The mosquitoes were pretty bad last week, but it didn't distract too much from the beauty of the Eastern Sierras. Not much can take away from the jagged peaks and bouldery slopes, snowy mountain tips, glassy lakes, and blue skies.
Weather was great. We had rain for about 4 minutes, and hail for maybe 2. The rest of the time was sunny and beautiful.
The group was a very slow hiking collective as a whole. But that way, we had a much more leisurely walk (at least I did!). And we didn't get to many of the places we had originally planned to reach. The length of the walk was about half the distance as planned. We had 2 layover days at pretty lakes along the way, where we swam and climbed and read.
The group dynamics were much better than originally hoped for. My fears were slightly unfounded, and I feel like I rekindled a friendship that had been on the fritz.
Last week, I definitely got some much-needed relaxation time. We practiced morris tunes on tin whistle for hours each day (until we were asked to stop). I actually finished an entire novel in a week! Yay! I swam and collected 5 lbs. of lovely rocks (replacing the weight of the food that I'd eaten during the week so my pack weighed just about the same going in as it did on the way out!).
And I got lots of rock time. One of my housemates and I climbed Mount Merriam (or got within about 25 feet elevation of the peak). We couldn't figure out a safe way to traverse the last 200 feet of sheer cliff. With 2000 foot drop on one side and 3000 on the other, we decided to be satisfied with the first "peak" instead of the real summit. We also did a few excursions of bouldering and rock scrambling (climbing up large boulders piled precariously on steep mountainsides, and jumping from boulder to boulder to boulder). That's one of my favorite things to do!
It was a fun trip, and certainly nice to get away for a whole week. Next year I'll have to figure out another backpacking excursion.
1 comment:
Welcome back! I'm glad you had such a good trip!
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