Last summer, I decided that I would take the boys on their first backpacking trip during the coming fall break. I’d been to Little Lakes Valley a few times before, most notably when Ryan and I climbed Bear Creek Spire back in 2012. The trail starts at high elevation (above 10,000 feet) and is relatively flat for the first few miles, so it would be perfect for the kids. As a rule, the nicest areas in the Sierra require strenuous hiking to get to, but here you can drive right up to the base of some 13,000 foot peaks and access the back country with ease. The drawback to this convenience is that the trail can get crowded, but this would be late enough in the season that most people would be staying away, due to the cool weather. As well as any mosquitoes.
We took Zane backpacking when he was little, but this time, the kids would be in charge of their own locomotion. I would be the pack mule. Trips like this are always more fun when we bring along friends, and I was able to convince one of Zane’s classmates to join us. Er, I convinced his mom, who had never backpacked before. We will catch fish, I said. It won’t be that cold, I said. Lies. All lies.
We drove up to the east side and spent the first night in the Alabama Hills, which is a nice (free) place to bivy for an evening, if you don’t have reservations or plans. The kids had fun scrambling around on the rocks and we hiked over to Mobius Arch, and then ate a tasty breakfast at the Alabama Hills Cafe, which never disappoints. The weather report looked chilly for the next couple of days, but I felt confident that we would be ok. We’ve been camping with Casey and Drew a couple of times now, and they are game for anything. Zane and Drew have been in the same class since kindergarten, and it’s been fun watching these two grow up together.
The wild card would be Kalani, who is only four years old. Kalani is Mr. Cheerful, but he likes to dilly-dally, is easily distracted by bugs and critters, and he manages to trip and fall on a regular basis, especially when he gets excited and starts running with his exuberant enthusiasm (usually to catch a bug). I was planning to carry all our food and gear, and I didn’t need to add his weight to the mix. During the lead up to this trip, I prepped him by talking about how he would hike the whole way by himself, and that I wouldn’t carry him under any circumstances. I have a bad habit of picking him up and going, whenever he is slowing me down.
We hiked up the valley and set up camp near the shore of Box Lake. The trail was relatively empty and we had the place to ourselves, due to the cold weather that was forecast that night. We were all prepared for sub-freezing temperatures, but it would still be interesting to see how the kids would handle it. We tried fishing a bit, and we saw a few brook trout in the stream by our camp, but no luck.
And then I realized I had left my sleeping pad back at the trail head, and I spent a few minutes weighing the options. I could sleep on the cold, hard ground and be miserable all night, or I could run back to my truck to get it, before dark. I decided on the latter, because there’s nothing I despise more than an uncomfortable mattress (or lack thereof). I started jogging down the trail, while the boys played around the campsite. I made it back in under an hour, just as the sun was slipping behind the mountains around us.
When I got back to the group, Drew was shivering and Casey looked concerned. The kids had been playing in the creek and looking for brook trout, and I guess they were splashing around a bit. She was trying to get him warmed up, but it had already dipped into the 40’s and it was only 5 pm. I suggested that she get him into his sleeping bag, but the thought of retiring to the confines of their tent, for the next 14+ hours, was too much to bear. So, after some discussion, they decided to leave their gear and make a run back to the car, before it got really cold. She assured me that they’d be back in the morning, and we laughed about the absurdity of the situation. They grabbed their flashlights and off they went, before it got any darker.
I’ve done a bit of winter backpacking and the thought of spending that many hours in the tent wasn’t too bad. It would be a lot more entertaining with kids, after all. I’ve been stuck in my tent for almost 48 hours before, so this would be cake.
Now it was just the three of us. I made some freeze-dried lasagna for the boys, and then layered them up in their warm clothes. Kinda sad, but I would eat this stuff for dinner at home, when I was in college. We raided Casey’s tent and brought their sleeping bags over, so we had a giant pile of insulation to keep us warm. By 6 pm, we were inside the tent and played a game of Bucking Bronco, which is standard practice anytime we are camping. The boys climb onto my back and I attempt to shake them off, moving from levels 1 to 10. It’s rare to get past level 6, because someone inevitably gets injured and we are forced to halt the action. In this case, the small backpacking tent and extra sleeping bags made for an excellent rodeo venue, and the boys would bounce off the walls without anything to hit, other than each other. I think we made it to level 9, until Kalani and Zane bonked heads and the crying started. Mission accomplished; we were all warm and exhausted and we climbed into our sleeping bags, as the mercury continued to drop below freezing.
The night went pretty well, except that Kalani refused to stay in his sleeping bag, and would wiggle his way out every couple of hours. I kept an eye on him and stuffed him back inside whenever this would happen, while Zane slept like a rock.
