Aloha Lake - Desolation Wilderness
July 11 - 13, 2014
Mark and Coral headed out on a solo trip, after some friends ended up with a conflict. We began our hike Friday morning at the Echo Lakes trail head at 7500 feet. Opting to take the 2.5 mile trail instead of the boat ferry, we began our journey around Lower and Upper Echo Lakes. The greenery around the Lower and Upper Echo Lakes was florescent and beautiful. Soon after we passed Upper Echo Lake, the trail started to become rocky. Really rocky - rough, uneven, bumpy, stoney, and jagged. This made for a tough trek. We passed mountains of broken granite rock as we climbed and climbed. Not soon enough, we met up with a dirt trail surrounded by a lustrous meadow filled with an abundance of wild flowers. Literally, the most array of wild flowers I’d ever seen in the backcountry. Once we arrived at Lake Aloha, we nestled into a campsite, which gave us a stunning view of expansive granite surrounding the pure blue waters of Lake Aloha, all under the hard spire of Pyramid Peak. Saturday morning we enjoyed coffee at the pristine lake, amazed at the magnificent reflection of the mountains on the still water. We grabbed our day packs and hiked along Lake Aloha, winding our way around cool granite protrusions over to the entrance of Mosquito Pass. We spend most of the day swimming and exploring the surroundings. We could hear a pack of wolves howling from the west side of Lake Aloha as we rested upon slaps of flat granite. We met two guys who had been on the PCT since May 2. They began at Campo and were hoping to arrive in Canada by mid September. They met each other on the trail in San Diego after starting out solo. It was interesting chatting with them and hearing about their journey. Once we arrived back at our campsite, we enjoyed more swimming before dinner. The water was so refreshing, even at 6:00 pm! Evenings at Lake Aloha were met with an incredible full moon that lit up the entire lake reflecting off the granite that surrounded us. Coral mostly enjoyed her new gift - the REI Flex Lite chair - Thank you Annette! It was perfect on the granite slabs beside the lake and well worth the extra pound to carry. Sunday we packed up and headed back to the Echo Chalet. The hike back was much easier, descending down that rocky trail! We stopped for lunch in Placerville and enjoyed In and Out cheeseburgers and fries. Total miles: 16