Nee's Journeys

This was my third time doing this wonderful loop trip.  The trail starts at Upper Highland Lakes and makes it way to the PCT, then breaks off to go over a saddle and into Paradise Valley before climbing up Disaster Creek and back to the trailhead.  The entire loop is about 16 miles.  I organized a meetup with Bay Area Backpacker Women's group & 3 others joined me on this trip.  This trail is great with lots of nice views but the real star of this trip are the wildflowers.  On Friday night we stayed at the Bloomfield campground which was extremely empty...us, the host and one other group.  I was really surprised given it was the 3rd week of July and the others campgrounds we stopped at were packed...oh well at least there was more peace and quiet.   We got to the trailhead around 9 AM and with beautiful blue skies we headed out.  Given what a light snow year it was I was really worried that we wouldn't see many flowers.  However, we were...

Second trip of the season and this time to Lake Aloha in Desolation Wilderness.  I had been to Lake Aloha years ago but took the trail from Fallen Leaf Lake up to the PCT and this time the route would leave out of Echo Lake on the PCT.  I was excited to get out into the wilderness with a group of hiking gals.  Unfortunately Friday night at Fallen Leaf Lake was a fairly restless one because the wind was blowing pretty hard and I was lucky if I got in a couple of hours of sleep.  When we woke up on Saturday the conditions were absolutely no better....oh well welcome to the Sierra Nevada.  We headed up to Echo Lake, packed up the beasts and headed out on the PCT.  The first 2.5 miles of the trip are very nice as the trail runs besides the lake a few hundred feet up.  The climb is also very gradual which makes this a great outing for beginner backpackers. Lake Aloha Pictures When we got to Upper Echo Lake some of our group had spotted the "Taxi" sign.....