My First Real Backpacking Trip

We got invited to go backpacking with our friend Joe and some people in his family. It’s been a generational tradition since his great-grandpa started taking the trip. His grandpa has done it 60-something times (the last time being when he was 70). We’ve heard him talk about how notoriously hard it is. There isn’t a real trail and you basically go straight up a very rocky mountain and then straight down the other side into a basin. It’s always been guy trip, but Jos and I tagged along 💪🏼.

What are we getting ourselves into?

The mountain we were about to climb is behind us. I wish I had gotten better photos of what it was really like up there because my pictures just don’t do it justice.

Me and Jos:)

Right before it got extra hard.

Takin a nice little break.

At this spot we had to take off our packs and help each other up.

^Once we made it into the basin!

I understand now why Dave likes backpacking over car camping. Places that are only accessible via hiking are way less crowded. It felt like we had the whole basin to ourselves!

There were SO MANY mosquitos! I really wasn’t prepared for that. It was very hot during the day, but we tried to cover up as much as we could. It got really cold at night though. So cold that dave asked if he could come into my sleeping bag in the middle of the night. I didn’t mind;)

We did more fishing on this trip than we have in our whole lives. It was very relaxing. Especially the first day because we didn’t catch any fish. But we caught quite a few the second day and they were very tasty.

Starting the journey back^

I could see myself getting more into backpacking. Dave went to REI and bought us some surprisingly good backpacking food. I might almost do it again for that.