Nee's Journeys

Trip Logistics      When - July  16– 17, 2016      Desolation Wilderness – Echo Lakes to Waca Lake      Total Elevation Gain – Approx 1000 ft.      Total Mileage – Approx. 16 miles; Partial off trail Pictures Desolation Wilderness, as most know, is hardly Desolated so I’m always looking for places that may not get too much foot traffic.  After studying the map I bit I settled in the area to the South of Lake Aloha - Channel Lakes, American Lake and Waca Lake.  Since Waca Lake was a bit further from the trail I chose that as our weekend destination.  From Echo Lake this is about an 8 mile hike with minimal elevation gain - less than 1000 feet.  I couldn’t find many trip reports about this lake and what was the best way to get there.  I saw one report from someone who took a less than ideal route and spend much longer trying to find the lake than needed and another report from a f...

Trip Logistics      When - June   26– 28, 2015      Hoover Wilderness – Virginia Lakes to Yosemite NP – Tuolumne Meadows      Total Elevation Gain – Approx 1500 ft.      Total Mileage – Approx. 25 miles        Pictures This is part 1 of a section hike I and my friend Steve are doing from Tuolumne Meadows to Tahoe.   Our first section we planned to hike was Ebetts Pass to Sonora Pass in 3 days.   When Steve went to go check on where to pick up our permit we found out that was a bit of a wildfire burning by Markleeville and that Highway 4 at Ebbets Pass was closed…so much for getting the first section of our section hike done…and this meant a quick choice of a plan B.   Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne was offered up and I shot it down since I decided I’d like to skip the 100 degree heat at the start of the hike and I still haven’t quite recovered from my rattlesnake encounter on...

When – June 14 – 15, 2014 Tahoe National Forest – Sugar Pine State Park to Lost Lake – Trail Elevation gain from Sugar Pine to Lost Lake – approx.  15 00 ft One way hike from Sugar Pine to Lost Lake – approx.. 8 miles Lost Lake – approx.. at 7500 ft Pictures -  https://www.flickr.com/gp/57882009@N02/049o92/ This was an unexpected destination.  I had originally planned a trip in Desolation Wilderness on the west side of the Wilderness.  Unbeknownst to me there had been a huge wind storm the fall previous to this trip and it had knocked down several trees in the area that we were suppose to hike.  While I love the online permit system for Desolation it would have been nice if it had been able to restrict the permits in that area since there was no estimated opening date and the area as far as I know did not open all summer...oh well.  I figured this all out a week before the trip and we were set on backpacking so I began to search for alternatives. ...

Trip Facts:   72.2 miles    Elevation Gain – 15,531 feet – who’s counting?    8 Days – 7/11/14 – 7/19/14    Pack Weight – 53 lbs – It was the camera gear   Who: Nora, Lorraine, Jas   Pictures   Camping Spots:  Bearpaw Ghetto (okay it’s really Meadow)  Upper Hamilton Lake    Big Arroyo    Moraine Lake    Junction Meadow    Crabtree Meadow    Guitar Lake I will not write a detailed day-by-day account of the trip just some of the highlights and lowlights from the trip.   While it’s great to have a good idea of what your trip will and could be look like there should always be some surprises.   Figuring out the logistics of this trip is of course a challenge.   In our case we had someone who volunteered or perhaps was voluntold to pick us up at Whitney.   We rented a min-van from the Bay Area and drove to Visalia to stay over...

Trip Logistics When – July 3 – 5, 2014 Emigrant Wilderness – Kennedy Meadows to Unnamed lake above Iceland Lakes – Partial x-country route Elevation gain from Kenedy Meadows to unnamed lake – approx..   2700 ft One way hike from Kennedy Meadows to unnamed lake – approx.. 9 miles Unnamed Lake – approx.. at 9200 ft Pictures -  https://www.flickr.com/gp/57882009@N02/4F110W/ I’ve fallen out of the habit of doing a write up after each backpacking trip and this is my attempt to restart.   For the last several years I’ve always gone backpacking on the 4 th of July.   I miss the fireworks but being in the backcountry makes up for that.   This year we did a trip in Emigrant Wilderness with the intent to get to Iceland Lake.   The same trip participants from last year were in attendance this year – me, Curtis, Steve and Nora.   Our trip got started out with margaritas and great Mexican food in Alameda.   We a...