Well, it's been a while. I was starting to wonder when I would ever go backpacking again. I would think that there was the perfect weekend, then think about trying to dig up my gear from storage in the garage and all of the stuff I needed to fix/buy, etc and then just say nah... Life with four kids, all in sports at this point was consuming a lot of time as well. I think back to all of the adventures catalogued in this blog and now realize that might have been the only time in my life that I could have pulled it off - so I am thankful!
Speaking of the kids, that is why there is this blogpost. Out of left field my fourteen year old, Ada, started bugging me about taking her backpacking. I'm not sure what prompter her, probably Instagram or something like that. I wondered whether she remembered what she thought about going hiking and such, but she was insistent. I still wasn't sure that I believed she was serious, so I kind of bought my time to see if she might forget. But, no, she seemed set. Don't get me wrong - I was super psyched that she was that interested and I was really hoping I could make it a special experience for her. I also thought that the whole thing could be a disaster if she found out real quick that this wasn't for her and then it turns into two days of hell. Well, let's see what happened:
First climb was a doozy: Straight from the parking lot up a ridge to Mt Wilson, it's like 1500 ft of climbing in 1.4 miles with plenty of 25 to 30% grade. I did it a little on purpose to test whether she was actually serious about this - if she gave up or whatever, we could get out of there quick without too much damage...
Here is what Ada thought:
Peak wildflower season here after the wonderful and plentiful rains - perfect for a Coe trip.
Upper Grizzly creek was our first snack stop. I taught Ada about elevensees. We filtered water and prepared for our next climb.
Have the sound on for this vid:
Part of teaching Ada about having a good time while backpacking - take joys in little things along the way:
Spot the creature.
We first hiked past Kelly lake (featured in a video above). At Kelly there was this dude that had things figured out: He had packed in a big float chair. He was chillin with beers and a fishing pole in the middle of nowhere - he probably didn't appreciate us passing by, but we were out of his hair fast. The next lake we passed by was Coit lake. At Coit we chatted with another lone fisherman (this one traveled by mountain bike). We told him that we were headed for Pacheco falls and he was kind enough to give us some trail beta that wound up being very useful. He detailed a secret trail that allows people to look down into the waterfalling pools above Pacheco.
Chillin on a rock.
Pacheco Falls.
I figured since this was probably an instagram kind of trip, I would plan the trip with the main goal of seeing Pacheco Falls. It did not disappoint:
The original plan was to fill up on water in the creek at the bottom of the waterfall, but alas, there was a wall of poison oak blocking our access. The sun was going down and we planned on climbing out of the gulch and finding our camping spot, but we needed water. As we headed back up the hill I heard water flowing to the left of us. Fortunately we found the perfect little stream to fill up on. As we continued our climb we met another lone backpacker that was planning to camp by the pond along the trail. He told us about how he was worried about being able to get to the water because of the reeds. That was when we made his day by giving him all the info: the stream just beyond the pond and the secret trail. It was nice to feel like we helped someone.
This video shows the sweet spot we found to spend the night:
Mountain House pad thai with chicken has a thumbs up from us.
As the sun disappeared, some bugs came out, so I threw my sleeping pad into the tent with Ada and we gamed out on her phone until we decided to go to bed. It was cold enough by then that the bugs weren't a problem anymore and I went out and got a wonderful night of sleep in my bivy. Fortunately there was no moon to deal with, so we just enjoyed an incredible star filled night. The next morning:
Views from the ridge as we headed back to the car.
All downhill at this point.
We hiked about 15 miles with 3000 ft of climbing on day one, and did another 10 miles on day 2. It turns out that backpacking food aligns pretty closely with the preferences of a middle schooler: Chocolate, cheetos, candy, jerky, stroopwafels, trail mix, breakfast bars - Ada was pretty happy with the selection.
Ready for McDonalds.
I would say that the trip turned out to be a huge success. Ada was a trooper and was a really good backpacking partner. She got a realistic experience that taught her that it's really hard, but that is one of the points. The hard stuff is punctuated with beautiful experiences that are amplified exactly because she endured the hard stuff. That is why McDonalds turns into one of the most satisfying meals - because we were really hungry...
