tracked a little to the west and found ourselves on top of a 20 foot cliff. I was standing on the edge of the cliff, looking down, with my backpack off and a rope in my hand. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a gentleman appeared. He offered his help. He ended up catching both of our backpacks, finding the safest crevice to climb down and even provided a foot hold where there was none. I also had to climb half way up to grab each of my dogs by the scruff and pass them down to him.
We thanked him and he made a comment that could be the theme of HST. He said, “Up here, we have to rely on each other”.
Thanks for reading my TR.
-Russ