Thankful

Until this past Monday and Tuesday, I hadn't backpacked in almost 2 years.  I am grateful to "Strider" - that's her camp name - for arranging a trip for some of the backpacking counselors and other interested parties.  We packed 16 miles in two days.  I'm a little sore, but so happy to have done it.  Even better, our daughter was able to go, too.  She broke in her new pack and boots and has way more confidence for her 4 day trip next week.

The first day was a lot of uphill - I think we climbed at least 1000 feet - to Beebe lake in the Mokelumne wilderness.  We heard lots of cowbells from the animals as they retreated from us.  We also saw an incredible multitude of wildflowers.  At sunset, we explored the natural spillway to the southeast of the lake.  As we did, darling daughter remarked, "this is why we go backpacking."  Yes, a truly soul-inspiring view.   Because of the water that allowed the flowers to flourish, we were inundated with mosquitoes.  My daughter and I were zipped into our sleeping bags by 9 pm just to escape the pesky bugs.  We were sleeping under the stars, so there was no tent to protect us.  I drifted in and out of sleep for a while, but was awake enough to see a couple satellites cross overhead. 

The next day, we hiked cross-country (no trail) through trees to Black Rock Lake. That was a little nerve-racking because there weren't many land-marks to ensure we were heading in the right direction.  Sure, we kept heading southwest, but after detours around boulders and such, we still ended up a little west of our destination.  The leader had a GPS device, so we cheated a little.  Part of the reason for this trip was for future leaders of girls on this route to be familiar with the territory.  After this 2 mile trek, we hiked seven more back to the parking lot. 

View during our lunch break.  That's Silver Lake in the background.

Ready to leave Beebe Lake.

And while we were "playing", the boys took another load of wood into Tahoe to be chipped.  They also bought frisbees so they could play frisbee golf over at Kirkwood.

Ready to go to Tahoe (and Jamba Juice!)