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Thirsty Thursday: A Day in the Wilderness

Rambler: Beth

Drink at Hand: 2007 Scheid Reserve Chardonnay (top 5 favorites!)

Hey hey hey...Thirsty Thursday here again. Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. This evening we'll recount a day spent in the wilderness form our backpacking trip to the Trinity Alps from way back at the beginning of the summer. Can't believe its fall already! 

A typical day in the backcountry starts with a sunrise shoot. 

Yep, that big bump toward the right is Mt Shasta. 

Then we eat prepare to breakfast. Really hard work. 

Massey maintains a constant guard over the camp perimeter.

Breakfast actually gets made...and we try to keep warm until the sun kicks in. 

Then if the trip planner (which is me 99% of the time) has selected a good spot, we have plenty of hiking and exploring to fill up the day. 

And then we relax a bit and wait for the sun to set. 

Days in the backcountry are pretty fantastic. Wish we could get more days out there, but the rarity fuels the stoke to go bigger the next time. 

Get out there and have your own wilderness-filled weekend!

Thirsty Thursday: Hammock with a View

Rambler: Beth

Drink at Hand: Trader Joe's Pomegranate Limeade 

Thirsty Thursday here again, time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans! Its been a busy week, so I thought this photo is fitting. Special thanks to our gearhead backpacking buddy who had to buy the hammock and then carry it into the backcountry. It was comfy! I think Terry fell asleep in it shortly after this photo was snapped. 


Thirsty Thursday: A weekend in the woods

Rambler: Beth

Drink at Hand: Ancient Peaks 2010 Petite Syrah

Thirsty Thursday here again! Time to pour something yummy and make some weekend plans. Last weekend we took advantage of the three-day holiday (Happy Birthday America) and went backpacking at Graveyard Lakes. It was, as usual, an awesome weekend of exploring some high alpine lakes...minus the 100,000,000,000,000 mosquitos that also wanted to great outdoors on the Fourth of July. The 8-mile hike in was probably one of the easiest approaches we've ever done (very little elevation gain), which left us with plenty of energy to explore and enjoy the weekend. 

Here's a few photos from the first day out. More to come from this trip--as usual, we took way too many photos. 

Get out there and find your own wilderness to explore this weekend! 

Thirsty Thursday: Wandering through the Wilderness

Rambler: Beth

Drink at Hand: Cowgirl Winery Rose

A little late getting to Thirsty Thursday tonight, but better late than never! This week I'll share a couple images from our Memorial Day weekend backpacking trip in the Trinity Alps. To the three of us on that trip, this pairing of photos is a little funny.

It turns out that if you have a map but don't know where you actually are on that map, that map is worthless. Of course, if you use the compass in your pocket, you can catch a pretty good clue. A clue that three military-trained outdoorsy people holding that map should know. So, we ended up talking a four mile walk in the wrong direction down the trail in the first photo, which required a 4-mile climb with roughly 3,000' elevation gain back up said trail to get back to the campsite. The second photo was a lovely little scene roughly a half mile from our campsite...in the direction we were supposed to go! But, the best parts of backpacking are the silly little things that happen along the way, and the stories those silly things give us. 

If you look closely, you can see the speed hikers up the trail from me. 

The infamous Deer Lake. Infamous in our heads anyway. 

We'll try not to get out there and get lost this weekend! And we weren't really "lost"...just misplaced ourselves for a little bit. 

Massey Monday: Rest Time

There comes a point late in the afternoon each day when we're out backpacking. Massey really has no endurance filter...its more of an on-off switch. Most times, that switch is stuck in the "on" position. So after a full day of chasing birds, bunnies, pika, marmots, lizards, and whatever else she thinks she should chase, the batteries need a recharge. While Terry and I filter water and make dinner, Massey chills. But is still on alert. 

Thirsty Thursday: Inyo Wilderness

Rambler: Terry
Drink in Hand: 2010 Joyce Chardonnay 

Around this time last year, teamwelliver was backpacking in the Inyo Wilderness. Great time! This year, we're a bit separated. Beth is off in Nicaragua (you can follow her adventure at http://pdxnica.tumblr.com/).  Pretty cool to be getting an MBA and traveling to cool places. She'll be putting together a documentary of the trip so stay tuned.

