Hiking with the Boys

I took Trev and Logan on a overnight hike this past week to Weaver Lake located in the Jenny Lakes Wilderness inside Sequoia National Park. Last year I took the boys on a short hike, about 1/2 mile, to a nice spot by Sierra Summit called Indian Pools. This year I decided to push them a bit more by hiking closer to 6 miles round trip. I had done this hike with my own father years ago as a kid and remembered it being a fun easy hike. I had forgotten that this hike gains quite a bit of elevation for a short hike, almost 1000 feet. The boys handled it well at first, but became a little mutinous after a couple of miles. Once we made it to the lake, all of the complaining stopped and we started to have fun. Once we set up camp we went fishing down by the lake for a while, with no luck of course, and then I began cooking some dinner. We had chicken quesadillas for dinner with some delicious pudding cups afterwards. Logan especially enjoyed the dinner saying repeatedly, "Daddy, everything tastes better in the mountains!" Trevor on the other hand looked at me like, "If this is as good as this meal tastes, then I am definitely not eating it at home." The boys are fascinated with fire and thus had a lot of fun, a little too much fun, making a fire. I actually began developing our escape plan when and if we started a forest fire. While sitting around the campfire, Logan asked me to tell them the story of how I met Mommy and so I did, watching Trevor squirm at the mushy parts. It was hilarious. We slept about as good as you can while backpacking, with the added fun of having dirty, sticky little bodies touching me in my face all night, all part of the fun. The boys were very excited to wake up the next morning and get the fire started again, while I made some great oatmeal for Trev and I and cup of noodles for my sweet-hater Logan. We left a little earlier that morning then I had anticipated due to the fact that we had used up the roll of toilet paper the day before and, unfortunately, required more the next morning. The hike out went considerably faster for that reason. While hiking out I found myself thinking of all the hikes I would like to take with the family one day in places like Yosemite (my favorite), Glacier and the Grand Canyon. Jennifer can't wait (ha ha). We finished off the trip the way every backpack trip should be finished, with a good burger and fries. The boys slept on the drive home with ketchup and dirt all over their faces. The mark of good times. Next year we do Whitney. Ya right.