Glacier Lake

We just got back from our overnight trip to the Tahoe National Forest. It was my first backpacking trip in the Sierras. We parked the car at Carr Lake. On the first day, we hiked to Penner Lake and then continued on to Glacier Lake, where we spent the night. On the second day, we hiked back to our car via a more direct route. Total hiking: about 15 miles. We’re so sore we can hardly walk.

Glacier Lake was beautiful. It was crystal clear and there was a ridge with patches of snow behind it (but the air was very warm, even during the night). We climbed the ridge this morning and were able to see panoramic views of the surrounding lakes and forest. It was quite spectacular.

Here are the highlights of the trip:

We decided to do some wilderness freestyling (i.e. “If we head through the woods in that direction, we’ll get to the other trail we want to be on. It’s a shortcut!”) We were lost in the woods for an hour and a half. But not scary lost – we knew we would eventually find the trail.

“I think that lake we passed half a mile ago was the lake we are looking for. Turn around.”

I spent half the night lying awake with my heart pounding because I could hear animals outside our tent. I kept telling myself that I haven’t ever heard about anyone getting eaten in their tent. At one point, I saw deer sniffing the bear canister. When I heard something chewing on my pack a couple of times, I got up and made a noise to shoo it away. Ed claims I kept waking him by making “rat noises.” I also had to wake him once to look out the tent window because I was too scared.

We seriously over-packed our food. We brought 3 sandwiches, 3 brownies, a can of Pringles, a bag of Chex party mix, a half pound of beef jerky, 12 granola bars, 8 pop tarts, 2 packs of ramen-like noodles, and a freeze dried dessert for four. We brought home 1 brownie, half a bag of Chex party mix, ¼ pound of beef jerky, 11 granola bars, 6 pop tarts and a freeze-dried dessert for four.

We got to put our new high-tech Steripen water purifiier to serious use on stream and lake water.

We went for about 18 hours without seeing any other people. It was awesome.


Here are some pictures:

Our first food break in front of one of the many little lakes along the trail:



Gathering drinking water:

One of many mountain meadows we encountered. Why doesn't our lawn look like this?

Our little campsite at Glacier Lake:

Ed at our campsite:
Me climbing up the ridge next to Glacier Lake to take in the views:

One of the views from the top of the ridge:

Hiking

So I know I only post about once a year, but I just had to share this one. I'm in Montana for a conference. I'm a little annoyed that the conference is in Montana, but to make the most of it I figured I should really try to climb the mountain outside my window:

I did not in fact make it to the top. But I'm still pretty proud of myself. Here's a picture from the top of where I went. See the little blue lake in the upper-right of the picture? That's where I started. :)
I climbed about 2500 feet, from a starting elevation of 7500 to about 10,000.

Now I'm all excited about hiking and I want to be like Nikki and Ed. :)

They Just Can't Leave Well Enough Alone

Every day I come to my office and eat a Cookies 'n Cream-flavored Promax Bar. No matter what I had for breakfast, I get hungry for the Promax Bar as soon as I sit down.

I'm not that creative with meal planning. I've been eating the same kind of Promax Bar every day for a year and the same breakfast for the last 7 years. At least I stopped eating the same kind of Trader Joe's tortellini's for dinner 4 or 5 times a week when Ed started cooking. My actions are backed up by research, however, which shows that people think they prefer a variety of food, but really don't. When researchers asked people to pick out the yogurt/candy bars they wanted for the next week ahead of time, they picked a variety of flavors/types of bars. But when they got to pick what they wanted every day, they tended to always pick the same kind.

So last week Ed brought home a new box of my bars from Trader Joe's and there was new writing on the front: "All-Natural," along with the warning "Note: our white yogurt coating may exhibit minor color variations because we now use all natural ingredients." What???? You can't change the formula on me. If I wanted "all natural" I wouldn't be eating a protein bar, I'd be eating food. The new bars don't taste the same or have the same texture, so I might have to find a new morning office snack. I guess I shouldn't be eating that junk anyway.

Our Walk

Today, we went to Muir Woods and hiked to Stinson Beach. The hike to the beach was 5 miles long with beautiful views of valleys, Redwoods and the ocean. It took about 2 hours and 15 minutes. We had lunch at a restaurant in town and then walked down to the beach. It was overcast and cold, but there were lots of freaking crazy people in swimsuits and some were in the water. Ed and I watched for a few minutes while we shivered in our windbreakers and then headed back.

