When we lived in Boston, Will was the Scout Master of our church Scout Troop. This troop was made up of about 12 boys from a variety of backgrounds and skills. Will worked hard to introduce (or reinforce) outdoor living skills with these boys. When Lorien was four or five months old Will planned an overnight backpacking trip with the troop...and Lorien and I went too!
It was a little crazy. There was still snow all over the place. I carried a little back pack with a few supplies, Will carried everything else...even Lorien in the baby bjorn strapped to his chest. We hiked for a few hours, found a place to "camp" and set up shop. I don't remember what or how we ate dinner. I just remember trying to get a nights rest...and failing.
I was freezing cold. My feet were in this weird pit in relation to my head. I was freaked out about sleeping in the wild woods. I thought I heard someone walking around outside our tent. I was super paranoid about Lorien freezing to death. It was miserable. In the morning I "woke up" so thirsty I couldn't open my mouth. I didn't drink enough water the day before and didn't take into account that I was nursing a baby and needed A LOT of liquid in my body. After getting some water filtered from a stream I felt better.
We broke camp and hiked back down to the cars. I was kind of proud of myself for doing it but I was so miserable...I knew I didn't want to do it again...at least, not with a baby. Will, on the other hand, had a pretty great time. He loves backpacking! He used to do it all the time growing up in Montana. He was a Super Scout. As our family grew and aged he continued to talk about going on family backpacking trips. I'd listen and agree or challenge him depending on the ages and stages of our children.
Skipping ahead to this summer: Will was one of the guides on the girls camp level 4 hike. Around here (this was not the case for me growing up and attending Mormon girls camp) the girls go on an overnight hike as part of girls camp. When they are level 3 they go for two days and one night. When they are level 4 they go for three days and two nights. Will was asked to be one of the adult guides on the hike this year. He was so excited! After that trip he was all the more motivated to take our family on an overnight trip. His plans started with just Will, Lorien, Wyatt and Colter going on an one or two night trip. After we talked, and I thought, we decided to make a whole family trip of it (and to do just one night).
Friday afternoon, we hit the trail. Will found a hike called 20 Lakes Basin, just outside Yosemite National Park. It was about an 8 mile loop around--you guessed it--20 or so lakes. Will calculated our hiking to be about four miles a day. Totally doable. We loaded up all of our gear, with each person taking what was appropriate. Will carried the bulk of our family's crap. He had two tents, food, sleeping bags, clothes, first aid...a ton of stuff. The big kids had some food, sleeping bags and bed rolls and I had a few sleeping bags, clothes, food and a few comfort items. Clare carried our dinner, Adell had marshmallows and Colter had a monster truck toy. Totally appropriate.
It took us a little longer than expected to get out of the house in the morning, but we did manage to leave pretty early. Traffic through Yosemite was slow and we had to stop a few times for a supply item or two and to register as back country campers. So...we didn't end up getting on the trail until after 2:00pm. Will hoped to be at our camp site by noon. We were behind but optimistic about our abilities to make it half way before dark.
OH! Adell's second loose front tooth had been hanging by a thread for a day or two. She was too scared to have anyone pull it. About 200 yards into the hike--her tooth popped out! We had all been having a granola bar as our start-of-the-hike snack and Adell's front tooth came out 1/2 way through her bar. It was very exciting (and relieving)!
The first lake was the biggest lake, called Saddle Bag Lake. It was deep, clear and beautifully blue.
After too many hours in the car we all had plenty of energy to haul our packs on the hike. Thankfully, the hike was quite flat. There were only a few up and down hills but most of the time we were fairly level. The only problem was the location in general was up over 10,000 feet above sea level. It was pretty hard to breathe. We all could feel the elevation change. Clare took it the hardest. She does not have the highest endurance level to start out with and her little body does not adapt well to big change. But she was a trooper and kept up.
When we weren't walking beside one lake or another we had little streams of water as companions. It was a really stunning hike.
The kids were most excited about finding snow. They all wish we lived in a snow laden climate. We could see snow on the peaks around us but none of it was close enough to play in/eat yet.
