Backpacking With Nick

Last Sunday, I met Nick way up North in the Sierra foothill town of Sonora where we spent the night.  The next morning, we headed to our trail head destination outside of Pinecrest.  I had done a trip from this trail head last August with Paul, Sue, and Becky, but Nick wasn't able to get off work to come on that one.

 We arrived at the Gianelli Trail Head where there was snow from the storm on Sunday.

 There was also a missing hiker notice.  They had been missing  for six days at this point.

 Our five days on the trail were sunny and warm.  The nights were a different story.

 We surprised a pair of Blue Grouse, with one flying up to this pine limb.  They explode into flight like a gigantic quail.

 After a long first day of hiking, we made it to Upper Relief Valley where we stayed two nights.

 On Tuesday, we hiked up to the top of Granite Dome.  There was no trail, so we picked our way through the woods and up to the open slopes of the "dome".

 The scenery leaving our campsite.

 The top of Granite Dome is 10,322 feet in elevation.  It is the peak on the left horizon.

 The sky was so clear!  The storm on Sunday must have cleared it out.

 On top of the world!

 Second night shenanigans.

 Fortunately, our campsite was just below 9,000 feet, so fires were allowed.  The nights were very long and cold, so it was great not to have to lie in the tent for 14 hours!  And the tent is small!

 On Wednesday morning, we headed out for our next destination - Toe Jam Lake.  A little fall color here.  Also, we noticed a helicopter flying low past our campsite and wondered if it was searching for or had found the missing hikers.

 Toe Jam was a pleasant surprise.  Once again, we saw no one.  In fact, I went three days without seeing anyone but Nick.  There were trout jumping all over this lake - the only lake we saw with visible fish.  We actually immersed ourselves in the icy cold lake for all of three seconds -  whoohoo!

 We watched the sun go down from a hill overlooking the lake.

 Thursday morning and Nick is relishing the first sunlight.

 We loaded our packs and set off for our last night's destination, Chewing Gum Lake.

 Unlike in August, we were the only ones during our stay at Chewing Gum.  In August, I had left my trunks tied to a tree (no, not on purpose) back in the woods above the lake.  We could not find them, so we believe there may be a black bear strutting around the forest in my awesome surf trunks.

 The air was very calm as the sun went down, leaving the lake smooth as glass.

 As soon as the shadows fell, the temperature did also. The first couple nights were in the twenties, and the others only a little warmer.  We did have some fine star viewing.  One star in particular, Capella, had us thinking it was a distant helicopter making tight circles on the horizon.  It took us at least 15 minutes to figure out that it was actually a star, as it mysteriously seemed to change every second from green to red to white. As the earth turned, we finally realized that it was climbing in the sky. It turns out that Capella is the 6th brightest star in the night sky, and is actually two stars.

 How does he do that?  What is he?  Nick displaying half of our night's "dishes".

Friday morning, and it is time to pack up and hike out.  I love this picture!

Oh, the missing hikers and their three dogs?  We stopped at the ranger station on the way out.  They were found on Wednesday and flown out by helicopter after being overdue eight days.  The ranger thought that one of the dogs had run off, and they followed it, getting lost in the process.  They were probably within a couple miles of us at some point.

It was great to spend time with Nick and be out in nature. Can't wait for next year!