Best bets for early season in western Deso?

[neil d]

My son wants to take a couple of his friends on a 2-night backpack somewhere in Desolation. The rub is that the only date that works for everyone is June 16. So I'm wondering if the Deso experts on this board have a good feel on lakes that might be accessible in early season.

I prefer west side entrances, and also prefer fishing. That's a tough combination. I recall that Twin Lakes gets pretty good southern exposure, and there might be enough dry ground to camp on. Any other suggestions?

Cheers,

Neil

[FeetFirst]

I've always had good luck early season entering at Loon Lake and working my way towards Rockbound/Rubicon. The trail along the S side of Buck Island will most likely be flooded and avoiding it can get thick. Otherwise, you should be fine. Fishing can be good in all lakes along the way too. Headnets & DEET!

FWIW, I went on June 30th last year:

[maiathebee]

You'll be able to go pretty much wherever you want by mid-June. Snowpack is tracking pretty similar to 2014:

getSWCGraphWidget1.png (61.66 KiB) Viewed 189 times

(scroll to bottom for legend)

And in 2014 Deso looked like this mid-June:

View south from Dick's Pass by Maia Averett, on Flickr

(more photos here: https://plutoniclove.com/2014/06/25/ech ... ilderness/)

[Tom_H]

With the low amount of precipitation that came this year, my guess is that you can easily get to any lake in Desolation by that date, especially if it's only one day from a trailhead. The thing to be most concerned about is blood-sucking mosquitoes.

[neil d]

Thanks all, looks like it will be worth our trouble, but will need to camp high to escape the squeets.

[s0rce]

I went from Loon lake to Rockbound lake around that time last year and there was little to no snow. I heard from some other backpackers that the creek crossings past Rockbound were getting harder, however, I was justing spending the night at Rockbound with my dog and a book. Considering how much less snow there is this year you shouldn't have a problem in this year and might be able to consider some of the higher spots. Have fun!

[Tom_H]

How many vehicles will you have? This will determine whether you can do point to point or need to do in/out or lollipop route. Are you willing to hitchhike a short distance along Why 89? How many miles per day do you think your group can manage? How experienced and in what physical shape are the boys? (This will affect how many miles and how much uphill climb they can handle.)

[neil d]

Really surprised to hear that the Rockbound Lake drainage doesn't hold much snow, I figured north-facing slopes would make that problematic early in the year. That may be a possibility, especially with a shot at good fishing.

Tom H - no option for point to point, and probably not into hitch-hiking with the kids. Both kids are strong, up to 8 miles would probably be OK. Only doing 2 nights, so probably just base camp and fish. Rockbound Lake or Twin Lakes would fit the bill.

Although I typically reserve permits in advance, I'm thinking I'll just hit the ranger station on the way out Friday morning and see what's available. This also allows me to get one of the Desolation permit punch cards that WD discussed in a thread last year.