We decided to take a different trail home. From the map, it looked like there was a mile of really steep climbing and then a couple miles of relatively flat trail along a ridge, and finally a couple miles of down hill back to the car. It turned out that the steep part was actually 3 or 4 miles of switchbacks. I was really happy that we weren't climbing straight up and the trail and the views were really spectacular as we made our way up a ravine filled with all kinds of vegetation. It was a gorgeous section of trail. By the time we got to the ridge, I was REALLY tired (I was pretty tired when we got to the beach in the first place). My legs and back were killing me and my legs seem to be getting heavier and heavier. The views along the ridge continued to be really pretty, though - the trail alternated between open, dry expanses and dry stream beds with lots of vegetation.

Finally, we started going downhill for the last couple of miles back to the car. I was feeling better and we moved pretty fast. The hike back took 3 hours and 15 minutes and we figure that the whole thing was 12 or 13 miles with about 3000 vertical feet of climbing. Luckily, the weather was pleasant and not too hot, or it would have been pretty miserable.

If you come visit us, we'll take you to see some Redwoods (but we won't make you hike 12 miles).

Camping Stuff

I keep buying camping stuff. Ed thinks I'm crazy and worries that we won't use it, so I had to remind him that when biking was my hobby of the month, I did the same thing. I bought a whole bunch of biking accessories and then having all that stuff (plus the guilt that would have been associated with not using it) made me ride my bike all the time (over 2,500 miles).

Besides, most of my camping stuff serves a dual purpose:

Hiking pants=Work pants (because I live in Berkeley)
Self Inflating Seat Pad that folds up really small = Pad for hard backs on church pews
Small, lightweight camping pots = play cookset for our future child
Back pack = Emergency pack for walking out of the Bay Area after an Earthquake
Sleeping Pad = Office bed

We're planning a trip to the Sierras in a couple of weeks. I hope we don't get eaten by a bear.

Backpacking Trip

We went on our first backpacking trip this week. Our destination was the Sunol Wilderness area, which is south of Dublin and east of Fremont. We forgot our camera like lamo-s, but we basically did the same thing as this guy. But instead of green pastures everywhere, imagine brown pastures. We missed the 2-week window called Springtime in California.

We spent most of Tuesday morning puzzling about how to fit enough stuff for a 2-day trip into the packs that our friends loaned us. After paring down our equipment a bit and figuring out a way to attach Ed's sleeping bag to the outside of the pack, we were ready to go. My pack weighed 20 pounds and Ed's weighed 30.

We drove down to the park and checked in at the ranger station to reserve our spot in the backpacking area. He pulled out a map and told us to pick the site we wanted. "Are any of sites reserved already?" "I don't know. Do you want me to check?" "Um, yes." (He dawdles around in the back room for several minutes...) "Yes, Sky Camp is reserved." "Okay, we'll take Eagle's Eyrie."

Our hike lasted for 3 hours. We went about 4 miles, with 2000 feet of vertical ascent. It's quite a bit hotter there than in Berkeley and I'm not in great shape these days, so it was really hard. Also, there were cows all over the park, so we had to watch out for the steaming piles.

When we got to the backpacking area, someone was already in Eagle's Eyrie, claiming to have reserved it weeks ago. We weren't that surprised, given Mr. Reservation Ranger's lackadaisical attitude about campsite reservations. The sites are spread out far enough that each one is private, so we consulted the map and went off in search of a different one. The one we got was better anyway, because it had a picnic table.

There was a communal water spigot in the area, but the water had to be purified, so we got to use our new UV SteriPen while all of the other campers were pumping their filters like suckers. There was also a communal outhouse 100 yards from our camp area, which means I still haven't been forced to do my business in the wild.

Dinner preparations consisted of pouring boiling water on freeze dried chicken tetrazini, which tasted great after all that hiking. During dinner, a park ranger drove up on an ATV and started telling us about a fire in the park. Visions of packing everything up and heading back to the car were flashing through my head when he told us that we were safe for the night and just wanted to make sure that we weren't planning to head in the direction of the fire the next day. After he left, we cleaned up and got in our tent to play cards. I creamed Ed in the first two rounds of Lost Cities. He made a good comeback in the last round, but it wasn't enough and I was victorious.

The next morning, we slept in until 9am, as we are wont to do. After we broke camp, we took an easier trail back than the one we came on because we were still sore from the previous day. We got home around noon, and took nice long showers.

Overall, the trip was a success. I think we are ready to take it to the next level (no picnic tables or outhouses.)