I am posting the following trip report, in conjunction with my introduction to the group, not to inspire the experienced hiker, but to inspire the parents out there. I just took my eight year old son on his first overnight backpacking adventure. Of course, we went to Saddlebag Lake due to its level terrain and the ability to get a wilderness permit without a reservation. If you are unfamiliar with Saddlebag Lake, it is located in the Twenty Lakes Basin, which is within the Hoover Wilderness near Mt. Conness and North Peak.
Our day started at 6 am in the Bay Area. We made it to the Tuolumne Meadows wilderness center to get permits and then on to Saddlebag lake by 11 am. By noon, the boat had dropped us off on the other side of the lake and within minutes my son caught his first fish while fishing at Greenstone Lake.
After fishing, we hiked to our campsite at the edge of Cascade Lake, which is at the base of North Peak. On our way to Cascade Lake, we crossed some small snow fields that were covering the trail and did a creek crossing just before arriving at the campsite. We may be new that sort of thing, but I’ll let you know that it takes about 10 minutes after standing in near freezing water for the pain in your feet to go away!
Also along the hike to Cascade Lake, near Wasco Lake, another hiker was nice enough to point out some “Steer’s Skull” wildflowers. I do think they look like a steer’s skull, but my son thought they looked like scissors.
After it became dark enough, I took some long duration exposures of the night skies, which included some nice shots of the Milky Way. I found 25 seconds at 3200 ISO worked the best. Camera is Canon T5i and lens is 14 mm, f/2.8.
In addition, I was able to do my first time lapse video. It consists of ninety 25 second exposure photos compiled together at a rate of 20 frames per second. The only problem is that the video is actually showing them in the reverse order, so will have to figure out how to fix that later.
