R09 TR: West side Desolation Wilderness 7/25-7/28 2010

[millertime]

Finished up a 3 day hike in Desolation Wilderness. Made a loop from the Twin Lakes trail head up to Island Lake where we would camp the first night. In the morning we climbed the bowl to the backside of Mount Price and down the pass to Lyons Lake. From Lyons Lake we made our way over to Lake Sylvia which we reached by around 1:40pm and set up camp. We had originally intended to make our way over Pyramid Peak and camp on its eastern slope but we had done enough climbing already for one day. On the third day we headed back to the Lyons Creek Trail and headed east until we intersected the Bloodsucker Trail (which was a pretty hot trail) which took us back up to Wrights Lake.
GPS track: http://wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=1062311" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I've been to Island Lake before, which is (to my knowledge) one of the most lush area's in desolation wilderness, but never hiked up the bowl behind it. Hiking up the bowl to Mount Price was a great hike if the ground wasn't solid rock, it was lush and green. Snowmelt everywhere.

Mosquitoes were out at dawn and evenings but mostly disappeared given sunlight. Id rate them at 1.5. Maybe see a couple during the day given enough shade and still water, light at night. By light I mean maybe a total of 20 in camp but are held at bay with deet and permethrin, if in the tent I woudlnt see more then 8 on the mesh.

I'll post a few pictures but if you want to see the whole set I'll post the link to my flickr page.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17893090@N ... 606704994/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Camp at Island Lake


Above Island Lake



Day 2
Dawn


Starting the ascent





Descending to Lyons Lake




Lake Sylvia

[maverick]

Thank you for the TR, and pic's Millertime.
How did doggy handle the steep snowy sections?

[millertime]

So the dog, Clyde, as you can tell is my friends dog, is a boxer/pit bull mix. Clyde did very well in the snow, walked right up it like it was dirt haha. I was slightly concerned at first but if worse came to worse the snow could have been avoided.

[maverick]

I could tell it was a boxer+something mix, but the photo's were not conclusive
to be sure of the something.

[millertime]

Yeah I never took any face shots of him. Impressive dog though, could definitely handle a few more days of that. Can't say I'm an expert on dogs and backpacking though.

[windknot]

Nice shots of a pretty area. Thanks for the report!

Matt