Eventually, the sun rose, but it was still too cold to get out of our tent. I began to wonder what Casey and Drew were up to, and whether they were more comfortable than us. The boys had to pee, but I told them a made-up story about a boy who got frostbite in the worst possible place, and that bought us another hour of tent time.
I got up to make some warm soup for breakfast, but all our water had frozen. Oops, I should have put the bottles in the tent. I walked down to the lake to filter some water, and the surface was covered in a sheet of ice. Sheesh, this was getting ridiculous. I broke through the thin surface ice and collected enough water to make some soup.
After eating, we stayed in the tent a bit longer, and waited for the sun to peek over the mountains. Zane’s feet were freezing, so I boiled some water and had him hold the hot bottle against his feet, inside a stuff sack. That worked pretty well. Around 8 am or so, I heard a noise outside and it was Casey, all smiles and carrying coffee and donuts! Holy cow, this was some first-rate service! I’ve never had Starbucks brought to me while backpacking, and I highly recommend it. They had spent the night in Mammoth and looked refreshed. Drew was anxious to try fishing again, so I rigged a line and watched him cast a bit. He picked it up really fast, but didn’t catch any fish. I think the trout were all frozen at the bottom of the lake.
We eventually packed our things up and started the hike back to the car. It was a short trip, with some unexpected twists, but it all worked out and I’m glad we gave it a shot. I think we will restrict future trips to the summer, at least until the kids are a bit older. We said our goodbyes to the Ladds and started driving south, back towards Lone Pine. I wasn’t really sure where we were going to go… I had 3 more days to keep the kids occupied, and wanted to explore some more. Death Valley wasn’t far, and I liked the idea of getting into some warmer weather, so we eventually turned east and made our way towards the desert.
Death Valley is one of my favorite places to visit, but I was a little worried that the kids would find it boring. There isn’t a whole lot to do, other than enjoy the expansive nothingness that stretches for miles in every direction. It’s desolate and remote, and it’s easy to get off the beaten path and find yourself lost in no-man’s land. As someone who really dislikes crowds and commotion, it’s just an amazing place to sit and reflect, and to escape the buzz of everyday life. My favorite area in Death Valley is the Eureka Dunes, at the north end of the park. These Dunes are harder to access and don’t see nearly as many visitors as the main area of the park. We drove out to the dune field, which required just a bit of travel on a graded dirt road (no 4WD) and found a campsite at the sand’s edge, without a person in sight. It was marvelous. We had the entire valley to ourselves, it was sunny and warm, and we had a stocked cooler and firewood for the next 2 days. Yep, this would work just fine.
The boys had never seen a sand dune before, and they instantly fell in love. My uncle brought me out here when I was a teenager, and I remember how fun it was to climb and then roll down the massive dunes. I started unpacking the truck and they went running off towards the sand, with huge grins on their faces. Zane found a baby horned lizard, and Kalani discovered a huge chunk of obsidian.
We spent the rest of the day climbing up the dunes and rolling down, which is really more fun than you can imagine. The sand is so fine that it gets everywhere, but the boys didn’t seem to mind at all. They proclaimed it as their new favorite place, and we will definitely be coming back soon. I was actually impressed with their energy level, and the next day we went on a long hike and made it to the top of the highest dune we could find, which took almost 2 hours. Walking up the soft sand was pretty exhausting, and I came to realize that it was harder for me, since I would sink 6″ deep with every step. The lightweight little guys would float higher on top, and I had a hard time keeping up with them.
That evening, a group of bats visited our campsite and it was fun watching them fly around our heads, as they tried to catch the moths that were drawn to our headlamps. Google informs me that a collection of bats is called a colony, but it sounds funny to say that a colony of bats were flying around our heads. So, I will refer to them as a group. Kalani wanted to use his butterfly net to try and catch one, but I thought that might be a bad idea and I persuaded him to just enjoy the show. They were getting so close, he probably could have taken one home. We ate some buttered pasta and enjoyed a raging campfire, and I let them play some Minecraft in the back of the truck. I sat in comfortable silence and enjoyed a couple of beers, while the bats performed their strange acrobatics above our site.
The next day, we did it all over again. I was afraid they would get bored, but they were perfectly content to hike across the dunes, roll around in the sand and play, and just enjoy the environment. On the way out of Death Valley, we took some gnarly 4WD roads past some abandoned silver mines, and we stopped off at the an area called the devil’s golf course. Kalani loves salty things and before I could stop him, he was putting rocks in his mouth to taste them. The boy is strange.
We eventually made it home, took some much needed showers, and had a day to relax before it was time to pack up for our camping trip to Big Sur.
