There’s nothing like a relaxing weekend in the Sierra backcountry. Over the 4th of July weekend, my friend Blair invited me out on a girls’ only trip out to Granite Lake in Emigrant Wilderness. I haven’t adventured much off of Sonora Pass, so I immediately said yes!
On our last day of Memorial Day backpacking, we woke up at our Lower Twin Lake campground to the sounds of birds chirping. I was a little sad to be going home, but excited to see my cat and to wear shoes that were not hiking boots. Also, In-n-Out burgers.
Day 2 of backpacking in Lassen! Woke up bright and early on Snag Lake to a malfunctioning shutter on my 5D Mark II… the rest of the photos are iPhone snaps.
Three day weekends are for adventures and Memorial Day Weekend was no exception. My best friend and I loaded up our packs and headed out to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Lassen is one of my favorite parks because it’s just so dang beautiful and it doesn’t have the crowds that Yosemite gets. Our plan was to backpack the Clusters Lake loop, but things changed a bit and we had the option of extending it. Day one was taking our time lake hopping from Summit Lake to Snag Lake.
If you missed #HellHikeAndRaft Day One, click here! If you missed Day Two, click here!
Day three was our last day with packs on our back. Today, we were going to the Snake River! Today, we were going to see Wendy & Trevor!
That morning in camp was freezing. We ate the standard breakfast of oatmeal and we all huddled around the fire until we had to leave.
The trail descended quickly and steeply, and soon, we were whacking our way through overgrown brush and over fallen trees. The trail was in pretty bad shape. We were probably one of the few people to go through in the last five years, according to our guides, Rick and Marshall. Progress was slow and bear poop was plentiful.
At approximately 7 hours later, we arrived at the Snake River, where margaritas, artichoke dip, river chicken and pineapple upside down cake awaited! Kicking my soggy hiking boots off never felt more gratifying!
We traveled approximately 5.67 miles with 6,280′ of elevation loss from Hibbs Cow Camp.
If you missed out on #HellHikeAndRaft Day One, click here. If you missed Day Two, click here! Stay tuned for the other three days, and don’t forget to check out everyone else’s content!