Backpacking

Late July we started on a series of trips-as opposed to vacations, we decided when retired that these excursions are now to be referred to as trips. This backpacking trip was about a year in the planning. I think it was my son-in-law's idea and it was a great one. About 16 years ago Mr WAU and I took the kids from our church's high school group backpacking. We did this 2 years in a row. Each year it was about 15 kids and for many this would be their first backpacking trip. My son-in-law (then not my son-in-law) came on the second trip. It would be one of the events that helped my daughter and him to become a couple and to eventually get married. From this second trip many friendships were forged and we wanted to experience that again with some of the same people-only now they are all grown up and have families of their own. So the idea was to invite some of the same people plus add more family and friends to the mix and go to the same location. My brother and his partner even came-it was special to be able to camp with my brother-we hadn't done that since we were kids. That meant a long road trip for some of us as this place was in California, at Lower Rock Lake in the Grouse Ridge area of the Sierra Nevadas. People came from Oregon, southern California, and the Sacramento area. We ended up with 17 people on this trip. It was nice to go again and not have to be in charge of a bunch of high schoolers. This lake has a large open meadow near the lake that we knew would be good for this trip. Just in case, one of our group went up the weekend before and checked it out to make sure the camping was still good. We had 4 different waves of people come up, each grouping had organized themselves for departure times that worked for them.  Mr WAU and I joined up with 4 others to be the first to get there on Thursday. We wanted to make sure that we would get the same spot we had 16 years ago and it worked. As the day went on others would show up. The trail to get there was not complicated to follow and it was not a technical trail, in fact most of it was a wide road into the wilderness. So it was pretty easy for everyone to find where camp was set up. Even my grandkids made the trek, 7 years old and 3 years old, carrying what they could in their own packs-their daddy taking the rest of their supplies. To encourage the grandkids I set up a "sign" for them on the trail. I took large sticks and made initials of their first names in the path. I did it in about 3 different places. Their parents said it really helped. Some of the group came in the dark and we put lights out on the end of the trail for them. And this time again, it was the first backpacking trip for some of the people. It was a great time. We hiked, swam, ate, fished, and just relaxed in hammocks-we had a lot of hammocks.

Our hike in on Thursday

Me and my brother

    

Grandkids initials                 Grandkids

   
Hammocks                                      City of tents