Day: August 8, 2009

Bull Run Lake July 19-21

[Photos by Sonja, now with comments by Andy]

With the first backpacking trip a success and a Kaua’i vacation planned for August and, we decided to put all our camping and hiking training towards the ultimate goal: backpacking in the Sierra Nevada. Both Sonja and I longed to be in the mountains again, and backpacking is the only way to really get there. Fortunately, there are lakes in the mountains, and this was a great selling point for Leilani (though in the end, she still prefers streams).

After much searching in books and on the internet, I found the shortest, easiest hike to the prettiest lake: Bull Run Lake off of Highway 4 in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness (about halfway between Lake Tahoe and Yosemite). But the mountains are far away, so after leaving early Friday afternoon (and still sitting in traffic), we drove most of the way there and car-camped in the National Forest, along the Stanislaus river.

The name of the campground is Wakaluu Hep Yo (Wild River in the local Mi-Wok Indian dialect) and it is near an Indian village site (that we didn’t see). What I found interesting is that they have cultural demonstrations by the native Californian Mi-Wok Indians, we didn’t see those either, but it got me interested in their history.

That first night, we slept among the pines, saw lots of stars, and Sonja got to build a fire:

Lelani loves playing in the smaller backpacking tent, and here the static electricity got the best of her hair. Now that it’s getting longer, her hair is getting funnier in the mornings:

For the record, here is our campsite there:

With taking down the car-campsite, and then driving another 30 miles to the trailhead, we got a late start, but that’s one luxury of doing “short” family hikes. Here is the trailhead picture:

The trail starts out along a beautiful meadow, not full of flowers, but there are still plenty. Though I actually think this lily was further along by the stream.

There is something magical about the light in the mountains:

After an easy downhill hike, we stepped over the North Fork of the Stanislaus River where it is barely a stream and found a nice spot for lunch:

In turn, this ant got some of our lunch:

There began Leilani’s hike-long obsession with throwing rocks in streams. She’s always liked to make the rocks splash in water, but here she was demanding we stop at every little stream so she could indulge. I think it was maybe her way of saying the hiking was too hard and that she would rather play.

This hike was significantly different from our previous training hikes in several ways. For one, it was much harder because mountain trails are just rockier and steeper than the well-worn trails in the Bay Area. I don’t think the altitude was much of a factor because we weren’t hiking fast at all (another luxury of short family hikes). The biggest difference, however, was Leilani’s behavior: she was more involved in the hike, both physically and mentally, despite the difficulty.

On all the training hikes, Leilani spent at least half the time being told stories so she would keep walking. It really was just a way to occupy her so her feet would keep moving, because I find it distracting from the outdoors experience to tell stories while I walk. But on this hike, in both directions, she did most of the talking. Instead of being occupied with hearing a story, she really occupied herself by telling us stories. And while they were not full plots, they were complete stories that lasted 5-10 minutes each and that made definite sense.

We also talked about other things, like how mountains are formed or some other natural process; she really likes to hear these, listening intently and asks me to repeat them until she understands. Imitating me who had the map and often walk in front to set the pace, st one point she announced: “Now, I’m the leader, follow me.” Immediately followed by “Which way do we go, left or right.” While that made the parents laugh, she often did lead and find the trail without problem, even climbing up and over rocks.

At one point, she walked off the trail, found a high rock that had a nice view and decided to offer a blessing. We have started doing blessings before meals, but this was totally unprompted. She actually blessed all the people who didn’t go hiking, so that they could go hiking someday too:

Unfortunately, the last part of the hike was the steepest and rockiest, and I had to start carrying Leilani. After reaching a false lake (like a false summit that makes you think you’ve arrived), Sonja and Leilani took a rest, and I went ahead to find the real lake. Then I came back and carried Leilani and Sonja’s pack the last 1/4 mile.

But it was all worth it:

Sonja, of course, had to go swimming and even made it to the island in the middle of the lake.

Since the water was relatively warm from being shallow and still, even Andy could swim in the lake and go to the island as well:

Leilani, who didn’t want to go in the water at first, now wanted to go on the island. Since neither of us could swim that far with her, we told her it was impossible.

That, along with being very tired, made her very upset, but later she calmed down and played nicely in the tent.

In the evening, the surface of the lake was very still:

The next day, we explored around the lake. There is a huge boulder that I started climbing. Before Sonja could help her, Leilani started climbing as well (since she wasn’t very high off the ground, I felt I could still take pictures):

Once Sonja arrived, Leilani kept climbing higher and higher.

While I waited for Sonja to get up, Leilani ran ahead to the top of the rock:

I wonder where she saw this:

On the far side of the lake, a little stream meandered through some marshy area that was very green:

Our destination was a big snow patch, not too far up the rocks on the other side of the lake:

SNOWBALL FIGHT!

Leilani really enjoyed the snow, mostly to make snowballs and throw them at rocks. But there were also little caves to crawl into between the boulders:

On the way back to the campsite, Leilani spotted “her” island. She hadn’t forgotten about not being able to go to the big island, so she really wanted to play here. It was a perfect little rock for her to climb around, with little stunted trees and almost a real island. She pretended it was Kaua’i and showed me where all the ports were.

We again had lunch and let Leilani nap before taking down the tent. Then it was time to pack up and hike out:

Leilani walked the whole way back, except for the last little hill to the car. She didn’t lead as much, but she did tell us stories again. She was a little more insistent about stopping at every stream to throw at least 3 rocks. The last stream (the North Fork of the Stanislaus River) was the best, with lots of rocks to throw, so we took a long break there for her, before the last uphill to the car. Leilani got so carried away, she slipped and fell in the water, which made everyone laugh. And we still made it to the car long with plenty of time before dark.

We celebrated the hike and rewarded the hikers with pizza (and beer for the parents) at the Big Bear ski resort. Then had a nice and traffic-free drive straight home at night.

Here is the map and profile of the hike, click image for readable map:

Time flies…

I have not posted in a while, the good news are I had plenty of paid work, and we are going to Kauai tomorrow.

Today Leilani and I stopped at a yardsale – she outgrew all her 3T dresses, and even some of the 4T are getting short. We didn’t find any dresses, but I found a book of Bambi – I bought it hidden away, so she wouldn’t see it… she bought a book too: Tales of King Arthur

She found a spot in the shade, under a table, and pretended to read the book, and was really impressing a few adults by telling them the title, and that Arthur was a good knight, and that she liked dragons a lot. I paid for the book and promised to read it.

I hope she’ll still like Bambi…