Colter tried his best to keep up and keep going but it was hard. Will did have to carry Colter here and there when Colt got too tired. Most of the time Will was carrying Colter up the inclines, which was really hard work for Will. He was already carrying most of our family's crap, adding Colter was a lot. But Will never complained and always swept Colter up whenever he asked.
The third lake we came to (I think it was the 3rd...) was called Humming Bird Lake. Will decided to test out the fishing and I decided to bust out the jolly ranchers and chocolate. We spent some time fishing, exploring, eating treats and swatting away millions of mosquitoes. Seriously, I haven't been swarmed by so many blood sucking bugs since being a kid in Maine. It was the worst thing about the whole hike. As long as we were walking or a breeze was blowing the mosquitoes weren't too bad--or even around. But if we stopped, or the air stopped we were swamped! Mosquito repellent did little to keep the bugs at bay...it was not cool.
We didn't catch any fish (saw a few jumping) and the mosquitoes were getting too thick so we loaded up and left Humming Bird Lake. Luckily, our first patch of snow was just past Humming Bird Lake! The kids were over the moon!
The kids grabbed a few handfuls of snow and we marched on. Next up was Lake Odell. Here we have Adell at Lake Odell. The mosquitoes were the worst around Lake Odell. We didn't slow up much and just tried to hike as fast as our legs would carry us to get past all the mosquitoes. The sun was also beginning to set and we weren't sure we were going to make it to our camp site before dark. Will planned to stop for the night at Shamrock Lake.
The next lake we came upon was called Lake Helen. This lake had a great water fall running into in and a huge snow drift slowly melting into the lake. It was so awesome. We were also hiking over all of these mountain rocks. The rocks had been a prominent feature for most of the hike. We all observed the strange sound the rocks made when we walked over them or they clattered together. It sounded glass like...or ceramic like...we couldn't quite pin down the sound. Lorien figured it out while we were hiking down to Lake Helen passing the big snow drift. She noticed that the sound was exactly like the part in the movie Inside Out, when Bing Bong and Happiness are stuck in the forgotten memories place. The memories are all of these glass orbs and as Bing Bong and Happiness run around trying to not be forgotten the orbs clang and bang together. They make a great sound on the movie and all of these rocks sounded exactly the same. It kind of felt the same too because the sun was setting and we were down in this gully of mountain rocks with the clanging sound as we walked. It was strange and really cool.
While we were hiking down to Lake Helen, Adell fell down on the rocks and we were worried for a few minutes that she may have broken her wrist. Mercifully, she just got a little scrub on her hand and a band-aid fixed her right up. Disaster, averted!
We had to hike all the way around Lake Helen and then our next lake was going to be our camp site. It was getting dark, we were all getting really cold and we had lost the trail. Not really lost it, we could see where the trail went...straight into a big bank of snow. We weren't really sure how to get around it. Will hiked over some big rocks and could see Shamrock Lake on the other side but it was going to be a lot more hiking than we were in the mood to do. Will back tracked us a bit back to Lake Helen and we decided to set up camp there.
We found two levelish places (with only a couple of rocks) to pitch the tents and set up camp for the night. We boiled water for cup-o-noodles and put on our warm clothes. The mosquitoes that had been kept at bay while we were moving were relentless once we stopped. Everyone was swatting and swinging them away (uselessly). Wyatt and Will got the bigger tent set up and we all piled in for some mosquito-free time. It was heaven! I've never been so glad to be in a tent! I stayed in the tent with the kids while Will waited for the water to boil and set up the second tent.
The wind was blowing quite a bit and it took kind of a long time for the water to boil. Once we had our cup-o-noodles (which never tasted so good!) we piled back into the bigger tent. The kids were exhausted. We talked about the day and got everyone situated in their sleeping bags. Colter fell asleep while we were talking and it wasn't long before the other kids were nodding off too.
