Celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary and 22 years together- May 29, 2014
Backpacked 30 miles and 3,400 ft elevation gain.
From Leavitt Meadows Campground to the ridgeline above Tower Lake
Shane is always really good about picking awesome places to hike in the Eastern Sierras. For this anniversary, it was Tower Peak in the Hoover Wilderness, right off the Sonora Pass. The Eastern Sierras are so incredibly beautiful, I never get used to the huge granite walls, beautiful snow caped peaks and thundering waterfalls and rivers. We always go without the girls because the hikes are usually more of a vertical climb, but I look forward to the day when the girls are able to come here. There is no where like the Eastern Sierras.
We did not get to the parking area until 7:45 pm so we loaded up and hiked in our first 2 miles just by the light from our headlamps. As is our typical MO - we could not find the trailhead so we head off in the WRONG direction - 5 minutes later we get back to our car and realize that we had left our trekking poles just leaning up against the car! I guess it was good that we went the wrong way! Finally we find the direction to go and head off into the darkness.
There was no moon and the sky was filled with stars. So many stars, the milky way was crystal clear. How I miss the milky way back in city life. After hiking for about 90 minutes Shane and I had one of the most awesome experiences ever. I cannot believe in all the years of backpacking that we have never experienced this, but it was amazing.....I will try to describe it, but there are no words for how this felt at 10:15 at night off in the middle of the Hoover Wilderness....some things just must be experienced:
As we were approaching what we thought was going to be our camping spot for the night, we thought we saw really low stars, lying just about the level of the horizon. Being that we were in a canyon of pretty tall mountains, this really did not make sense. So we stopped and turned off our headlamps to figure it out.
We were surrounded by the pitch black of the night, but when we looked down we saw the entire night sky reflected back at us. There was absolutely no wind, and we were elevated about 20 feel above this perfectly still lake that contained the reflection of every star in the sky. It was a moment of amazement for me, sometimes I am stilled to the core by the beauty that is in this world. We stared at this lake for quite a while before we continued on to set up camp.
The next morning we had a huge day ahead of us so we got up early, packed up and headed off to get as close to Tower Lake as possible. We had about 8 miles to hike. It took us 6 hours. There is no way to eat enough food to keep up with what we are burning. We are just in a constant state of hunger. (We both lost 4 POUNDS on this trip!!)
It feels good to be hungry. So often we just eat to eat.....it is something entirely different to eat so you don't collapse on a trail!! We never really collapsed, but we did need to take some breaks.
Shane fell in a river too....poor guy. Not the river above, either....that would have been LOTS better. He had to carry the bear canister with all the food and it seemed to throw off the balance in his backpack. Unbalanced backpack and a tiny log crossing a rushing river is not a good combination. He fell in up to his WAIST! We had to stop for a while in this meadow so his sleeping bag could dry out.
After things dried, we continued on to our destination. This is Hawksbeak Peak, we think.....you will see though, that we have absolutely no map reading skills so that is just our best guess.
We got to our camp spot at about 4:45, after 7 hours of hiking and did not know how we were going to stay up until a decent bedtime. We both could have gone to sleep right then. But instead, we ate and played cribbage and read our books. We made it until 8:00! Our tent was full of sun, but we were exhausted....we slept until 7:45. CRAZY!
Our view when we got up of what we thought was Tower Peak. This amazing spire ended up being just two tiny insignificant dots on the topo map. If you want to feel how insignificant we are in this world, go to the eastern sierras. These peaks are just indescribably beautiful and breathtaking.
Shane told me that we would be hiking up to the top of this. I said, "Um...NO!" but we can get close. So we set off to climb up about 500 ft elevation gain (1 mile) to Tower Lake and have lunch. You know us, nothing can ever be that simple, so after eating lunch and observing a pretty cool ridgeline that went up to Tower Peak, we decided to climb another 1000 feet elevation gain (and about 1 mile). Doesnt that sound awesome! Look at how beautiful it is:
But, it is crazy steep. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other and eventually you get there, though!!
Once we made it to the top of the first ridgeline we decided to keep going to the next ridgeline. That was when we realized that Tower Peak was actually BEHIND this huge spire that we had been heading towards. The real Tower Peak is in the background of the picture at the top of this post. We debated crossing a third ridgeline to get there, but the clouds were coming in and lighting on a ridgeline is really not that safe so we headed back down....
Getting back down is actually really fast....
The next day we had to hike out the 8 miles, but going downhill is at least less strenuous. The problem with downhill is that is it so much harder on my feet and knees. We were totally running out of food, our feet hurt, our shoulders ached, but there is nothing that stops us from enjoying being outside.
There is nothing better than being outdoors relying on on our own power, the joy of seeing beautiful things and spending time with each other.
This is what life is for. Countdown to our 1000 mile bike trip - 10 days!!!