Loch Leven Lakes - Backpacking

Loch Leven Lake is a hike that a traveler at work said was a must do! One thing about the Tahoe area to always keep in mind, besides forest fire restrictions, is that a lot of hiking is in Desolation Wilderness. Desolation Wilderness is beautiful and provides amazing views of Lake Tahoe and other clear, but hard to get to lakes. The biggest problem is, you need a permit to backpack. Well, those permits are like hot cakes and before you know it, they're gone! So, if you're planning to backpack there, you need to plan well in advance or else all the permits will be gone. If you are day hiking, you do not need a permit!

Why did I elaborate on all this? Because, the traveler I was talking to said she did her best to find fun backpacking trips outside Desolation since it is so hard to get a permit. Loch Leven Lakes is in the Tahoe National Forest so you do not need one! It is also near our previous backpacking trip, 5 Lakes.

We packed everything up, drove an hour to get to the trailhead, ate our sandwiches in the parking lot of the trailhead and realized, we forgot our shoes. Now, our parents said, "Can't you hike in something else?". I had on Birkenstocks and Aaron had on Nike Frees. Carrying 30-35lbs while wearing shoes like these would've been torture. So, we headed out the next day, shoes packed!

This hike is rated as hard on All Trails and it definitely is not for beginner backpackers. It is only a 4 mile hike in, but 2.5 of those miles are up hill. It was not as steep as 5 Lakes, but it was a solid grade that just kept going and never evened out until the top. Aaron was pretty happy to see the first of the lakes, Lower Lake.

There are plenty of areas to set up camp here, but we wanted to check out the other lakes and the girl at work recommended Upper Lake to stay at. Next we hiked by Middle Lake.

The trek from Middle Lake to Upper Lake was a lot further than we were expecting. It took about 30 minutes to get there and we were hoping it was closer to Middle Lake since we wanted to hangout there as well. We set up Camp and jumped on in!

We both were surprised at how clear and clean the water in all of the lakes were. We used our water purifier to filter the water and we didn't have any issues!

After exploring the area around us and going for a little swim, we made dinner. We decided to try the Forever Young Mac N Cheese again, which Aaron loves and we made apple crisp.

Then we relaxed as the sunset.

That night we heard some crazy howling around dusk and it was very nerve wrecking. When we read up on this hike, it said that there were aggressive bears near Middle Lake, so we think maybe it was them, but not completely sure! We ended up finally falling asleep and waking up to the sun shining into our tent.

Then we started to make breakfast! The oatmeal meals are amazing!! The eggs, I know they look gross, but they're actually pretty good.

Then we packed up our belongings and made sure to leave no trace before heading back down!

Seeing the railroad tracks were a sign of, we are almost done! When we finished we drove the hour back to Reno, unpacked, and relaxed. Backpacking takes a lot out of you, but it is so rewarding and worth it to know you survived a night in the woods with only what you can carry.