Backpacking

This year was Gus' first Father's day. To commemorate this particular first, Dianna had to dig deep to think of a gift that would be memorable. The result was an idea that was beautiful in its simplicity: get a three-person tent to replace Gus' old two-person tent so we could take Zane on his first overnight backpacking trip over Labor Day weekend (along with the rest of his antique camping gear, Gus has a two-person tent that he bought back in 1995 for a bicycling trip across Europe with Dockta Dave, which is still a functional tent... but it's a little small for three).

We went to King's Canyon National Park, and got a room at the Cedar Grove lodge. Cedar Grove is 6 miles from Road's End (elevation 5000 feet), which is the farthest point that you can drive into King's Canyon from the west. The Sierras go uphill steadily from there - all the way to the crest of Mt. Whitney at 14,500 feet, at the east rim of the park.

To start our day, we had a few logistical details to take care of. We had to get a backcountry permit and rent a Bear Canister, as King's Canyon NP is home to a significant population of black bears, which over the years have developed ninja-like pickpocket skills for relieving backpackers of their GORP and Hummus. The best defense has been empirically shown to be these canisters, and since their introduction the bears of King's Canyon have been flummoxed by what amounts to an oversized beer-can stuffed to the brim with high-calorie food. The bears smell the food, swat these canisters around the camps for a while, lose interest, and move on. I guess the California black bears are considerably smarter than the Yellowstone grizzly bears, as you aren't required to have a bear canister in Yellowstone, where you can throw your food into a tree instead. California black bears have WiFi and google.

We solicited a few rangers for advice, and based on their recommendations, we decided on a relatively 'simple' route that began at Road's End, and ended 6.5 miles upstream on the King's River at Paradise Valley, with an elevation gain of about 2000 feet and a pretty waterfall along the way. Dianna and I have tackled bigger and taller hikes than this before, and thought that this would be a cute little hike for Zane's first trip (cue the hubris music here).

After a lot of back-and-forth, we decided that the most parsimonious way to go would be for Gus to pack the food and gear, and for Dianna to pack the Zane. Now, while the Kelty Summit is a sweet pack for hiking with Zane, it does a lousy job at distributing the weight for any significant loads. We strapped a few Diapers and a therma-rest onto it, and that was about the limit of what the Kelty would tolerate without cantilevering Dianna backwards into the river. The other pack was almost comically stuffed. Loaded up with gear and food, Gus contends that he's never carried a heavier pack, even for multi-day trips.



We started at 2:30 and had made it two miles in the first hour (this is a very leisurely pace). By 5 we had made it to Mist Falls, which is 4.5 miles in, and about as far as a sane day hiker would go. Even though it is late in the season, the falls were still impressive, and worth the hike. We figured that it would get dark around 7:30, so we had a full 2.5 hours to get to Paradise Valley, which should be no problem since we had only two miles left to go.

Make that 2 miles, and ~1000 feet of elevation gain in the first of those two miles.

The two miles between Mist falls and Paradise valley were simply gnarly. The trail sinewed through a slough of switchbacks which was basically a granite staircase with 20" steps. Very quickly our legs were fried, and had to take a bunch of breaks as it got later and later. To boot, the terrain was steep enough that there were no places to pitch a tent in the event of an emergency, so we either had to continue or go back to the car. We elected to head up the trail, continuing towards Paradise Valley.

Along the way Dianna stopped in her tracks and said, "Bear!". I figured she was hallucenating, but then saw it - indeed there was a black bear standing in the middle of the trail. After it saw us, it decided that it didn't like the way we looked, and started up the canyon off-trail. Dianna is insisting that I relay to any grandparents who are reading this that "it was a really small bear with a hurt foot, which we later learned was a year and a half old from the Bear Management ranger." Unfortunately we didn't snap a picture, but Zane saw a bear. Which is cool.

At dusk we arrived at Paradise Valley, and hastily threw together camp, wolfed down some partially-cooked easy mac with tuna and pork and beans. It was freakin' delicious. Zane is an expert at sensing our exhaustion, and decided that now would be a prime time to crawl around in the dirt and eat it (update: this kid is a big crawler). He was quickly filthy, and Dianna had lost the remaining cool she had. She was totally wiped.

Zane woke up at 1, 3 and 5am, and let everyone within earshot know it. This unfortunately woke up our Czech neighbors (whom unbeknownst to us were camped on the other side of a bus-sized boulder at our campsite). They were actually very cool about it. The next morning we offered them some '98 Ridge Montebello (which we were too tired to break into the night before) to which even the Czechs replied, "oh no, it's far too early to drink". Oddly, one of the Czechs named Pavel was a fellow Postdoctoral Fellow in Microbiology, and hailed from a small town in the Czech Republic called Ceske Budejovice. Gus lived in Ceske Budejovice for a month while in grad school working in Julius Lukes' laboratory. Pavel apparently knows Julius (I think it's tough to NOT know Julius if you live in the Czech Republic). So, in the literal middle of nowhere I meet a dude who I am one degree separated from. The world is not large.



That morning we were in better spirits (not just because of the meritage). It's amazing what hot Apples and Cinnamon oatmeal can do for your emotional well being. Zane got to try some, and appeared to dig it.

That morning we played in the river a little:




Zane ate some more dirt and saw a few deer. It was a perfect campsite morning.



Around 11:30 we started down the mountain, thinking it would be a lot easier to go downhill. Not so much. We were physically whipped from the day before, and very slowly perambled back towards Road's End with a breaks every 5 minutes or so. At least the view was amazing.




We stopped for some lunch at Mist Falls:


and headed down the final stretch. Dianna was well beyond her physical comfort zone, so we took turns carrying Zane out of the Kelty for the last mile. Mercifully, we made it to the car, packed up, and headed back to the lodge. For anyone reading this that has not been totally dissuaded from attempting a backpacking trip with an infant, my advice is to follow a simple formula: take a trip that you think you can handle without any difficulty, and cut that distance and elevation gain in half. That's about right.

That night we wolfed down some steak and pasta, and went to bed at 7:30 pm. We were only marginally among the living again at 8am. All in all it was an epic trip - we bit off way more than we could chew, we were summarily humbled by the mountains, and slept very uncomfortably. However, looking back only a few days later, the trip was a blast. Zane went on his first backpacking trip, and had a great time. He soaked up all the attention, marveled at new sights, sounds and smells. Most of all, he laughed a lot.

He's a greater son than we could have ever hoped for.