The Mas and I are headed up to  Feather Falls, CA for a bit of exploring. We're not backpacking this time, just day hikes around the area. We'll be basing out of Chico, CA. The good thing is that we'll (well, I'll...she's always) be unplugged. Enjoy your weekend!

 

Thirsty Thursday: Not Too Shabby

Rambler: BethDrink at Hand: 2004 Parrot Ranch Cab Sav

Welcome back for another edition of Thirsty Thursday...time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. Last weekend was a pretty good one here at Welliver Photography, mainly because we weren't so much "here" as we were "out there" -- the best way to spend a long holiday weekend!

Saturday morning we parked Ellie near Saddlebag Lake and the three of us headed out into the Twenty Lakes Basin in the Hoover Wilderness. The hike to our camping spot was pretty quick and easy, leaving us most of 3 days to explore the endless alpine lakes in this High Sierra basin. Beautiful, glacier-fed lakes nestled beneath 12,000 peaks.

Exploring Shamrock Lake. The middle of the glacier-fed Conness Lakes, roughly 11,000' up. There was one more up above this lake! Requisite glowing tent photo (forgive me, its my first one!). North Peak in the background.

Roughly 3 days and 27 miles later, we had sufficiently explored Twenty Lakes Basin and give it two thumbs up. Over the top beautiful, though I think the 10,000' altitude certainly wore us out by the end!

If you want to visit the Twenty Lakes Basin yourself (and you should!), you can find the trailhead at Saddlebag Lake, 2 miles north of Highway 120 / Tioga Pass (the dirt road to Saddlebag Lake roughly 4 miles from the east gate to Yosemite National Park). There is a shuttle boat that will take you across Saddlebag Lake and drop you very close to the first of many lakes in the basin without having to do more than a half mile of hiking. Get out there and check it out!

Thirsty Thursday: Desolation Wilderness Trip

Rambler: Beth

Drink at Hand: Ancient Peaks Rose

Hey Welliver Photography fans! Thanks for tuning in for another Thirsty Thursday...time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. This week I'll give you a little recap of our recent backpacking trip to Waca Lake and Lake Aloha in the Desolation Wilderness.

Desolation Wilderness is in the Lake Tahoe area and is one of the most heavily visited wilderness areas in the country. Therefore, getting a wilderness permit for this area is a challenge. We wanted to go to Lake Aloha, but that's super easy trek destination, so the permits were sold out for that zone. I figured, hey, the Team Welliver is a hardy bunch, so the three of us could handle a little cross-country travel to a zone that still had overnight permits available. After much topo map studying, I was sure that a roughly 2-mile off-trail, cross-country over a saddle point that was only 1 contour interval on the map to a beautiful alpine lake would be easy peasy lemon squeezy for us. So on a warm Friday afternoon we left the Echo Lake parking lot for Waca Lake.

What's that? You've never heard of Waca Lake? Yeah, turns out most people haven't. Why is that? Because its ridiculously difficult to get there. The first 6 miles of the trail (yes, trail) were easy, straightforward, no big deal. Then we left the trail to begin our 2 miles of exhausting scrambling up and down granite boulders with our packs on. Not as easy as it looked on the topo map. But we made it and the lake was pretty and we collapsed into our tent. The next morning had a nicely colored, albeit cloudless, sky. One of these trips we'll get some clouds! We decided to pack up camp and head back toward Lake Aloha in order to cut off a little bit of distance and pain for hike back to the car on day 3. We originally planned to spend most of Day 2 exploring the numerous lakes and playing around with a little bouldering. Unfortunately, little Miss Massey and her delicate little paws had a rough time on the abrasive granite on Day 1, so once we made it back to Lake Aloha for Day 2, we took it easy. Terry didn't seem to mind either. The final sunrise at Lake Aloha wasn't too bad either. Get out there and find your own backcountry adventure this weekend!