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Desolation Wilderness Northeastern Loop
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Desolation Wilderness
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July 2nd - July 7th, 2021
44.3 miles
6370 vertical feet
38 hours, 33 minutes
Rating: 8/10
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Directions:
From Placerville, take Highway 50 east for about 21 miles.
Turn left onto Ice House Road. Follow it for about 28 miles
and turn right at the sign for Loon Lake Campground. Stop
at the main entrance to pay for parking. Then continue past
the entrance, turn right and follow the signs for Wilderness
Parking about 3/4 of a mile away. You can also approach
from Auburn, using Wentworth Springs Road.
View Driving Map
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View full map
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GPX File
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We would have liked to have backpacked outside California this year, but with
the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, we decided to stay in state again this
year. In March I reserved some permits for Desolation Wilderness in early July.
At that time it already seemed like a dry winter so snow probably wouldn't be
a problem.
I had been hoping to leave the Bay Area earlier, but we didn't leave until around
3pm. So we got stuck in 4th of July weekend traffic, getting into Auburn around
6:45pm. There were heat waves throughout much of the West in the weeks leading
up to this point in time, and there would be heat waves after. Like crazy
115 degree weather in places. At least it was "only" in the 90's in Auburn when we
arrived, and I knew it would be cooler up at the higher elevations of Desolation Wilderness.
There are campsites closer to the trailhead (in fact there's the Loon Lake campground
right near the trailhead), but everything had already been booked by the time I started
checking. So I figured a motel not too far away would be ok. Auburn and Placerville
are both possibilities (about the same distance from the trailhead), but Auburn had better
availability which is why we chose it. We checked into our motel, had dinner, and got
ready for our hike starting the next day.
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