Peace Corps Reunion

This past week, we hosted the 2nd official Peace Corps reunion (the first was in the Virgin Islands in January, 2007). It's been nearly 10 years since Susanna and the rest of the gang ended their two years as Peace Corps volunteers in Guatemala.

People came from all over...including Maryland, Idaho, Colorado, southern California and even Thailand! We ended up with eleven people staying at our house, including 5 in a 6-person tent in the back yard (first picture below)! It was a wonderful time to reunite with great conversations, great food and the incredible scenery of the north coast. With the exception of an all-day rain on monday, the weather was flawless. We spent time in Trinidad, Redwood NP, Patricks Point State Park as well as Arcata and Eureka. Here are a few of my favorite photos...

Rainey's tiny friend!


Hunting season on the beach!



Mike and Susanna on top of Trinidad Head


In awe in the Redwood Forest

The group at Trillium Falls in Redwood NP

An Oregon Sunset...

We spent a wonderful night camping at Harris Beach State Park in southern Oregon this past weekend. The sunset was absolutely perfect...

The Range of Light

It's hard to write a single blog entry about such an epic adventure as 2 weeks on the John Muir Trail, but i'll try. Susanna and I began our hike at South Lake trailhead, which is close to Bishop in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. It was well past sunset when we began backpacking up into the John Muir Wilderness. We hiked under the stars for a little over a mile, just because we couldn't wait for the adventure to begin! The next morning, we woke up in the heart of the "Range of Light" as the Sierra Nevada is called. Ten miles later, we joined the John Muir Trail and began backpacking north with a destination of Yosemite Valley.

We ended up spending 13 nights on the trail and backpacked a full 13 days plus the evening under the stars. By the time we arrived in Yosemite Valley, we had backpacked nearly 150 miles and had more adventures than we could count. Simply put, it was one of the best two weeks of my life.

Below, I put a single photo taken from each of our 13 campsites.

Night 1: Milky Way Knob (10,180')

Night 2: Glacial Cirque View (9,800")
Night 3: Snow Level Lake (10700')

Night 4: Evolution Lake (10,880')

Night 5: Piute Creek (8,050')

Night 6: Rosemarie Meadow (9,960')

Night 7: Quail Meadows (7,920')

Night 8: Lake Virginia (10,370')

Night 9: Red Cone (8,645')

Night 10: Lower Trinity Lake (9,250')

Night 11: Garnet Lake (9,700')

Night 12: Lyell Canyon Rapids (8,940')

Night 13: Sunrise (9,340')

1st Annual Church Backpacking Trip

This past January, Susanna and I led the first dayhike for the newly created church hiking club. That got me thinking about leading a backpacking trip up into the nearby Trinity Alps. It had been nearly 14 years since I had last led an organized backpacking trip. It was time to change that! On July 21st, seven hardy explorers from our church began a 3000' climb up into the Trinity Alps on Canyon Creek Trail. After 7 miles, we found a campsite on an "island" surrounded by flowing creeks and a thundering waterfall. We then day-hiked a short distance up to the stunning lakes in the upper drainage of Canyon Creek.

The following day, we re-traced our steps back out of the mountains. It was a big success and we are looking forward to leading another excursion next year!

North into Oregon

In mid-July, brother John and I escaped to the PCT for a 5-day, 82 mile backpacking trip which brought us well into Oregon. We began the journey in Seiad Valley, a tiny town in Northern California (this is also where we started our trip last year when we went south to Castle Crags), and ended at Green Springs Mountain along Highway 66 in Oregon. With the crazy amounts of snow that fell over the winter and spring, we still had many snow obstacles to get through. Most of these were on N and NE facing slopes. In some of the forests, we found snow to still be drifted to 5 feet high. This made for very interesting problems, as we lost the trail several times and had to rely on map, compass and good navigation skills.

On days 1, 4 and 5, we had beautiful sunny skies with occasional white, puffy clouds and temps in the 70's. Day 2 was mostly cloudy with temps in the low 60's and day 3 was mostly foggy with temps in the 50's! This was mostly a pleasant surprise as it was much more comfortable to hike.

Here are a few of the highlights:

Avoiding snowfields on Day 1

Echo Lake (Campsite #1)

Bearground Spring (Campsite #2)

On day 3, we happily entered Oregon!

Heading cross-country to avoid a HUGE snowfield covering the trail...the wildflowers were INCREDIBLE as we summited Observation Peak (7,340')

Lots of snow on the PCT!

On day 4, we left the Siskiyou Mountains and entered the Southern Cascades. This is Pilot Rock

Day 5 breakfast stop with a view. Hobart Bluff (above) and 82 miles later, this (below) is our destination!

Above the Lost Coast

In late June, we escaped for a weekend above the Lost Coast. We drove south to the Mattole River in King Range NCA. After a night of car-camping, we headed out on the trail on a foggy, windy morning. The trail brought us down to the coast, where we caught the Cooskie Creek Trail, which immediately begins an 800 foot climb in barely over half a mile. The fog soon turned to beautiful sunny weather. The trail then meanders through meadows and trees on it's way to Gorda 2, a 2,378 foot mountain. The views of the ocean way below were incredible!

After a long loop, we turned back toward the ocean and dropped to sea level, where we set up camp. The following day, we hiked out along the pounding surf under blue skies and a light breeze.

Our campsite near the Cooskie Spur Trail:

Sea Lions cover these rocks:
Classic "Lost Coast!"

Solitude in the Alps

This past weekend we escaped into the western reaches of the Trinity Alps. This part of the Alps is known for its rushing rivers, abundant wildlife, rugged mountains (which are smaller than the Alps peaks to the east and therefore snow-free in June), and amazing solitude. Oh, and one more thing: Poison Oak! The area lived up to its reputation in every way. We saw exactly zero people on the trail, saw lots of wildlife, camped along a beautiful rushing river, swam in frigid water, looked up at rugged, forested mountains and were nearly overcome by more poison oak than you could imagine. In fact, the poison oak was head-high in places and got so thick, that we eventually turned around. Still, this side of the Alps has an incredible sense of wildness and we had a wonderful weekend!

Still smiling before the onslaught of Poison Oak!
Susanna is surrounded by Poison Oak! Our beautiful campsite sat along this rushing river: