Back to the hills

Last Friday evening we cut out of work a little early and headed back out to the trail for some backpacking and camping. We decided to go late Friday, so we'd have all day Saturday to explore the area. It was cloudy and drizzling when we hit the trail around 7pm.

 Up and down, the main trail to camp.

It took us about an hour to get to Camp Horsebrush, which is almost exactly 2 miles from the trail head. My pack weighed in at 44lbs this time, and the trail is not too steep, but it's a lot of up and down.
Fortunately the rain let up enough for us to set up camp, before it rained most of the rest of that night.

 Can you see the camp's namesake?

The next morning half our party wimped out because they stayed up all night. Lucas and I, however, were determined to get to the top of the trail that turned us back last month when an afternoon storm threatened to catch us unprotected in the high country.
From where we turned back last time, it was a good mile to the top and pretty steep trekking. Fortunately we had swapped out for lighter day packs for the scouting trip.

The road less traveled.

At times the trail almost disappeared as we climbed up and up.

We finally made it to the top, which was about 2 miles from Horsebrush and 4 miles from the trail head. But what a great spot lay at the top! We looked around and found a water source not too far down the mountain and decided we'd need to get a strong group together and power through the 4 miles to the top with full gear next time.

Enough space to start a village.

We hung around for a bit, but then the clouds started to roll in again, so we made our way back down. By the time we got there we were scrambling to get a fire started before the rain came.

Full color photo.

We had to eat in the rain and spent most the night in our ponchos.

Floating pup tent in the background is a hammock and tarp.

But we made the best of it, and the rain stopped a little while after dark. We stared at the fire and talked about the days hike and when to plan the next excursion to the top with full packs.

Definitely not a time lapse photo.

The next morning we broke camp early and packed the 2 miles back to the car. Total hiking distance was 8.3 miles.

Remember kids, don't eat the magic mushrooms!