A Weekend of Backpacking, Camping and Hiking

Thursday night, Chris and I got together to do some backpacking. We packed up a bunch of stuff -- sleeping bags, tents, food, water and beer, and headed up Mt. Baldy (elev. 10,064ft) via a trail called Register Ridge. This trail is the steepest ascent to the summit and holy hell was it hard with the heavy packs.

We got up to the summit at like 2:00am and set up camp.

AND PARTIED HARD! Just kidding. We drank beer and ate tuna fish until like 4:30am. 

The beer is in a sock because we felt it would help to keep it from clanking around or breaking in our backpacks. But then the sock just wound up staying on the beer.

And then the sun started coming up around 5:30am so sleep was in short supply. 

Apple chips and canned coffee for breakfast.

Chris packing up.

Me, in my socks, not doing anything particularly helpful.

We started our descent early, as we had to stop at a few stores to prepare for our camping trip later that night.

Coolest clouds!

It's like being underwater or something.

Once we got down from Baldy, we wound up stopping at a Bass Pro Shop, which I'd never been to before. It's totally ridiculous.

Anyway, fast forward to meeting up and camping with a large group Friday night.

And now it is Saturday and we are atop Anderson Peak (elev. 10,840ft). What a doozy of a hike! We are standing in a cloud so we don't even have a view of anything around us. We sat up here waiting a while for others to join us and it was so cold!

I am told that this jacket is "clownish" on me. But I was way too cold to care.

Robert, Julie and I then continued on for a few miles to try to reach Shields Peak but accidentally wound up on Alto Diablo (elev. 10,563ft). Oops.

Veggies for dinner.

Sunday morning breakfast.

Experimenting with Chris's camping cooking gear.

The table caught on fire.

We parted ways with the rest of the group and drove through Big Bear, where we passed a trail up to Gray's Peak (elev. 7,930ft), which I'd wanted to hike the last time I was in Big Bear, but it was closed then. So we did it this time.

Check that one off the list.

And then we got in the car and continued on through the mountains and decided to hike up Mount Baden Powell (elev. 9,406ft), named for the founder of the Boy Scouts of America. By the time we started, it was already dark out.

The "Wally Waldron Tree" lives near the summit of Baden Powell and is estimated to be over 1,500 years old.

It was way cold up here.

Whiskey and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Back at the bottom.