The great outdoors

This past weekend, Clint and I finally made it out of the city to test out our new backpacks with an overnight camping trip. We first paid REI a visit on Friday to get me squared away with a sleeping bag and mat (happy half birthday to me!). I've never been fond of the down mummy-like sleeping bags (I prefer the flannel one my uncle got me back in the 5th grade), but I was able to find one that wasn't too constricting and is very light. We also picked up a couple other necessities like a map and compass.

After getting a good night's sleep (and even sleeping in a bit), we woke up to plan out our trip and get our gear packed up. Camping out of a backpack is much different than having your car with you. I was only able to fit about half the clothes I had anticipated on bringing. In my pack, I was able to fit both sleeping bags, a mat, pillow, a chair, my clothes, flip flops, toiletries, a camel pack with 2 liters of water, a couple pears, a small carton of eggs, a nalgene, first aid kit, iPad, cell phone, headlamp, and a walkie talkie (not sure why Clint thought we needed these...was he planning on losing me?). Clint packed all the big stuff in his...tent, stove, pots/pans, dishes, and the rest of our food. A lot of stuff to be hauling around! All packed and ready, we hit the road around 2pm.

heading east

Our plan was to head out on I-90 and take exit 47 to park the truck at the Pratt Lake Trailhead. From there we would hike out to one of three lakes (Talapus, Olallie, or Pratt) and set up camp. It was a nice quick drive, and before we knew it, we were ready to hike out to the middle of nowhere.

arriving at the trailhead

information board

gearing up the GPS

waiting till the last possible moment to put these on

Ready to go, we locked up the truck for the night and said goodbye to cell service.

 

About 100 yards in, I was tired and ready to be done. The realities of hiking with 30 pounds on your back were setting in. But, I was out for the long haul, so I kept going with no only a few complaints. Fortunately, the scenery was beautiful, so that distracted me for the most part.

okay, we're done, right?

nice view from a clearing an avalanche made

waterfall

fork in the trail, out to the lakes
or up to Granite Mtn.

About a mile and a half in, we came across some fast running water and decided to pump some to add to our stash. We were each carrying camel packs in our bags, but we would need water to cook with in addition to drinking. Clint pulled out the water pump he purchased and filled up our water bottle. We then added iodine drops to make sure any bacteria was killed. I went ahead and let Clint take the first drink...

pumping mountain fresh water

possibly Clint's last photo

Since Clint didn't fall over dead, I had some too, and we were on our way.

Hiking uphill with a pack is a lot of work! We had to take quite a few breaks to take the packs off and rest. When we set out, we weren't sure which lake we'd make it to, but shortly after we started we decided to go to whichever we came across first. According to our map and the trail we were on, that would be Lake Olallie. We kept trudging along, passing a few creeks along the way.

tightening my pack again

pretty falls

water break

A little further in (maybe 2.5 miles) we came across a cool wooden walkway that lifted the trail out of some wetlands. It made for a nice break from the monotonous dirt trail. Since we had a late start, we hardly ran across any other hikers and had the trail to ourselves.

I'm under that pack somewhere

crossing some more water

Finally after about 4 miles of hiking, we spotted Lake Olallie through the clearing. It was beautiful. The weather couldn't have been better without a cloud in the sky. We were fortunate to be shaded on our hike, but it was a nice hot day.

The first camp site we came across had be claimed by a family with a couple kids. We moved on and found the second one just a short ways away. We put down our packs here, and decided to check out the others to make sure there wasn't anything better. We found 3 more sites, 1 that was taken, but the first one we saw was definitely the best. It had a nice flat clearing for our tent, and easy water access. So, we made our way back and got our stuff settled in.

Lake Olallie through the clearing

little marker showing the camp sites

analyzing the tent placement

kitchen

Clint setting up the stove to cook dinner

We got the tent up, sleeping bags and mats unrolled, and set up a cooking area on a log on top of a couple rocks. We were home for the night. Next thing on the list was to prepare dinner. Clint had a few Backpacker's Pantry freeze dried meals. They were great...besides the fact that they expired last year. These things already last forever, so eating them past their due date couldn't have been the greatest. They had a bit of a harsh after taste, but besides that they were delicious...or I was so starving from the hike I'd eat anything, hard to say. We started with the beef stroganoff which was pretty tasty. All you do is boil a couple cups of water, pour it in the bag, seal it for 15 min, and voila! We also shared a kung pao chicken. Plenty of food for the two of us.

mmm, beef

letting my meal digest

nerding out in my headlamp while Clint cooks

With dinner taken care of, we needed something else to do. Since campfires are banned from the lake basins, we decided to start a small secret campfire and hope not to get caught. We had already smelled one coming from the neighbors, so we thought why not. We gathered some tiny fire wood for our tiny fire.

It ended up being a good way to smoke out the bugs. Mosquitos and flies were loving us, despite being covered in Clint's hardcore military grade bug spray. Our little campfire gave us something to do and kept us warm. Wish we had brought some marshmallows!

We let the fire burn out and headed to bed. After a long hike, my body was ready to sleep. We wrapped ourselves up in our cocoon sleeping bags and called it a night. I actually slept pretty well for not being able to roll over as much as I do, and we even were able to sleep until 9:30am. About that time, the bugs circling the top of our tent under the rain guard was too much to sleep through, and the heat was starting to bear down on us.

We woke up to another hot beautiful day. I started to roll up our sleeping bags and mats as Clint got breakfast ready. On the menu, Lousianna beans and rice and some scrambled eggs.

rise and shine

yes, another picture

Clint started to pack up some more as I did the dishes and mad a new friend down at the lake.

new friend

ribbit

We packed up our site, and decided to take a dip in the lake before heading out. It was getting pretty hot out, so the nice cool water looked pretty enticing. It was nice to bring the soap in there too and feel a little bit cleaner.

view of the lake from camp

campsite

bath station

Refreshed from the lake, we grudgingly got our packs back on to make the trek back down the mountain.

 

all set to go

goodbye Lake Olallie

Backpacking downhill was so much easier. I was dreading the hike back, but compared to the day before, it was nothing. We hiked along at a faster pace and only stopped a couple of times for breaks. We did need to replenish our water, so we stopped at the first creek to pump some more. This time we had the sterilizing pen handy to use instead of the iodine drops. This was pretty fun to use. It lights up like a fluorescent light bulb and goes out once the water is sterile.

avalanche destruction

break in the trees to see the view

We made it back to the truck proud of ourselves for surviving the great outdoors. Backpacking actually ended up being pretty fun, and I'm looking forward to our next adventure!