John took me on my first backpacking trip for two nights along with our grandson, Aiden, which was his first backpacking trip as well. I was a little apprehensive about the whole thing especially the no bathroom facilities part. It was a learning experience for sure and now I know what to look for in a backpack for future trips and having John help us to choose the gear was especially helpful for the first time.
We got a late start on Friday morning, meaning to start the hike no later than 9 a.m. but didn't actually start until 11:30 a.m. and so it was already pretty warm when we began our hike. The first stop for the night was Round Lake.
If you would like to see the map of the hike we did, it was from Echo Summit to the first night spent at Round Lake and the second night spent at Showers Lake. Then back down (some ups) to Echo Summit where we had the truck parked in the lot. Another map of the trail is Here.
First day on Friday is from Echo Summit to Round Lake.
Second day, Saturday, from Round Lake to Showers Lake.
Two pictures below is of the historic Meiss Cabin and barn. Louis Meiss bought this land in 1878 to use as a summer grazing for his cattle. The cabin and barn were finished in 1880 and he and his family used the cabin as a summer home each year, staying until it was time to head back to the Sacramento Valley for the winter months.
A small sampling of the many variety of wildflowers we saw:
Mountain Marsh Larkspur
Hanson's Larkspur
Showy Penstemon
Indian Paintbrush
Rocky Mountain Iris
Mule's Ear
Scarlet's Gilia
Prairie Smoke
Fender's Meadows Rue
Crimson Columbines
Lupine
Alpine Shooting Star
At Showers Lake the couple with the red tent shown above had the best campsite with spectacular views. I'm going to do a painting of this some day. I would love to go back and stay at this exact spot for at least one night.
We also had some rain and thunder at Showers Lake which made it all that much more special for me because I love the sound of rain pitter pattering on the roof. After taking the photo above, we had to hurry back to our tents because it was starting to come down pretty good.
Our first night at Round Lake, I was blowing up my air mattress and almost passed out. I could feel myself getting dizzy and spiraling downward. I've never experienced anything like that before. I do believe I was suffering from a mild form of altitude sickness because I felt nausea and lightheaded several times throughout the weekend. I was extremely thirsty but not drinking nearly enough, loss of appetite and dizzy spells and shortness of breath pretty much the whole time but especially when we were climbing the steep trails. I did much better on the flat and downward terrain than I did going up. Which is weird because I usually don't have problems climbing and enjoy it but I was so out of breath all the time. We were at 9,000 feet and I don't think I've ever been that high up.
This section is from Showers Lake back to Echo Summit.
We had an 8 mile hike out back to the truck on Sunday. The trail began to get very rocky until pretty soon there was nothing but rocks for the trail and following it began to get tricky. Somewhere along the way I made a wrong turn. I was in the lead and John was in the rear and his phone was turned off to conserve battery and he wasn't keeping track of the trail on his App. I remember coming to the top of the trail at one point and thinking to myself which way to go. Alas, I thought I found the trail just off to the left but I must have not looked close enough and gone wrong and Aiden and John kept trekking behind me unaware. My pack was heavy, I think I was suffering from a little altitude sickness, I was tired and keeping my head focused down on the trail and wanting to get back to the truck to get home to shower and rest. We had done a lot of climbing steep trails over the weekend and most of the way on Sunday was downhill with some steep climbs thrown in for fun.
Due to my wrong turn, we ended up in an area that was clearly not part of the PCT. We had to duck under a huge fallen tree and climb up over several other fallen trees. Wood chippings and lots of tree branches in the way to crunch across. We knew it was clearly not the trail.
The boulders above are super huge. The photo doesn't do them justice. We had to scramble and climb our way down these rocks which was not part of the trail due to my wrong turn. But hey, we made it and can say we did a section of the PCT!
Regardless of my wrong turn, we had such a fun time and look forward to another adventure with John eating dehydrated foods and pooping in the woods.
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