The Saturday of Labor day weekend my partners went down to Anaheim being sort of (in)famous with interviews or something, while my brother and I sat around pondering the week ahead. Sunday, we all cleaned the den and packed for several days of wilderness exploration. The plan was to go to Sequoia and hike from Wolverton to Pear Lake, then cross country to Moose Lake, come back down to the High Sierra Trail via Alta Meadow then up to Precipice Lake. Then the plan came to some wishy-washy maybe go here or go there, or come out early, or whatever.
Monday morning we got up very early. I don't understand my partners' desire to get up at 3 in the morning, but I can sleep anywhere, even with him driving. We arrived at the Lodgepole wilderness desk just as they opened, got permits and headed to Wolverton.
We started hiking and it started raining. As we got to the Watchtower/Hump trails junction we opted to take the Hump since wet granite with sheer edges makes us nervous.
Finally we got over the hump:
And we neared Pear Lake:
With weather being questionable and one of my hiking partners not feeling comfortable as we started climbing the granite slabs towards Moose, we stayed at Pear Lake. Which was not a bad thing as Pear Lake was unusually quiet with only one other couple there and the weather cleared.
We even got a little color in the evening:
The next morning we were entertained by a little squirrel collecting pine cones.
Since we didn't go up to Moose Lake, we decided to backtrack via the Watchtower,
then over Panther Gap,
down to the High Sierra Trail, and camped at Bearpaw Meadow. The next morning we discovered the one bad thing about our ultralight tent that uses hiking poles for structure - hard to keep the tent up while dayhiking if no one wants to give up their poles!
We got an earlyish start, and despite the haze the views up toward Hamilton were splendid as always.
If there's a lake, we tend to stop, especially before a long climb!
A lot of wildflowers to stop and smell.
Before long we got to our real goal for the trip.
My human partners even did a selfie.
After some lunch at Precipice Lake we headed back down to camp at Bearpaw. We started hearing thunder as we stopped at Hamilton again. As we neared Lone Pine Creek the skies opened up, and we got wet. Very wet. We got back to Bearpaw and our camp was mostly OK with the worst problem being how to keep everything in the tent dry when the occupants are drenched! On the way back we had a little bit of hail. Later we got more.
The next day we trekked back out to Wolverton, stopped at Lodgepole Market for a couple of ice cream treats, and headed home. Oh, BTW, this was the first backpacking trip since my one partner's ankle surgery (and assorted complications), and she did just fine!
Do what you love.
