The next few days I will be posting little blurbs from our Journal on our awesome backpacking trip through Yosemite! Tim and I had such a fun trip together and got hooked on backpacking hoping to do many more trips in the future!!
Monday, June 17, 2013
We arrived in Tuolomne Meadows around 2:30 after the long 7
hour drive from San Elijo, Encinitas. We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to get a
wilderness pass for the next day but we were hopeful, and we were even going to
try to get it for that day. We
stopped at the ranger station, and Tim went in to see if he could get the
permit while I stayed out in the car. Next to our car a huge family was
organizing and packing up their gear for their back packing trip. The family
took turns weighing their bags and each one weighed about 20 lbs except for the
dad’s his weighed 45. I perked up when I heard them exclaim that was too much
for the dad to carry and they should each take a pound from him. Dad was
insistent that he carry it and they all went on their way. I began to worry that
Tim and I were carrying too much. We didn’t even think to ask our expert Laurie
how much our packs should weigh, but now I began to second guess if we were
really ready for this my pack was between 30-40 lbs while Tim’s was 50 lbs. We
were definitely the backpacking rookies (for those seasoned backpackers feel free to laugh at us when you read this)
A few minutes later Tim came back to
the car so excited, as he was able to get our wilderness permit for that day!
So we went to the little market in town bought a postcard to send home charged
up our phones for the last time and went to find our trailhead. I couldn’t help
but laugh at Tim he was like a little kid in a candy store he was so excited to
begin the journey.
We parked at the Cathedral Lakes trailhead and began hiking
right away. About 30 minutes in to our grueling up hill hike I began to realize
that backpacking is pretty hard. I think we arrogantly assumed we were in the
right shape and could take on this short 4-mile hike with no problem but we
didn’t factor in how heavy our packs were and how much they would slow us down.
With the altitude gain and the heavy pack we found ourselves needing plenty of
breaks to catch our breath and hydrate. I looked at Tim with concern as our
week was just beginning and we had around 30 miles to go to get to our final
destination. I looked at him and said I’m not sure if I can do this it’s a lot
harder than I thought it would be, and we were under the impression we were
going mostly down hill, but this first trail was definitely not down hill. We had no choice but to put our heads down and power through nothing to do but keep walking forward it was the most fantastic physical and mental challenge.
After a long hike we arrived to our destination of Cathedral lakes along the
trail we passed incredible landscapes including cathedral peak. I can't really describe the feeling of accomplishment I felt when we reached our destination a little feeling a pride welled up inside me and I knew not only could I do this week trip but I couldn't wait to see more of this little wilderness adventure we were on!
That night we set up our tent made dinner and crawled into
our tent early to warm up and rest. We were so exhausted that first night that
we fell asleep shortly after the sun went down to the sound of the croaking
frogs along the lake.
our total trek was 4.1 miles that day!
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1 comment:
That looks like SO MUCH FUN! You two are such the little power couple. Conquering the outdoors and all.... Hank is doing great. Doctor seems pretty pleased with how everything is going. We HAVE to get started on his room SOON :)
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