Shooossshhh!...No One Tell Sommer I Had Fun Without Her

Last week Sommer and I went on separate adventures. She let me head out with one of my friends from work, Matt, to go backpacking in Sequoia Nat'l Park. Backpacking is one of the things Sommer and I love to do together so she was a little envious that Matt and I were going. While we were gone, her and Erik headed to Arizona to spend the week with friends and family. Matt and I hiked around 40 miles throughout the week and saw many beautiful lakes and views. We started out hiking over Marvin Pass where we had a wonderful view of the Great Western Divide to our East. We hiked about 7 miles a day and some were definatly more difficult than others. On our first morning in the woods we saw one of two bears we would see throughout the week. We didn't get a picture of either but you can see from the "to scale" rendition I did below, it was scary.....

Matt was the one who noticed the bear running straight for our camp and I think he may have even wet himself, although I am sure you did also after seeing that picture. Once he made some noise the bear scurried off and left us alone.

Our favorite stop on the trip was Lost Lake which wasn't on our original itinerary but we were glad we made the adjustment. Here are a few pictures from that area. You can see in the picture with me collecting fire wood that one of the deer that came through camp walked tight up next to and hung out for a while before running off into the forest.

After staying at our favorite campsite we spent the next day traversing our most difficult terrain. We dredged through the snow as we climbed a couple thousand feet to cross Silliman Pass at over 10,000 ft in elevation. Luckily we beat the weather that was rolling in each afternoon so we never had to hike through the rain an thunderstorms. We got to our campsite each day as the rain started. We set up our tents and then would wait out the weather for a couple hours. As you can see from the pics, the mornings and evenings were great. Here you can see Matt and I on top of the pass with Twin Peaks rising behind us.

We ended up finishing the hike a couple days early but had a great time. It is always fun to be away from the phones and office but it also always great to come home to showers and a warm be. Sommer wasn't expecting us home so early so I had the first night home to myself and waited for her to drive back from Arizona the next day.

It has only taken me 4 hours to put this post together which I believe makes me current on posting for the next 6 months. I will leave most of the rest up to Sommer. It is great to have her and Erik back.