A Bright Dot Lake among Sierra Peaks, Backpacking Inyo Forest
Most of my pictures in the High Sierra focus around two opposites, a rocky peak or a watery blue lake (except, maybe, for the hundreds of photos of rock piles that may, if you look hard enough, have a pika in them). The side trip Curtis, Trails (& pup) and I took from our backpacking camp at Mildred Lake to Bright Dot Lake highlighted this even more. Bright Dot is a lake…
Remember that time we backpacked to Mildred and Genevieve Lakes?
There is quite a few trips from this past summer that for one reason or another I wasn’t able to blog about when it was fresh in my mind. Luckily, that usually that means I must have been prioritizing something else that was pretty cool, probably ecoSUMMIT or attending a wedding. But now in the heart of winter, denied of that thin alpine air, I am ‘wistfully’ looking organizing these…
Winter Camping in Sequoia National Park
This year Curtis and I made our thanksgiving feast in a dutch oven, over a campfire, surrounded by snow, in Sequoia National Park. Last summer we bought the ‘America the Beautiful’ all national parks annual pass, instead of the plain old Yosemite annual pass. Yosemite had upped their fees for the annual pass, so it was only a $20 difference – and great motivation to visit a laundry list of the…
Round Top & Winnemucca Lake Loop: a 5 mile Jaunt from Campsite to High Country
Earlier in the month I happened on a new hiking book in the library, Alpine Sierra Trailblazer. The hiking, biking, and skiing guidebook covers the area between Sonora Pass and Lake Tahoe. As luck would have it I soon found myself visiting the Tahoe area in early August without any game plan… meaning it was a great opportunity to put this book to the test! I chose to visit Highway…
Sonora Peak, Stanislaus National Forest: Sweeping Views on Sonora Pass
What came first: Sonora Pass, Sonora Peak, or the City of Sonora? Apparently the mining town of Sonora was the first place to obtain the name of ‘Sonora’ in the area. It was named after the Sonora Desert by early Mexican pioneers. I can see how the two may seem similar during the hot dry summer. Latter the Bartleson-Bidwell Party was the first settler party credited to have crossed Sonora Pass, although…
Bartlett Peak: Summit Hike from Boundary Lake, Yosemite & Stanislaus
I don’t often plan backpacking trips where we basecamp in one location and dayhike. But maybe I should, it is a great strategy for hitting up nice places where you just don’t want to haul around a giant pack – such as random summits – plus it just sounds so leisurely, day hiking in the wilderness away from the trailhead crowds. Of course for Curtis and I’s trip to Boundary lake…
Hiking Bull Run Lake, Stanislaus National Forest Amid Hunting Season
It was one of those weekends where the mountains are plastered in clouds, rain, fog, and at certain elevations snow – while it was a warm perfect autumn day down in the foothills by Groveland and Murphys. Despite the better weather at lower elevations I was determined to head up into the Sierra Nevada Forest. I had failed to wash the tent with waterproofing, so backpacking was out of the…
Backpacking Molybdenite Creek: eastern sierra fall colors you don’t have to share
Fall colors – they happen every year but they don’t get any less magical. Colors in California can’t ever compare to my favorite displays in Michigan (I’m looking at you Brockway Mountain), but those yellow and orange aspen littering the hillsides are really growing on me. Actually it’s a sort of poetic how the summer season is greeted sunny poppies and then adjourned with the fiery aspen, full circle. Right now…
Bagging Peaks and Taking Names: Hiking Mount Dana
There are some trips that Curtis and I have been meaning to do for years now, Lyle Glacier, Mount Lyle, Mount Whitney, anywhere in Sequoia, and Mount Dana. Guess which one we finally crossed off the list!?! (SPOILER: it’s should be pretty obvious by the blog title) Yep, we hiked Mount Dana last month – which is now officialy the tallest summit I been to. I don’t think of myself as a…
Hello! I am a 30-something outdoors-lady, backpacker, and resident of Groveland, California - 
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