We had originally scheduled our Cottonwood Lakes trip for three nights, since Chris expected at least one full day would be watching Carter fish the different lakes throughout the basin. However, Carter and Dani both had things to do on Monday, and we decided to spend just two nights in the backcountry – this…
Early in the year, Chris had applied for Labor Day weekend permits both in Mineral King and Cottonwood Lakes – successful in getting both, he eventually selected the Cottonwood Lakes option for the easier drive and the easier trail, plus the fact that Carter could fish more at the latter destination. Although we had…
We had talked about various options for our third day, including staying another night since Chris had added it to our permit just in case – in the end, we decided to head out today. Jane still had her heart set on a fish lunch, so we came up with a plan to try…
We wandered out of camp about 2:00pm, not entirely sure of our plan once we got to wherever it was we didn’t know where we were going. The old USGS topo map shows a trail leading southward from Lake #3’s west ridge up to Lake #5 atop the next higher bench, and we had…
We woke up leisurely on Friday morning after not the most fitful sleep. It’s funny how sounds carry in the high country – the breeze on the lake water caused it to lap against the shoreline, and to us in our tent it sounded a lot like a large animal lapping up water from…
This weekend was originally supposed to be Dani’s first backpacking trip, our destination being Honeymoon Lake, west of Bishop below Pine Creek Pass and accessed via a steep, mostly-unshaded trail. After Chris’ and Carter’s difficulties at Tyee Lakes, a relatively easier trail than Pine Creek, we looked around for an alternate, available site for…
We headed up to Grassy Hollow for an evening hike down the PCT. Although we’ve walked this trail more times than we can remember, we’ve never done it this late in the day. The sun was getting pretty low in the sky even as we parked the car (on Hwy 2 at the Grassy…
Our hiking binge continued with a repeat trip up Waterman Mountain, the westernmost peak in the San Gabriels over 8,000′ in elevation. Our last visit here was over six years ago, which is a little hard to believe since Jane has talked about how much she enjoyed exploring the summit rocks ever since. We…
Trying to keep up the momentum, we got out again the next night after work, this time headed for the Blue Ridge trail. And again we picked up some sandwiches at Jensen’s for dinner, this time Chris choosing to duplicate Jane’s all-veggie selection as his own (see, the diet nagging/coaching is working already). The…
Given Chris’ questionable performance at Tyee Lakes the previous weekend, it wasn’t at all surprising that his personal trainer and life coach (one might hazard a guess as to who that is) immediately put him on a strenuous program of diet and exercise. Since it was Jane’s birthday, Chris humored her with a repeat…