[Journal entry for December 20, 2014; Floating Island Pond, Desolation Wilderness, near South Lake Tahoe, California]. I drove up to the Sierras last night and checked into the Motel 6 in South Lake Tahoe, arriving just before midnight. In the morning, after a quick breakfast at the Seven-Eleven, I drove west on Route 89 to the SnoPark that’s just west of the bridge across Taylor Creek. The SnoPark is an elaborate paved lot, but didn’t have a parking permit, not did I want to spend the time driving back to town to procure one, so I parked at an unpaved lot on nearby Cathedral Road, hoping that I wouldn’t be ticketed (which I wasn’t). I set off down a woods road that headed southwest, through sparse evergreen trees, towards the northern shore of Fallen Leaf Lake. The weather was pretty marginal, with light intermittent rain, but with some signs of a clearing sky. I was hoping to at least get into snow at the higher elevations (which proved to be the case). A thin layer of wet snow was on the ground.

I took a short detour to visit the dam on Taylor Creek, the outlet stream of Fallen Leaf Lake. The lake is oval in shape, set in a glacial valley well above the level of Lake Tahoe. It is similar in shape and situation to nearby Cascade Lake, to the west; both are most contained by the glacial moraines at their southern ends. The dam on Taylor Creek is concrete, with a walkway over the top. I stood on it, gazing out over the lake, which was grey and misty. I then continued west, first crossing Cathedral Road again and then bushwhacking uphill to joint Mt Tallac Rd A. This road terminated in a small parking lot by a Forest Service kiosk. I obtained a (free) wilderness permit there. I then took the Mt Tallac Trail (unblazed), through open evergreen woods, up the flank of Mt Tallac. The snow slowly deepened and I soon donned my snowshoes.

The walk up the Mt Tallac Trail is very pleasant, with many great views of Fallen Leaf Lake and Lake Tahoe. The scenery today was subdued, owing to the clouds and light snow, but as the morning progresses, the sky brightened a bit and a thin sun began to shine through the clouds. I reached a level spot on the shoulder of Mt Tallac, way below the peak, where the trees were especially tall. I came to tiny Floating Island Pond, which is perhaps only a hundred yards long, in a glade in these woods. It was covered with ice, and appeared to have no island, floating or otherwise. After poking around the shore for a few minutes, I continued on the trail, which followed the inlet stream uphill, passing some small marshes.

The land gradually opened up to some largish snow fields, which gave good views of some of the rocky spurs on the flanks of the mountain (though not of its peak). The snow was three or four feet deep on them, so picking out the trail was difficult and the progress was slow. I crossed Cathedral Creek by stepping from stone-to-stone. It’s a narrow but lively creek that descends down a steep valley, to empty into Fallen Leaf Lake, far below.

The afternoon was getting on, so I decided to take a trail down to the shore of Fallen Leaf Lake, rather than to continue uphill on the Mt Tallac Trail. However, I could not find the intersection, on account of the deep snow. I opted to make a long southerly traverse of the hillside, doing my best to maintain a contour, in expectation of intersecting the trail as it descended from above. This was perhaps unwise, for bushes made the snowshoeing difficult and the steepness of the hill made the contour hard to hold. I could have gotten myself into serious trouble if I had missed the trail, for the vegetation further down slope was dense enough to be impassible. Fortunately, I found the trail in about a half hour of plodding, and once on it, the hike down to lake level was very easy. I took off my snowshoes about half way down. I decided to continue south and hike a loop around the country roads that circle the inhabited southern and eastern shores of the lake. The last little section before reaching Fallen Leaf Road is a bit difficult, for it crosses a stream and some jagged rock ledges.

The walk around the lake, past numerous summer houses and several camps, was very pleasant. The sky had cleared a bit and the view of the lake and of Mt Tallac was very nice. I passed numerous tall trees, including Ponderosa Pine, Sugar Pine (with its extraordinary large cones) and Incense Cedar. This loop around the lake was quite a bit longer than I had expected – maybe seven miles – and daylight was waning by the time I reached Route 89. I spent a few moments admiring Taylor Creek as I crossed the highway bridge, before taking the SnoPark road back to my car.

Seven hours.