Summer was coming to a close and I still hadn’t gotten a backpacking trip in with my brother-in-law, Matt Griebel. I’d hoped to make something happen since a spring break trip to Big Sur was rained out. We agreed to an upcoming weekend, and I convinced him that we needed to summit something… I haven’t really had that “standing on top of the world” feeling very often lately, as most of my time is spend reading, writing, and programming, and this trip was just the chance before winter severely limited the options.  We opted for a hike from Cottonwood Lakes trailhead, as it is the highest trailhead in Southern California (i.e.- less climbing for us), was equidistant from San Diego and SLO, and is the farthest south (read: closest) portal into the really tall Sierras. We decided to climb Mt. Langley (peak pictured at left) because it is tall (14,042ft), permits are available, and it is the furthest south of California’s “fourteeners” (making it both an accomplishment and less driving). The photo below shows the southern Sierras as seen from Lone Pine, with the names and heights of the most prominant peaks (click the image to see it larger):

Langley is all the way to the left (south), and is pretty imposing. Also notice that from the top of Langley we would have a good view to the North of Mt. Whitney.

We met on a Thursday night in Ridgecrest, CA and drove north looking for Fossil Falls, where we hoped to camp. We however totally missed it, and didn’t realize it until we were just as close to Lone Pine. Rather than turn back, we headed on to Lone Pine and thankfully found a great little campground right outside town.
 The next morning (Friday) we went to the Lone Pine Ranger station for permits and a bear canister. This late in the year, the quota was non-binding (at least on a Friday), so we had no issues and were soon on our way to Cottonwood Lakes trailhead at around 9,500 feet elevation. We packed up and set out on our way!

The hike in was rather pleasant (only ~1,200 ft of elevation gain) though it was quite windy and hailed and snowed on us a little. We reached the Cottonwood Lakes Basin in the early afternoon just as the sun was coming out for good. I snapped the picture below of Griebs resting just after we crested into the Basin:

 

 

We set up camp in some trees next to Cottonwood Lake #3 explored the basin, and made some awesome “camp pizzas” for dinner using the JetBoil, english muffins, parmesan cheese, tomato sauce, salami, and sun dried tomatoes (this was all thanks to Matt by the way, and was an awesome idea!)… we also had a jalepeno, but it proved WAY hotter than either of us were up for.

We were both struggling with headaches from the altitude (we had both come from sea level the day before and slept at ~4,000 ft, and were now over 10,000ft) So we read our books (both of us were reading books in the “Song of Ice and Fire” series) and went to bed in preparation for an early start the next morning for our summit push!

Saturday dawned sunny (woohoo!) and we did the ~3,500 ft climb over 3-4 miles without too much difficulty. We had pretty crazy wind and some threats of rain, but overall things went really smoothly, and we made the top around noon, signed the log book, took some pics, and then found a place out of the wind to eat our lunch. The hike down and our last night camping and our hike out were all enjoyable (and beautiful), but unremarkable.  Below are a collection of pictures, as always, click on them to see them larger:

 

 

Went out with some friends and picked up some burritos at our local favorite taco shop (Yay Don Carlos!) and took them to the beach to enjoy the sunset… sometimes it’s sweet to be a San Diegan!

 

As everyone no doubt knows by now, Lexie landed an awesome job as an Undergraduate Admissions Counselor at University of San Diego (not UCSD, where Jamie goes to school). The job has been great so far, and the campus is beautiful, and her co-workers are smart and wonderful! We’re super stoked on the job. Below are a couple of images of Lex at work.

 

After a couple of days int he backcountry, we decided we wanted to see some of the big trees that are the name sake Sequoia NP. We camped in the heart of the park (Buckeye Campground), saw the biggest tree in the world (the General Sherman), walked through the Giant Forest (aptly named), and hiked (the quarter mile) to the top of Morro Rock. Below are some pics from this part of the adventure… click on them to see them larger:

First off- you have to click the title above (or the “Read More” link below to see this whole post, because it’s too long to fit on the main page)… now that we’ve got that out of the way, I’ll answer the question on all your minds…

Yea, we decided to go backpacking on the busiest weekend… and we pulled it off pretty well too! Due to Lexie’s new job (and the uncertainty that preceded it) we kept putting off our “Summer Sierra Pack Trip” until we only had one weekend left before Lex started her job… unfortunately, it was the weekend that EVERYONE has to do outdoorsy mountain stuff… so we had to find something that everyone from LA wouldn’t be doing to. The answer it turns out, is go to Mineral King in Sequoia National Park. This area of the park is served by a 23-mile separate, dead-end road that is one lane and gravel in some sections, and takes 1.5 hours to traverse.

So we got up early on Friday morning, and were on the road by 7AM. We’d dropped Caya off at our cat-sitters (Thanks Mike and Kerry!) the night before, so we drove straight on through (6-7 hrs) listening to the audio version of Game of Thrones which we got for free from Audible! (for trying their service) The book was awesome, and the drive up Mineral King took us out of the valley haze (through Visalia) up and up and up to the crisp clear air at 7,800 ft!

 

Land’s End from a Boat

 

 

 

 

Neptune’s Finger and Lovers’ Beach

 

Lex on “Divorce Beach” (Next to Lovers’ Beach)

 

 

The Menu for our Anniversary Dinner at Opus!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once it was finally summer, it was also time for the Mullins to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary! I can’t believe it’s been 5 wonderful years, things have gone so fast, and we have been all over the place.  As an example, we have lived in at least 11 different habitations for a month or more since we have been married (Rohnert Park, Dora’s Place in Antigua, Sammy’s Hostel, With Mari and Simi, at Dave and his wife’s place off Tobalaba in Santiago, Mark and Amanda’s place (with Chels) in Santiago, our little in-law quarters in Nunoa, 275 41st St. Oakland, 4122 Montgomery Oakland, Camino Ruiz San Diego, and 1 Miramar La Jolla). So after 5 years we decided to take a real “vacation” as opposed to the normal “Trips” we take during our vacation time. The goal was to really relax, and not plan out activities and adventures. We stayed at a resort that included breakfast and unlimited drinks service, and we made the most out of both. Below are a number of slide shows (most quite short) with different themes from the trip… feel free to browse whatever you’re interested in, and let me know what you think of the slide show format:

 

First, our hotel, the Posada Real in San Jose del Cab0… beautiful, relaxed and not too crowded… guests were about half Mexican nationals and half Americanos… made us feel like we weren’t getting too ripped off (side note, I have no idea how much less the Mexicans were paying but we got a pretty sweet deal):

 

Next up is a collection of a few photos of us taken at random times and places on the trip:

 

Here are an assortment of  ”beach” photographs, from walks, sunsets, and hangouts on various beaches in the Cabo area:

 

The obvious next catagory is underwater images. These were taken at our 3 snorkeling destinations… Playa Chileno, Pelican Rock, and Cabo Pulmo. Our little Olympus 1030SW is still alive and kicking, though I can’t say that I am that expert in it’s use… nonetheless it always makes for some fun pics. Unfortunately, there was a tropical storm several hundred miles south of Baja while we were there which was churning up the water, so visibility was not what it could have been… there were lots of fish though, we just couldn’t see them haha.

Lastly some “street photography” from around San Jose del Cabo (the smaller authentic little brother of Cabo San Lucas), taken as we walked around each evening to find our supper: