July 23, 2026
On Friday I dropped our oldest off at Two Sentinels Girl Scout Camp. Luckily I was able to snag a backcountry permit for Desolation Wilderness for Friday -> Sunday! I think this is the second time I’ve been out there, but the first trip was cut short due to some grumpy kids.
The backcountry passes for Desolation require you to spend the first night in the zone you selected, but any further nights can be spent in whatever zone you want. My pass was for the Lake of the Woods zone and I decided to start at the Pyramid Creek / Twin Bridges trailhead.
The first few miles are an absolutely brutal climb from the valley floor up to Avalanche Lake. There’s not really a trail for most of the way, and the “correct” route is almost entirely unmarked, at least as you climb up. The 1000 foot climb is just scrambling from boulder to boulder and trying not to get yourself into a situation where you need to rock-climb (or even worse, down climb). Luckily, if you have a Topo map on your phone and you follow the “trail” religiously, you’ll probably make it up just fine.
Camping at Lake of the Woods is restricted to designated campsites. There are some larger ones that were all occupied by families, but there were plenty of smaller sites. None of them are especially far off the trail; it felt like my privacy was at risk BUT the trail to Lake of the Woods doesn’t really go anywhere, so there weren’t people walking by.
My stove on this trip was a Toaks Titanium Siphon Alcohol Stove and a Titanium Windshield Stand. The windshield stand was a kickstarter backed by myself and 20 other people. They don’t sell this combo on their site (yet) and I have no idea why. It’s the best fricken combination I’ve ever used. The setup weighs 149g and I can cook my dinner using <28g of fuel. The windscreen / stand combo is 10g lighter than Toak's current lightest alcohol stove setup and much easier to use. I'd recommend it to anyone.
The next day I walked past Lake Aloha and took the PCT past Heather Lake to Susie Lake. Lake Aloha was gorgeous, as expected, but also remarkably crowded. People weren’t touching or stepping on each others toes, but nearly every campsite on the lake was occupied. What a gorgeous lake though. If I weren’t such a wuss about cold water, I definitely would have swam.
For lunch, I stopped at Susie Lake. Lots of nice campsites around Suzie. I had some cheese and beef sticks while filtering water and doing some fishing. I didn’t catch anything or even see any fish. I don’t really care though, the fun of fishing for me is having an excuse to stand around beautiful mountain lakes and just dick around.
After getting kicked out of my spot by a family who wanted to camp there (not their fault! I was happy to give up my spot to someone who was actually going to sleep there) I hiked back past all my previous lakes to try to find a good spot at Ropi Lake.
I never did find a camping spot. I’m sure there must have been tons there BUT navigating around endless peninsulas and little fingers of Ropi Lake was exhausting and I hiked back to a flat spot near Avalanche Lake I had seen the day before. Total hiked from Lake of the Woods to Suzie to Avalanche Lakes was 14 miles, and I was beat. I ate dinner and was asleep by 8:15.
Climbing down Horsetail Falls the next day was significantly easier! The top of the trail has a ton of bright red blazes that guide you down. Unfortunately you can only see them from above, so they wouldn’t have helped me on Friday. At least I have my trail to follow next time I climb up this way.
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9d52e36 · 2026-02-19 14:55 UTC