6 AM, my alarm cut through the quiet of the night. I groggily woke up, trying not to rustle my friend beside me in the car. My night was pretty restless, filled with tossing and turning, too excited to climb to get any real sleep. This was going to be the day. I was finally going to climb Corrugation Corner.
My little brother just got back from a brief stint of backpacking through Europe. With his heart still full of adventure, he asked me to take him out somewhere, anywhere. He didn’t give me any criteria and said he was down for whatever, but the first time someone goes backpacking will obviously make or break their experience. After much hemming and hawing, Meiss Lake in Mokelumne Wilderness was my pick.
On my quest to get OGUL recognition, I decided to tackle Freel Peak, the tallest peak in El Dorado County and in the Lake Tahoe Basin. I opted not to begin at Horse Meadow; I wasn’t sure that my car could handle the gnarly Forest Service roads. Instead, I began at Trout Creek, at the end of Oneidas St. and fully paved up to the trailhead.
Round Top Peak has been one of those elusive peaks on my Tahoe to-do list. Every time I’ve tried to attempt it, something hasn’t quite worked out: someone’s sick, couldn’t make it to Tahoe. This weekend, Russ and I set off to do it! It was going to my first, his fifth.
Sometimes you plan on a really long day out. And sometimes those plans get cut short because you’re captivated by the beauty around you. That’s what happened to me this weekend. I set out to climb up Horsetail Falls into Desolation Wilderness backcountry and out to Lake Aloha, but I was cut short by Ropi Lake.