We were sitting around Friday night talking about summer plans and decided that we should go backpacking this weekend. This is the part of being young and childless that is fun... making spur of the moment plans. We didn't have a small enough tent and a cook stove for backpacking, so we made a late night trip to pick up some supplies, packed our backpacks... well, packed my backpack and my day pack because Blake doesn't have a backpack yet... soon!
The next day we got up early(ish) and headed toward the town of Packwood, Wa, just west of White Pass. The trail was about six miles from town and easy to find. It is a 9 mile round trip with only 500 feet of elevation gain on the way in and 300 feet gain on the way out. Which basically means there are little ups and downs along the trail. It was the perfect first hike to break us back into the hobby. This is the kind of trail that you could take little kids on.
There used to be a ranger station at the lake, also there was a resort and there used to be tons of people up there in the summer. Now there's a little historical replica of the first ranger station and some outhouses. There's also a campground that can be accessed from the ATV trail that leads up to it.
We found the perfect spot to set up camp right next to the lake just outside of the required 100 foot perimeter with the most gorgeous view of the lake and Johnson's peak in the mountains. Here are some pictures:
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| Trailhead picture. Let's begin the adventure! |
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| The view from the trail on the way up. |
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| We made it! Gorgeous, but lots of mosquitoes! |
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| Our little home away from home. |
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Enjoying the splendor until the only
event on our calendar: dinner! |
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| Johnson's Peak - the view from our campsite. |
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| As the sun sets. |
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I know it's not much different, but look how
gorgeous it is in the morning. Could you imagine
waking up to this every day! |
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| Making some coffee while Blake makes a fire. |
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| Mmm. Camping coffee! |
We packed up our things and went for a day hike up to Mosquito Lake... or at least we tried to. We hiked and hiked and hiked. We climbed over 1000 feet in elevation in under a mile. It hurt, it was slow going and it did not get us to Mosquito Lake. I'm pretty sure we were just around the corner from it, but we thought that about a hundred times though and it was never around the corner. We needed to hike back down and out to the car, so we had to set a time limit and turn around, goal reached or not.
This is also when we discovered my inability to move my legs quickly when walking up an incline. I'm like a slug. It's like I can't get oxygen to my leg muscles. I guess more training is in order.
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| Another view from the trail on our way out. |
And just for fun, here are some pictures from my first backpacking trip in 1993, two years before I met Blake :).
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| My family and the Moschetti Family |
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| Ashley (left) and me (right) |
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| I like to take a break now and then. |
