Spring Backpacking and other Walks in the Woods

While there's still a lot of snow in the mountains above our house, we've been able to do some backpacking and hiking, two of my favorite activities. And one of my one younger brothers came to visit for a bit. Among other things like work projects, long conversations, and enjoying good homemade meals, we went on a two

day backpacking trip together.

 I'm super proud of his choices in the last couple years to clean up his diet, lose weight, and take care of his health! He's down 80ish pounds, feeling better, and kept up with me no problem over some rather steep terrain, around waterfalls, and past lakes for a 25 or so mile trip. Thanks to Micah for snapping most of the photos of me and Burley from this trip.

Heading up (a lot of up!) from the trail head, things were green and some wildflowers were in full bloom already.

But it didn't take long to reach an elevation where the the plants were just little green mounds that were just getting started.

And not long after that, big snowfields! As always, Burley loves getting to this point and loves to lay in the snow to cool off. I don't think he really likes summer that much as he always seems to prefer snow. 

Eventually we reached the ridge line at the top of a pass. The photo above is looking back down the sunny south side of the mountain we came up. Below is looking toward the next valley we were headed into. Much shadier, north facing, and lots and lots of snow.

Wind too! As you can tell from our hair and Burley's chest. 😀

Then we came down the snowy side. On our butts. After making sure everything was securely inside our packs, we took turns sitting down and glissading down this massive snow field. In the above photo, you can just barely see Micah as he comes down to where Burley and I had paused about half way down. 

Photos just can't show how steep things actually are, but this kind of action got Burley all wound up and he wanted to race around both of us as we slid. This was a great spot to do this kind of thing as there's a long runout on the snow as the angle mellows and no trees or cliffs to worry about running into or falling off or. 

We just came over that ridge line above his head! It's sure a fast way to cover some downhill distance.

Then we were back to walking on ground with smaller snow fields scattered throughout. 

We found quite a few cool rocks like this. 

And then descended enough to camp in this lovely little meadow near two large waterfalls. After a yummy hot dinner, we each got cozy in our tents, and slept like logs.

The next morning, we hiked up to the edge of one of the falls. 

And then headed down the trail again.

Back to a lower elevation with green things and flowers. And some beautiful lakes!

It was a lot of fun, and about the earliest I've ever tried to get up that high in the mountains for an overnight trip. You can see why with all the snow still remaining even after a pretty average winter snowfall. Actually a lot of new snow came down a couple days after we returned from this trip. 

And even when not out on overnight trips, it's fun to go on day hikes with good friends. Beth and I enjoyed a lovely walk through trees and wildflowers one afternoon and look forward to a couple longer backpacking trips together this summer. 

Do you go for walks outdoors? What's your favorite place to wander in nature?