Backpacking trip 2012

This weekend, Chris and I went on a backpacking trip together. Two days, one night. Yeah, I realize that I am 31 weeks and my due date is two months away. I also know my body's limitations, and we have been hiking throughout this whole pregnancy carrying our other two kids. My pack was smaller and we stopped for as many breaks as I felt was necessary. We still got some looks from people along the way, but oh well. It wasn't nearly as bad as when I was pregnant with Kayla and was taking a walk around the neighborhood, and some well-meaning lady looked at me incredulously asking, "Are you even allowed to be doing this?" Walking? Umm, yes, actually. I don't have a disease. I'm simply having a baby. And in fact, regular exercise is important during pregnancy, even at the end (unless of course you are supposed to be on bed rest for some complication).

At any rate, my parents and sister came into town and agreed to watch the girls for us while we were gone. We left early Friday morning, drove up to Donner Pass, and parked at the Pacific Crest trailhead. Here we are, ready for our adventure.

Our destination was a lovely mountain lake, Warren Lake. It was supposed to be about 7 1/2 -8 miles. We started off, chatting about life, and enjoying the gorgeous scenery along the way.

About 1/2 mile in, we arrived at this lake...no, it's not our destination. But it was pretty.

The trail was up and down, up and down, the whole time. At one point, we descended into a valley with little streams running through it all over the place. The streams were surrounded by God's bouquets, wildflowers! They were so beautiful. Pictures really can't do any of God's creations any justice, but here are a few just so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about.

We eventually reached a sign that said Warren Lake was 1+ miles ahead. Which leads one to wonder what 1+ even means...especially once we finally made it to the lake 2 hours later and were thinking that there was no way that it was anything under 2 miles. The hike down to the lake from that point was also pretty much straight down, which we hadn't really realized. We had trekking poles and went very slowly (hence the 2 hour descent) but the last "1+ mile" was extremely tiring. We had been feeling pretty good about ourselves until that point, but were feeling like we'd run a marathon by the end of that last bit.

sorry for the sideways picture-the computer is being very testy today

We camped out right near the lake. Even with the very long last bit of our hike, we arrived at Warren Lake around lunchtime/early afternoon. We took a little nap and then sat out in the sun by the lake taking it all in. We ventured down into the water and waded out to a little "island".

We had a nice time just relaxing in a beautiful mountain setting with the glory of God all around us. We talked about us, we talked about life, we talked about our kids, we talked about our dreams, and we even talking about future backpacking trips together (yes, we'd do it again...just not pregnant because it's much more limiting).

And after I took these few pictures of the lake, the camera battery died. There are no pictures of us really or the hike back, but I can tell you that it all went well. We were anticipating the second day being much slower since the first day had ended up being so tiring, but we actually made really great time on the way back as well.

After a total of about 16-17 miles, a night of very uncomfortable tent sleeping, and a lot of really nice time spent together, we arrived back at the trailhead. We put the batteries back in to try for a picture of us together at the end...

and it worked. We made it! And we had tons of fun together doing it. On the way home, we stopped for some ice cold drinks (boy, did that ever taste delicious) and some really tasty burgers (also delicious). Then we headed home where we were bombarded with hugs and kisses from our girls. They had a ton of fun with Nana, Granddaddy, Great Grandma, and Aunt Shannon, but it appeared that they did still miss us a little bit because we got an awful lot of loving. It's nice to know your kids are happy and well-taken care of, but it's also really nice to know that you were still missed all the same.