Loon Lake, Desolation Wilderness California

July 27-28, 2018
     My Dad, Boyfriend, and I all went on a backpacking trip last weekend to Loon Lake in Desolation Wilderness. We had a Zone 5 camping permit, but later realized that there are no trails in zone 5 and had a hard time bushwhacking our way there. We ended up camping near Loon lake (about a half mile climb down big rocks)

        We backpacked about a total of 12 miles. Even though there was a trail, we decided to rough it and head off into the wilderness on our own. We had a map of Desolation Wilderness and a compass and that's how we found our way. We did pretty good but had a hard time getting through the mosquito infested brush. At almost dark we decided to turn around and find a good place to set up camp.

         There were many bear warning signs at the beginning of the trail, so we made sure to bring bear maze and be prepared for them. We didn't have any encounters with any bears though. We put our food in a sack and counter balanced (just to be safe), but we had no bear related problems.

     The next day we decided to go down to the lake and swim. To our delight there were many rocks large enough to cliff jump from. (the highest being about 20 feet).

      I highly recommend just roughing it in Desolation Wilderness, and Loon Lake is for sure somewhere I will be going back to.  Peace out Girlscouts (: