Schlomiel, Shlomile, Schmidell Lake

It's been awhile since our last long hike in Desolation, so we decided to venture out to Lake Schmidell on Saturday.   It's a little over 9 miles from the Bayview Trailhead (our trailhead of choice, since descending a dusty horse trail is much easier on the knees than the rocky steps of the Eagle Falls trailhead), and takes you into the Rockbound Wilderness are of Desolation, whose reddish rocks are quite different from the grey granite of the Aloha basin.  We were lucky enough to have some residual clouds from the moisture of Friday's welcome rains, which was a nice change after days of cloudless blue sky.

We saw a few backpackers en route to Schmidell, but our destination was quiet and devoid of anyone when we arrived.  The dog and I attempted to swim, but the water temperature was surprisingly cold - much colder than Middle Velma.

With brie sandwiches on asiago bread to fuel our hike back, fast-moving clouds along with a breeze, the afternoon part of the hike was perfect.  Admittedly everyone was a tad bit tired by the time we got back to the car, but in a good way. And after a few nights of insomnia, I was guaranteed a good nights sleep.  So was the dog, not that sleeping is ever an issue for her.