I ventured out on my first backpacking trip this last weekend. I've camped a lot and I've hiked a lot but this was the first time I've combined the two in the same trip. Our trip started at the beautiful Mazama Country Inn in Mazama which was quite a delight. We were able to snag some delicious fuel via the continental breakfast they provide for guests, just before we hit the trail Friday morning.
The drive up to Hart's Pass was pretty rugged. It's basically a one way with lots of ruts, bumps and cliffs. Despite the bumpy ride and occasional butt pucker, it was truly a beautiful drive.
Our adventure started out on the Pacific Crest Trail at about 6900 feet. Our hike to first camp was a smooth 6 miles into Oregon Basin where cocktails and food were waiting for us! I may have forgotten to mention that mules brought in a bunch of food and gear which would be set up by our fantastic camp hosts when we arrived. So this was a pseudo-backpacking trip I suppose...
The second day consisted of a 11.5 mile hike to Shaw Creek, but Rico and I decided to tack on a few extra miles and have lunch and a swim up at Goat Lake. Plans didn't quite go accordingly when we ended up taking the wrong trail to Sky Pilot and ended up tacking on an additional 6.6 miles to our day. We had to scurry down to camp to avoid hiking in the dark and by the end of the day we had logged 18 miles and 9 1/2 hours of hiking! Phew! A cocktail and cheese tortellini served as the perfect medicine for our all day adventure.
On day 3, our uphill climb started in the forest and ended out on a beautiful ridge where a 360 degree view of the cascades awaited us.
This trip was such an amazing experience. The only thing I'd change would be to plan the hiking closer to sunset/sunrise in order to get some more epic lighting on the mountains. Other than that, it couldn't have been better. I made new friends and saw new places, quite a wonderful combo. Huge thanks to Jeff King of OutVentures for putting together such an amazing trip!
Nerd Alert: I was super excited to try out the VSCO Film 2 preset pack I recently purchased. This pack gives you several great film looks that you can use within Lightroom 4. Also, be sure to check out the VSCOcam iPhone app which is my new favorite camera app from the same company. These guys are killing it right now!
Note: I downloaded a new gallery plugin which I'm pretty happy about but be sure to click through the images to see the full shot. You can also use the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll through or hit the play button at the bottom left to watch it as a slideshow.
