The Day Hike

I used to have a summer tradition of going to the Sierra Nevada mountains to fish and camp. One year I decided to hike to some of the upper mountain lakes. It was an idea inspired by a book called Best Short Hikes in California's South Sierra. The definition of "short hike" varies greatly depending on who you talk to. I hiked with my wife Kristin who was just my gf at the time and we decided to try the Big Pine Lakes hike. The reward was supposed to be trophy sized golden trout. When I read the description of the hike it said six miles. I figured that would only take maybe a couple hours. We started the hike early and hit the trail with tons of excitement. It's always fun to explore the unknown. The view from the campground itself was spectacular and the canyon is surrounded by crags with small glaciers.

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The air and environment felt pristine. The hike started near a creek and and it gave glimpses of the hike we had in store. In the book it talked about people hiking up with horses and gear to camp near the upper lakes. It wasn't long until we got our first good look at one of the glaciers.

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It seemed so close. Then after we hiked about a mile or so we realized just how far it really was. It was becoming later in the morning and we had left the shade of the forest and started making are way up some switch backs. We past various people with full daypack gear and they had a puzzled look on their faces as they passed us. "Is that all the water you have?" They'd ask. We had two good size containers of water but not a lot in what you'd call supplies. We had a few granola bars and some jerky but nothing else. We were packing light because we figured this was a day hike, no tent or sleeping bag would be needed. The switchbacks were punishing but they gave a nice view of the progress we were making.

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The trail seemed to go on forever. It veered off away from the creek deeper into the canyon. You could hear water far off in the distance. It sounded like a pretty good size stream but it was camouflaged by foliage.

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It got louder and louder with every step we took. The elevation was starting to get to us and we had to stop several times to wait for horses or hiking groups to pass. The idea did start to swim around in our head that maybe this was a bigger undertaking than we thought. I made the comment about just checking out the stream then we could turn around. Once we got under the next tree line we could see what was making all of the noise.

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It was a good size water fall. It's hard to believe how much water is created from snow and ice melting. The power of the water was impressive and showed off by making a thunderous roar as it cascaded down the hill. We worked are way to the crest and the view just kept getting better.

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The falls just inspired us to continue on further. There were times we'd stop in the shade and just enjoy the view. I kept getting distracted by beautiful looking fishing holes that I'd have to test out before going forward.

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They were just too inviting and called to me. I did end up catching a little golden trout out of the hole above. After taking a picture we moved on and kept working are way up the trail.

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Looking back it was hard to figure just how far we had actually gone. I figured maybe 2 miles. Then as we looked ahead all we saw were more switchbacks. The switchbacks were out of the tree line and it was later in the morning. The sun seemed to bake us and you could feel the heat almost rising up from the ground. There were several times we wanted to just give up. I kept saying lets see what's at the top of that next ridge. What was at the top of the ridge? Another set of switchbacks. Some how I kept moving us on and in the book all it talked about was the color of the first lake. I kept looking and looking and expecting to come over a ridge and be greeted by the prettiest water I had ever seen. I was almost at the wall of my hiking point and getting ready to tell Kristin we need to just go back when something caught my eye. I thought maybe it was an optical illusion at first. What I thought was the blue sky behind the trees was actually in the canyon. There is no way the sky could be showing there. Could that be water? As I thought this the trail started to branch off immediately in that direction. This gave us some new energy and we quickly worked are way to where the glowing blue was coming from. It got brighter as we worked are way closer. The color didn't seem natural it was too blue. When we finally found a clearing and saw what it was we both just stared in silence.

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It was without a doubt one of the most beautiful views. The picture does not even compare to how this lake glowed. We just looked at the lake for awhile then I checked the book again to see how far the other lakes were. We had been hiking almost 5hrs and I figured we had to turn back soon. The other lakes were less than a mile from each other. We hurried to lake two.

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It was interesting how this lake was a different color it wasn't as blue as the first lake. Apparently it's the minerals in the lake that give it the color. Some upper lakes are black or green. The crags behind the second lake gave it a postcard like appearance. It was amazing.

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3rd lake was supposed to have the big golden trout in it. I surveyed the water but didn't see any fish. I cast a few times with a small ultralight spinning rod. I didn't get any follows or takes. I was more worried about getting back down the mountain before dark. I checked the book again and read something that made my anxiety even worse. What I thought was going to be a 6mile round trip hike had turned into a 12mile round trip hike. I started to freak out a little. I'm not sure if it was from lack of food, dehydration or just being a wuss. But I had almost a little panic attack. I started to realize if one of us was hurt or attacked we were 6 miles away from civilization. I ate a granola bar, drank some water and calmed down. I told Kristin "I think I'm getting altitude anxiety sickness." Kristin said what? I didn't even really know what I was saying. It was something I thought I had heard of before but wasn't sure if it was legit or not. So Kristin said so you think you have A.S.S. You have ass? Then she just started laughing uncontrollably. At first I was a little offended that she was taking what I thought was a serious threatening situation seriously. Then I started to think about it and if the situation was reversed I probably would have said the same thing. I couldn't help but laugh myself. A feeling of relief came over me and we started to work are way down the trail. The trail was steep and rocky. It was almost as hard walking downhill as it was up hill.

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My knees started to kill me and we stopped several times to rest. It's weird to have to rest after walking downhill. We took our time and talked to several other hiking groups going up the trail. They were all amazed at how far we had gone. They also had a look of how dumb we were to not have taken more supplies. I stopped a couple more times for some last chances at golden trout. I wasn't lucky but at least I had one picture. Then as I was walking back I noticed Kristin holding the camera and she said, "there's no pictures on here." I said "WHAT!!!!!!!?" To this day we still talk about what exactly happened. I know the picture was on there after she took it and I'm sure she accidentally deleted it. But she is adamant that the pictures just some how disappeared. I was more mad at the fact that I had just hiked all day and finally got the fish I was looking for only to have it be erased in a second. It took awhile for me to realize the really great photo was imprinted in my mind and that can never be lost. We made it back to the campground safely. In a genius move we had already packed up our stuff before the hike because we planned on staying in a hotel that night. Probably the smartest decision we ever made. After a hike like that you want to sleep in a BED. After an experience like that you'd think we would look at the hike negatively. Kristin and I still talk about it as one of the best hikes of our lives. Some day we'd like to go back with our kids.

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