The Sweet Life: Day 3 - Hamilton Lakes to Chagoopa Meadows Fork 11.6 miles

Today we decided to get up early because we knew we had to hike up today and we wanted to beat the warm sun. Today we would hike up and over Kaweah Gap and over to a junction in the trail. We began the hike with lots of energy.

Look closely...that is a lake at the bottom of the picture. Shad, Paul and Jerel

We had beautiful views of Hamilton Lake as we hiked up and around it. We all enjoyed hearing Paul and Jonathan share riddles with Chase and Jordan in an attempt to keep their minds off the hiking so they could enjoy the journey and not pay attention to the fact that the trail was hard and steep. The views of Hamilton Lake were beautiful as were the mountains around us with falls cascading down the cliffs around us. It was all very breathtaking.

This was a cool part of the trail where they had to cut through the mountain. We thought it was pretty cool as we hiked through it.

Precipice lake was AMAZING. It was hard to tell where the cliffs and ended and the lake began. It was like glass and absolutely breath taking. I dunno where I've seen anything so beautiful. I just sat on the rock gazing at the lake. I could've stayed there all day. I think it was Jordan who wishes we would have. We'd run out of riddles by this point and the hike was quite steep so he was not excited to keep hiking up and up and up.

We continued up to the gap where the ascent would finally end. We reached the gap and we were all glad to be going down hill again. For some reason I didn't take pictures of us at the top. Don't ask me why. It wasn't all that pretty I guess but it was cool to be at the top. Just before reaching the top, we talked to a couple who had hiked the same route as us all the way to Whitney and were now on their way back. I wasn't sure if we were going to make it there let alone back! Just when I think I'm doing something amazing there is always somebody else to humble me!

From the gap we hiked down and down and down. As much as I hate going up and its hard, down is always worse and for some reason harder on my body. Even though it takes more effort, I'd rather go up than down for a long period of time. After hiking down for a while it began to get warm and we all got tired. We lunched at a spot where we could have camped but decided to keep going. I remembered reading that there were some good camp sites at a place where the trail forked so we decided to go there. (On the map above its just where the trail ends on the right side. Nothing really to mark it but thats where we were)

Little did we know that the gradual ascent over the next few miles would be killer. It was just a LONG gradual ascent. We were all tired by this point. At one point I remember Jordan sitting on the trail and refusing to go forward. The rest of us were too tired to really do much so we hiked around him and let his dad coax him on. Paul and Jonathan went on ahead while Shad and I stayed with Chase. I have to share something funny about Chase because I teased him about it a bit on the trip. It was easy to tell when Chase was tired or "done" with the day. It wasn't because he would complain a lot. He would actually get quieter except for a few choice grunts and moans now and then. I was feeling bad for him because I was very tired myself and was hoping the gradual ascent would end soon. I was relieved to see the top of our mountain finally and see the trail gradually descend down the other side. I know Chase and Shad were grateful as well. How do I know Chase was grateful? Well the grunts and moans were now replaced with whistling and singing. I can't remember what songs he was singing but I do remember glancing back at my brother Shad as our nephew who had just been grunting and moaning on the verge of death, was singing his heart out as he merrily hiked along. It was hilarious and will always be one of my favorite moments. I must admit that I felt much more like singing on this part of the trail then earlier but the difference in my nephew just made me chuckle. What a trooper!

We finally got to a part where the forest opened up to a pretty meadow and we scared 4 or 5 deer who quickly scattered from the meadow. There we saw Jonathan and Paul relaxing by the fork in the trail. WE HAD ARRIVED. There were no campsites but there was a stream and plenty of firewood and a pretty meadow to enjoy. The meadow has no name on the map but the south tributary of Chagoopa Creek flows through the meadow so we dubbed it Chagoopa Meadow which I think later changed to Shepoopy Meadow. Don't ask me why....remember....we're all 14 on this trip!

We found a flat spot to camp and got our site ready while we awaited the arrival of Jerel and Jordan. After a while it was starting to get dark so a couple of us decided to head down the trail and see if we could find them and make sure all was well. Just as we began hiking down the trail we heard a desperate call of "helloooooooooooooo" . It was Jordan. We called back to him and I remember hearing a sound of joy and relief in his voice. He knew he had finally arrived at the campsite after a long, hard day. It just made me chuckle inside because my nephews were just outwardly expressing what the rest of us were feeling.

Tonight was the night to break out the pizza. We eat freeze dried meals every night and we were all curious to see what freeze dried pizza would be like. We assumed it would be like other meals and we would just add water and voila! PIZZA! No such luck. As we examined the directions we found that we had to mix the dough first and then fry it up like a pancake while boiling water is added to the meat sauce topping. I became the chef and started to fry up the pizzas. They turned out quite nicely! Shad tried to do some as well to speed up the process but his didn't turn out so hot. He tried to blame it on the pan but I think it was really the fault of the person doing the cooking. :) The pizza was very yummy and not as hard to make as we had thought. It just had more than one step. We all enjoyed the meal that night and again slept VERY well as we were exhausted.