Went camping with Jeff and Ron yesterday. Snowshoed around Twin Lakes and camped on Upper Lake. Walked out this morning. Here is the full set of pictures.

This was a humbling experience for me. Many times I felt like I was kind of at the edge of my comfort level. It gave me new appreciation for what kind of mental toughness true explorers must have. John Muir writes in his journals of spending nights in the open on Mt. Shasta, just sleeping under a log in his clothes while snow piles up around him. By comparison, we had it super easy with our modern tents, our sleeping pads and our warm bags.

The hike was about 8 miles round trip. We ended up not having enough fuel to even try boiling water, so I ate one Clif Bar the first night and another the next morning. Along with a few sips of water, that was pretty much all any of us ate. The snow was up to my waist when I got off the trail and on the trail it was still pretty powdery. Made walking feel pretty difficult. This was the first time I’d ever tried snowshoes, and the first time I’d snow camped in this tent (a true 3-season tent that was way out of it’s element in this weather). I woke up pretty much hourly to slap snow off the roof of the tent so it didn’t cave in–it’s a small single-person tent with just two poles. In the morning, the foot and head of the tent were covered and the sides were pushing in on me. Kinda claustrophobic.

Anyway, it was beautiful out there. So quiet. I kept thinking of a Stephen Iverson song: “Surely God is in this place / Holy ground.” I’d do it again, but I’d try to choose a clear night rather than one with a lot of predicted snow…