Backpacking review...

This is an excerpt (and addendum) from an email I sent to friends and family after we came back from backpacking up to Young's Valley...

Jim and I just got back from a couple of days of backpacking here in Del Norte County. We went to Young's Valley (about an hour from the trailhead) and spent the night there. The big grassy meadow in the high alpine mountain is just as we left it almost exactly 2 years ago. It was very quiet, so quiet we could hear our minds working, our dreams forming. We got to the meadow at around 5 pm and visited a cache Jim has there. Someone had put a few bags of trail mix in there--strictly verboten--and so I took them with me. We took the log book back to our camp and read everyone's comments. Very insightful.

I'd brought in frozen shrimp I'd double bagged in a ziplock baggie with some olive oil, garlic and lemon pepper. It made a very tasty supper of shrimp louie. For dessert I ate some of the trail mix I'd scored from the cache. Unfortuately the frozen water I brought to keep the shrimp cold was still in a large block! Jim was out of water, so we struggled to come up with enough water to make a cup of coffee. Next time I will only freeze a little water and add water to the top of the bottle so that I have a cooler and drinking water. Next time...

One person who took the time to log his visit was a member of the CCC Crew that had just finished adding a trail out of Devil's Punchbowl. It makes the log almost a historic document as he spent a few lines talking about what they'd just accomplished. I thought that was very cool. Other than the logbook, we were totally alone in the valley. No one else walked up. Monday is a great day to begin a trip like this because almost everyone goes on the weekend and leaves by Sunday. We were visited by a swarm of yellow jackets who'd made a hive in a tree in the middle of the meadow. Pulling our tent into the shade helped. It was coolish and by dark we decided to build a small fire in an existing fire ring. Now usually when I backpack I'm very very down on building fires or leaving any lasting evidence that I was in the area. But I have to confess: that little fire was very soothing and comfy and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We went to bed around 9:30.

And we slept well that night except that my 18 year old therma rest mattress finally gave out. My dad gave me that closed cell air mattress when I graduated from Junior College because he knew that I was going to be doing a lot of field study type classes at Ashland. It was one of the nicest gifts, most luxurious gifts I've ever recieved and it meant so much to me that my dad gave it to me. The boys both used it through high school and learned that a good mattress is the key to a great camping trip from that thermarest. It was the standard for its time and I'm sure it cost my dad a lot when he bought it back in 1988. Suffice it to say that I loved that mattress. We've been through a lot together and I'll be sad to replace it.

The next morning, I woke up before Jim. That's not unusual--I'm the morning person. He swears he is, but he really means that he does wake up every day sometime before noonish. So I brushed my hair, flossed, wrote in my journal, read a book, and generally tried to stay busy and warm and wait patiently and let him get his rest. I'd kept him awake in the night and was feeling a little guilty. I'd woke up at 2:30 and thought it was 5 and was stirring around. Gotta sleep with a watch from now on! It finally dawned on me that since I walk a lot slower than he does it would be alright for me to pack up and walk a little ways. So, I got started on the long climb up the grade to Raspberry Lake (another 2 hours). Jim slept an extra 40 minutes and managed to catch me at the big rocky outcropping at the top of the hill. My plan worked brilliantly, except that he was a little miffed that I took off without him. Stopping for breakfast at that point was a good call.

We were in the sun and thawing out looking out over the valley. We made a couple of cups of coffee. I mixed mine with my chocolate protein powder and made a "mocha" out of it... Janice would be proud: I took Starbucks coffee this time (instead of the instant I usually tolerate). Sure was good. Jim made some scrambled eggs from a powder. Those were good! I was pleasantly surprised. Needed brewer's yeast and black pepper, but hey, there's always next time, right? We enjoyed our repast thoroughly, and all too soon we needed to press on. First we "communed" with nature for awhile, and cleaned up and changed clothing for the warmer weather, then set out again. We still had some climbing to do. I was a little apprehensive about my abilities to scramble over the shale toward the top of the grade, but I did alright.

We got to the switchbacks going down into the lake about 11:30 and to the lake at noon. Rachael and Andrew went with us and they had hiked into Raspberry Lake the first night, so they were there to greet us as we arrived. We ate a quick trail mix/albacore lunch then Jim took his air mattress and paddle the circumference of the lake--about 10 acres! I was impressed. He must have gotten very cold because he said that his feet were cramping by the time he got out. Andrew fished and Rachael took beautiful photos. I'll try to get some to post with this later. I laid in the sun like a lizard on the big rocky outcropping in the lake. Eventually I decided a nap was the thing. Jim and I found a campsite, pitched our tent and went into deep peaceful slumber. We didn't wake up until 5 or so, and we were ready to eat!

We went over to the campsite that Andrew and Rachael had designated as the kitchen. I ate trail mix and a granola bar and watched the others eat their gummy pasta feeling quite superior in my ability to forego the ritual of the "hot meal." I teased Jim that I was going to start feeding him a couple of spoonfuls of undercooked rice a roni for his suppers at home. He quickly assured me that he was not in favor of the new menu.

A very pretty evening, some fun as Andrew and Rachael figured out how to make biscuits in Jim's pan over a (very small) fire. It looked pretty good, but stuck to the pan horribly. We went to bed a little later, absolutely exhausted!

Got up and hit the trail at 6:30 the following morning. Jim sprang up, determined to not get left behind again, and I frankly was glad for his company as I missed a couple of turns in the trail. We walked steadily, stopped at our original bfast stop, drank plenty of good coffee, and looked at various possible campsites for next time. I left my sunglasses in the cache to "pay" for the gorp I'd taken and we took a steep shortcut out of the meadow and up to the top of the hill. We took a few breathers, but mostly walked and made it back out to the car by 11:30.

We had a great time, and look forward to going again in September. We may just stay at Young's Valley and day hike into Raspberry then.

Next on the agenda: Spanish classes at Lake Tahoe with my sister JoAnne. Looking forward to immersing myself in the language for a week. Then on to PV for two weeks and then school starts again.