Having never been backpacking before, when a couple friends from work asked if I'd like to join them on a trip, I was intrigued. The idea of going out into the great wide open and exploring for a few days was tempting for a couple reasons. It's important to get out of the city to see some beautiful landscape and breath clean air. The physical aspect of backpacking adds an element of sport and fitness which is something I should be doing more of. Also it's key to get away from work. I've been hiking and I've been camping countless times but I've never backpacked so this had the draw of something new as well. Finally, The guys I was going with were among my favorite people at work and I was happy to spend time with them off the Mothership.
After some encouragement from Allison I was a lock for the trip and I was excited. Having less than two weeks to prepare meant that my current physical condition was going to have to do because training was more or less out the window. This concerned me since I hadn't been running and I knew poor cardio was going to be my potential nemesis. I had very little acceptable gear. After some consultation I knew I needed to carry less than 35 pounds total, including my backpack and everything. I had no backpack and my tent, sleeping bag and sleeping pad were all too heavy or bulky. After dropping some serious cash at REI I had everything I needed for the trip. After some typical stress about what I was forgetting or packing incorrectly and whatever else I could worry about, the time to take off arrived.
The plan was to leave work a couple hours early and leave from there. The day we left didn't exactly go off without a hitch. Jackson was sick that day and Allison and I had to juggle our schedules to each spend half day with him. For me that meant dragging him around while I did some last minute shopping a preparation the day off. Then, just a few hours before we were to leave, a work related crisis hit. We had an ugly e-mail outage (a service our team is responsible for) and had to do some scrambling all the way up until the time we left. The rest of my team would spend several long days working the problem while I was leaving for my trip. But we were off and the first night we were going to towards Tahoe and do some luxury camping (regular camping) at a favorite stop of mine, Silver Fork Campground.
That first night at Silver Fork was pretty relaxing because we had all the extra gear available to us because we had not yet started the actual backpacking portion of the trip. We had the deluxe cooking supplies, picnic table, chairs, etc. We also had a cooler full of beer which is nice because we had ice cold beer. That first night though, we had a casualty. One of the guys had a little too much to drink and feel onto the steel grate that's attached to the fire pit, breaking a rib. Ouch. Of course he wasn't going to be able to do anything, much less backpack, so he had to be driven all the back to Folsom the next morning. It was obviously an unfortunate situation but we went on as a party of three from there on.
The next day we drove to where we would begin our hike, Saddlebag Lake. Saddlebag Lake is located approximately 13 miles northeast of Lee Vining at an elevation of 10,090 feet and is the highest lake in California that is reachable by road. Since you undoubtedly don't know where Lee Vining is, Saddlebag Lake is close to Mono Lake and is right up against Yosemite's east border. Saddlebag Lake itself is really just a small part of the trip overall but represents where we started and finished. Saddlebag Lake is part of the 20 lakes basin. We probably saw almost all if not all of the lakes in the area. The day hike from Saddlebag Lake Resort covers the main area and is only about eight miles total. Backpackers typically use that as a way to get to other areas and explore way off the main path, which is what we did.
We spent a total of three nights and four days hiking the loop and covering plenty of terrain off the main trail. The first day was all about getting from the trail head at Saddlebag Lake Resort to about Potter Lake (See map). It was quickly apparent to me that my cardio could have been better. At the same time though, I was pleased at how I was handling carrying the weight and I was confident about being able to handle the trip overall. The second day was a tough day because we hiked over some mountains and into Yosemite. The path we took was a tough and somewhat dangerous climb, high up and over big rocks, then back down into Yosemite. Once there we set up camp and did some exploring in that area, covering a few miles. That second night we slept right off Upper Macabe Lake in Yosemite (see map). Day three was the toughest day overall. We hiked out of Yosemite and climbed Shepherd's Crest (see map -- it's misspelled there!). Elevation at the top is 11,400 feet and the view is incredible! We went almost all the way to the actual peak and stopped just shy. We regret it now but it was close enough. The place we stopped had a good place to sit and take it all in. The actual top would have taken another ten minutes or so of going across another set up rocks and up another steep part. This was a highlight of the trip for sure. After the long decent to the base and back down to the actual trail we headed for Helen lake and set up camp for our third night (see map). The fourth day was a hike along the east side of the trail and back to the trail head, the car and civilization.
The trip was awesome and I'll be doing it again. Once Jackson is old enough, Allison he and I will go as a family and I'm very much looking forward to that. The trip totally wore me out. It was my first time and my experienced friend David that has done this several times said it was the hardest hike he'd done so I was feeling good about my abilities. I suffered at parts though. Next time I will be getting in better cardio shape for sure. But I hung in there and was able to do everything my friends were able to do. The scenery was breathtaking and that alone is worth all the effort. Anyone thinking about backpacking should just do it because it really is worth the effort and expense. The good thing for me is that I have much of the essential gear now.
Check out the map below (you can double-click them for a better look).
I put together a photo album of some of the pictures as well.
