Every part of me was ready to head to the mountains. It felt like too long since I had hiked around the beautiful Sierras. Amidst the rush of the week, I found peace with knowing I would soon be amongst the granite slabs, alpine lakes, and fall forest leaves. To make matters more exciting, this was a Poly Escapes trip. As a leader for Poly Escapes, I get the opportunity to bring other students and curious beings to beautiful wilderness spots around california. A total of13 of us packed up for the weekend. We had a wonderful itenerary that included day hikes, backpacking, and some backcountry caving. It took a long six hours on friday night to arrive at our campground, but the long hours meant nothing as soon as we stepped out of the car and we were filled with fresh mountain air and the sight of the dense night sky. Unfortunately, we had some disrespectful camp neighbors who arrived at the drive in campsite even later then we did. It was around two in the morning when I was woken up by their loud engine and bright lights. They spent nearly two hours pitching their large tent and blowing up their air mattress. It was a little obnoxious, but luckily it only kept me and the other leader awake so everyone else was able to sleep soundly. We left the campsite early after a delicious breakfast of pumpkin and chocolate granola, almond milk, and bananas! We drove to Kennedy Meadows and parked at the trailhead for a six miles round trip hike with our destination of Relief Reservoir. The fall birch leaves were a personal highlight for me; I have never hiked emigrant wilderness in the fall so the fall colors were a treat. After we experienced the beautiful hike to the lake we hiked back to our cars to travel to our next trailhead. We were hiking another three miles with our overnight backpacks to stay at Eagle Meadows. I have a little history with this particular trail that makes it extra special. It is the location of my first backpacking trip back in 2011. It is always so great to return to this spot and it was an even better experience this time because I was able to share the spot with so many other new backpackers. We spend the evening chowing down on a huge feast of chicken, sauteed veggies, brown rice, avocados, salsa, tortillas and snickernoodle cookies and settled around the fire for fun camp stories. The night brought out a chilly frost so our stiff bodies were ready to move as soon as we woke up. With camp clean and a warm oatmeal breakfast in our bellies, we hiked to a unique cave system. We scrambled around rocks and stood in awe amongst the massive surrounding natural landscapes. It was the perfect end to our backcountry experience. We made a pitstop at Pinecrest lake, about 30 minutes drive from our trailhead, so we could enjoy one last sierra experience. Happy with our weekend away, we stuffed back into our poly escape minivans and drove back to home sweet SLOme.
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January 2017
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