My daughter Libby and I left the coast around noon on Thursday, drove to San Francisco and picked up Matthew Black from work and started on our long drive north. Libby came along mainly as new tradition to come backpacking with me on my birthday. The drive was long but we laughed a lot..
From Weaverville we drove another 35 miles to Coffee Creek. After 6 miles of curvy but paved road, we had another 12 miles of gravel before we made it to Big Flat , where we camped for the night.
All three of us had hammocks.
At 7 am Libby and I started our hike, Matthew was going to wait a bit and go a different route, at least the second part. We hiked the New Trail and Matthew hiked the same trail then braved the much harder old trail after the two intersected.
Libby and I hiked at a very good pace, but really took our time to take pictures, stop at the most sweeping vistas to take it all in. It was a joy to hike with someone so aware of our surroundings, so appreciative of the big views, the clouds, the colors, the plants , the burned wood, the smells and on and on.
Here is some of what we saw, really whittled down . The hike in was 9 miles
.
Our descent toward Little Caribou.
The tastiest water
Once we came down to the Lake, Matt was already there waiting for us.
It was only a little after noon so we set up camp ; while Libby took a nap and a read a book in her hammock, I cooked some, ate some, hiked up to Big Caribou and Matt did his own cooking, eating and day hiking.
There were quite a few clouds gathering in the sky and we heard some rumbles, so I pitched the tarp I brought over both our hammocks before hiking around, so Libby would not wake to getting rained on..
The spot we chose to camp at was beautiful, but exposed; when the clouds opened up the heat was a bit much. We decided to move just a little more in the trees.
Ken came strolling in to camp a little before sunset, glad to have his umbrella for the rain he encountered on the trail.
More to come in the next post
