I went hiking in Desolation Wilderness July 2–5, 2017, with an unplanned extra travel day on July 1 because of car trouble. I camped at Lakes Doris, Schmidell, and Maud.
Shortly after getting my wilderness permit, I noticed smoke and brake odor from my front left wheel. Here I am in Pollock Pines after parking my crippled car, looking for a motel.The only room left was this giant suite.Jehovah's Witnesses' materials next to the Gideon Bible, never saw that before.Check out the weird vertically raised comma in this sign.By some miracle, an auto repair shop was open at 4 PM on a Saturday, and the necessary parts were on hand nearby.Repacking in preparation for resuming the next day.For the first 10 miles or so, I continued to notice a brake smell on the left side.The brand-new left rotor had this scoring and scorching near the inside diameter.The brand-new right rotor didn't have anything like that.Anyway, the smell went away after a while, so I carried on, having been set back a day.About ready to head out.Wright's Lake.Rockbound Pass, my first night's destination, far in the distance.Interesting and varied terrain.Thinking of Maud you forget everything else.In places the runoff made the trail more like a stream.Rockbound Pass looking west.Marmot.Rockbound Pass looking east.Rockbound Pass. Elev. 8650.Much more snow on the east side, hardly a dry patch anywhere.First night's camp.Lake Doris, still mostly frozen over.Bear bag.The snow was probably 10 feet deep in places, as evidenced by the melts around tree trunks.Weather station.Big, fresh tracks. Maybe a mountain lion?Lake Schmidell, mostly snowed over.Navy plane flying overhead.Second night's camp, tent well camouflaged.Lake Tahoe barely visible from the ridge.Weird fungoids on a wet piece of driftwood.Check out how the needles grow and tightly hug the branches.Steep and difficult snow.I guess these are marmot tracks.Back up at the pass.Looking west. Kind of looks like a golf course.Here's where I stepped and broke through a crust of snow.Red-winged blackbirds were at Maud Lake.Sitting by the lake and pumping water.Marmot up close, I am one with nature.Third night's camp.The book I was reading, Invisible Man.I practically stumbled over a doe and two fawn about a mile from the trailhead.Duckies.Clear green.
