On the weekend of June 7 – June 9, the Philmont crew went backpacking in Desolation Wilderness to continue training for Philmont. We began our hike around 7:00 PM on Friday night from the Bayview campground (6,900 feet) near Lake Tahoe. We hiked 800 feet of elevation gain over just 1 mile to Granite Lake (7,700 feet), and arrived there just as it was getting dark to set up camp. The next morning, we had breakfast, filled up water, broke down camp and then continued our hike. We continued climbing in all elevation until we reached the pass (8,240 feet) to the Velma Lakes area. We took about a 15 minute side hike to the top of Maggies Peaks South (8,699 feet). From the top, we had great views of Lake Tahoe to the east, and we could also see the top of Dicks Peak sticking over the ridge, which was our goal for that afternoon. We continued hiking until stopping for lunch at a small pond. After lunch, we climbed up to Dicks Lake, where we setup camp, and we also ran into the Phlimont Venture Crew 380, who were also camping at the lake.
After setting up camp, we took another side hike with an attempt to reach the top of Dicks Peak (9,974 feet). There was quite a bit of snow, which completely covered the trail in some places. We were about to turn around, but our spirits were lifted when we saw some PCT through hikers coming the other way, and we knew that we were almost to the pass (as well as having a set of tracks to follow). We finally made it to Dicks Pass at 9,400 feet. After a snack break, we started up the east ridge of Dick’s peak with an attempt to make it to the top. Unfortunately, it was getting late in the day, and we had reached our predetermined turnaround time, so we had to give up making it all the way to the top. We still enjoyed really nice views from a 9,480+ high point on the ridge, where we could see most pretty much all of Desolation Wilderness. Instead of taking the trail back down, we found a faster (and more fun) way back to camp by glasading down the North Face of Dicks Peak and then hiking around the perimeter of Dicks Lake back to camp.
Back at camp, we enjoyed a delicious dinner of mac n’ cheese n’ spam and then we dove into our tents just as it started to rain! Next morning we broke camp, and then hiked out 5 miles to the Eagle Lake trailhead. Once there, we had lunch while the adults shuttle our cars over from the Bayview trailhead. Thanks to Mike and Ben for driving and to the crew leader Evan for providing excellent leadership. Also thanks to Peter for helping me shop for food and for organizing and dividing the food between the venture crew and the troop crew prior to the trip.
https://youtu.be/DaXA7SxDjBs
https://youtu.be/LUyA8AO9hUA
