Page 1 of 1

Ralston Peak 9,235 Day Hike, Desolation Wilderness 10/7/06

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 8:52 am
by madeintahoe
Saturday 10/7/06 Kerstin and I did a day a nice hike to Ralston Peak 9,235..starting the hike at Echo Lakes. When I got up that morning it was a sunny Blue Bird day. Starting on the trail the clouds were already starting to happen. We decided we would just see what happens as we can always turn back.

The weather really improved and we got to the peak with the sun shinning down, but it was windy & very very cold. Only stayed a short while on Ralston & decided to eat lunch further down where it was warmer.
The hike out was great, saw a few backpackers & day hikers. They are either still releasing water from Lake Aloha or have done it... the water is way down & also Echo Lakes is really down. We heard some really beautiful song birds singing along while we hiked..pretty cool
We had a beautiful hike, Fall is for sure here. Glad we got this hike in, got 6" of snow on Monday Tuesday. :crybaby: :crybaby: I took a few pictures of the hike.
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/554713524EhTYbo

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 9:13 am
by Trailtrekker06
Nice shots and cool area. I gotta get up there some day. Thanks Anita!

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 1:02 pm
by Snow Nymph
Aloha Lake, in your photo there's a lot of small lakes. Isn't the lake really big? The water level is really low! Beautiful pics, and I was laughing while looking at your "group shot"! Those always get the biggest smiles! :D

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 8:03 pm
by tomcat_rc
I enjoyed you picttures very much - nice to see area that I dont get to very much - I was hiking up in north fork today and met another tahoe hiker - will post picts tomorrow when I am not so tired - hope you finally got to view my picts from independence - i didnt take any pictures of red x's

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:38 pm
by giantbrookie
Snow Nymph wrote:Aloha Lake, in your photo there's a lot of small lakes. Isn't the lake really big? The water level is really low!
Lake Aloha is actually a reservoir run by PG&E; it serves to put more summer flow into the S. Fork American River (this also means that Horseshoe Falls is maintained with more flow later in the year than it would be without the dam) helping in a very minor way to maintain flows downstream on the S. Fork for hydropower generation. A small dam raises the water level in the basin so that a bunch of lakes, including a pretty big natural one in the northern part of the basin, become one. By fall the water level of the reservoir has generally dropped quite a bit and the original multiple lakes are revealed--these lakes were called (also the "official" name of the dam) the "Medley Lakes".

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 9:14 am
by madeintahoe
Thank you Tomcat! I too like looking at areas I do not get to a lot. I know Kerstin from this board hiked to Lone Pine Lake on Wednesday..wonder if you two saw each other in passing? Im going to try to see the rest of the pictures from your independence hike :D

Giantbrookie, Great explanation for SN thank you for posting that. Yes, the Medley Lakes. My favorite lakes down below the dam is Channel and Desolation Lake..that whole area down to Ropi and Horsetail Falls is really gorgeous I think :)