Will and I were plenty exhausted as well. We headed over to our tent, made it comfortable and settled down for some much needed sleep. Colter was awake and crying an hour later. We decided to just bring him into our tent for the night so he would keep the other kids up. It worked out pretty well...I think...Will took Colter in his sleeping bag and I got to keep mine all to myself. I slept pretty well.
Some time...too early to account for...I heard Adell outside our tent exclaiming "Isn't it SO BEAUTIFUL!" She was taking in our camping spot. Will got up and started making breakfast (oatmeal and hot chocolate). The other kids got up too and started exploring the area. Wyatt took the fishing pole and headed back down to Lake Helen.
Colter and Adell climbed some trees, found more snow with Clare and wandered around swatting mosquitoes as they went.
Lorien and I stayed in the bug free zone of the tent for as long as possible. Eventually, I tried to help Will pack our crap back up. The mosquitoes were too much to bare, I suggested we take all of our crap into the bigger tent and pack up in there. Packing in the tent with no mosquitoes was SO much better.
We left our campsite before lunch and hiked up over the rock face to get to Shamrock Lake. We stopped for a few picturesque pictures of our campsite (we could hear that waterfall all night).
We hadn't hiked long, but it was time for lunch. So we took a really long break at Shamrock Lake. Wyatt was excited to try and fish again and there was a good breeze keeping the mosquitoes away. It was a great lunch spot. We were all eating and Wyatt was casting in the lake. We were teasing Wyatt a little bit about not catching anything. He said something like "Laugh all you want..." we all started mock-laughing over and over again. A few seconds later, Wyatt caught a fish! It was great! He was excited, Will was excited and the rest of us were impressed into silence.
Wyatt let the fish go back into the water after a quick photo opp. Once Wyatt had a fish Will decided we could disturb the water enough to swim and throw rocks in the lake. Will and Lorien jumped in first. Noting as they jumped that there was a frozen mini glacier right at the water's edge.
Wyatt managed to step into the water and scrunch his body down enough to get wet up to his shoulders. That was good enough for him. He was going to try and jump in too but thought better of it. Colter dipped his toes a few times.
We hung out at Shamrock Lake for well over an hour. It was time to get back on the trail. The hardest part about carrying a backpack for me (and Wyatt) was the pain around our hips. It was nice to have the weight of the pack supported by our hips instead of our shoulders but our hips were sore from the squeeze of the belt. It was hard.
I'm not sure how the miles broke down on our hike there and back. I know on the second day, I was tired and really ready to be done hiking a lot sooner than on the first day. Maybe it was the mosquitoes or the interrupted nights sleep? Either way, I was pretty done with the hike a little ways after Shamrock Lake and we still kind of had forever to go.
The kids were amazing! Clare had a really hard time at the start of the hike. She was really dizzy at Shamrock Lake and didn't think she was going to be able to finish the hike...not that she had another option. But at some point she pulled herself up and ended up leading the rest of the hike with Lorien and Wyatt. Lorien was really encouraging to the younger kids. She helped navigate each person over perilous crossings (rocks, rivers, steep declines). She was so supportive! Wyatt had a lot of extra weight to carry and he never complained once. He just trooped along. At one point part of his pack fell forward and conked his head pretty hard. He just kept on going. Clare had to carry out a bag of bathroom business. It was well sealed but gross none the less. She never complained either. Adell made up games of "likes and dislikes" to keep all of our minds busy while we hiked. And Colter was just Colter. Funny, fun, and troublesome all at once. Will had to carry Colter a lot more on the hike back.
We made it back to the car by about 3:00 pm Saturday afternoon. We had been out on the trail for 24 hours. We had hiked in all of the crap we needed for an overnight stay and hiked it back again. It was hard and amazing. The views were so lovely and diverse. There were so many wild flowers and grasses. There were crystal clear lakes and snow to enjoy. It was a great trip. I was so proud of the kids and myself for doing it. I was so thankful for Will in planning and carrying the lion's share of our stuff. It was hard...but worth it. I don't know if I'll do it again, but I am proud of us for doing it this time. Go Team Anderson!
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