Miss me? Good! I hope so =D

So last week (I know, it took me a whole week to write this, put the pitchforks away) a few friends and I traveled wayyyyy back to backcountry Yosemite and backpacked to Young Lakes.

Quite a beuat ain't she?! As pretty as she is, she was a hell of a hike to get up to.

This is where the story starts, Monday, September 26th. I put in a half day at work and jammed up to meet some buddies and carpool the rest of the way. We picked up our permit and a few bear canisters and headed to the trailhead. By now it was about 4:30, so we sort of realized we would end up hiking in past sunset, and pitching up camp by way of headlamp. Part of the adventure right?

We had plans to pitch camp at the upper of the 3 lakes which had a gorgeous view (like the one above) but after the 6 mile, 2,000ft+ elevation gain of a hike, the second we got to the first lake we bailed and set up there. It turned out to be a good idea, because the last 1/2 mile or so to the upper lake was a pretty tough scramble and would have been a shit show doing in the dark completely exhausted.

Probably not the prettiest of campsites...but it was perfect at the moment.

So that was day 1. Day 2 turned out out to be a lot better. We woke up at the butt crack of dawn (because I guess that's what you do when you're one with nature) and reaped what we worked so hard for. The best part of coming into camp in the dark is the surprise that first light brings, and boy did that light throw a parade.

We woke up early, cooked a delicious (sarcastic) freeze-dried meal and explored the area. Eventually we made our way up to the upper lake and quickly decided it was time to head down and move camp. I mean...how could you not want to camp next to this...? (look down)

After dinking around the lakes for a bit, taking a nap, eating lunch, packing up, hiking up, unpacking, setting up camp, and cooking dinner, it was about 6 o'clock, and the sun was ready to put on another show.

And even the stars decided to come out and play. Seriously, you haven't seen stars until you've been deep in the mountains, far from any light pollution. It really puts into perspective how small we really are. (cue JFK's We Choose To Go To The Moon speech...)

#neature...amiright?

Cue day 3: Woke up, ate....then literally did nothing. Nothing substantial that is. Hell, I even wore my flip-flops all day. How crazy is that?! I took some photos, some videos, tinkered in the ice-cold-ball-shriveling lake for a second and instantly regretted it, took some more photos, and that's about it. 2 of the guys in our group headed out early in the AM to head back home, and the other 2 kind of did exactly what I did...jack shit. But we all loved it. We came up to the mountains to escape civilization and unwind and relax, and that's exactly what we did.

The clouds were awesome, the temperature felt amazing, there was a slight breeze...I'm watching Deadpool while writing this and he said something that applies perfectly, "life is an endless series of trainwrecks with only brief commercial-like breaks of happiness". (There's actually lot of awesome quotes in the movie, "You look like Freddy Kruger face-f*$ked a topographical map of Utah"). Anyways, ya this was about to be the end of that glorious Febreeze commercial that smelled of mountains and daisies. You see kids, if there's clouds in the sky, the air is a bit warm, and there's a slight breeze, usually that means there's a storm coming in.

Luckily this really wasn't a "trainwreck" more like the caboose unhinged and just slowly slid to a stop and we had to turn around and find it. It sprinkled a little, hailed a little, got a little gusty, and then sort of blew over us. Time for another happy commercial break.

Day 4: woke up, ate, packed everything up, hiked 6 miles to the car, drove 4 hours to my truck, then I drove another hour to my house where I cuddle with my puppers and then slept for about 12 hours until work the next morning.

All in all, it was a solid trip. Felt good to get out of the valley heat, stretch the lungs, destroy the legs and feet, and eat some weird not-real real food. It felt good though to munch on some pizza and beer afterwards though.

Till next time,

-J