Day 2- Bearpaw to Hamilton Lakes 4 miles

Jordan, hangin out near the deer!

Today we all woke up sore and stiff from a LONG first day of hiking. The first night is always hard because you're getting used to sleeping on the ground, night noises, etc. We woke up to find deer throughout the campground. They didn't seem to really care that we were there. Apparently they like the salt that we humans leave behind. One camper told us how a deer had grabbed his hiking pole and run off with it because he liked the salt that was left on the grips. We had fun watching the deer and just enjoying the beautiful morning. This was an established campground complete with bear boxes and outhouses. You could tell that is used quite frequently but we enjoyed it and we enjoyed talking to other backpackers as well. Being Sunday, we decided to only hike a short distance today and just really enjoy the scenery.

After breakfast and cleaning up camp we began our hike up to Hamilton Lakes. We passed a wilderness tent motel and ranger station and I thought about how nice it would be to camp there. Warm showers, hot meals, hmmmm this is going to be a long week! Other hikers told us they were invited in there and given brownies and lemonade. Nobody invited us in! :-(

Shad, with the Tent Motel in the background. Jordan and Uncle Shad ready for Day 2!

The hike today was again beautiful. The trail was placed in such a way that we had views of the sierras for miles. It was truly breathtaking. We descended down to Lone Pine Creek where we crossed it on a bridge. Then we began our ascent upward to Hamilton Lakes.

Lone Pine Creek Crossing! Boyce on the bridge!

We found a great place to stop for lunch at the Hamilton Creek crossing. There were lots of rocks to lay on and a magnificent view. We had lunch, soaked our feet and even napped a bit in the warm sun.

Shad, taking a lunchtime nap at Hamilton Creek!

We arrived at Hamilton Lake to find a beautiful place to camp. There were a few other campers there but we found a spot tucked away where we could be by ourselves. It wasn't a lakeside campsite but we had a bear box and a stream nearby so it worked for us. This campsite wasn't as developed as the first but still was nice and suited our needs. There was a pit toilet which we learned is just that. The out houses the first night had walls like you would expect. This night and future nights the pit toilets were just surrounded by three waist high walls. We laughed at our experiences here. Its a little unnerving going to the bathroom and looking up and a deer is watching you.

We enjoyed the day by swimming in the lake and Jerel's boys did some fishing. The swim was hilarious. The water of course was a little chilly. We stood on these rocks and it turns out the rocks were very slippery with moss. One by one each of us slid into the lake whether we wanted to or not. It was very funny. Getting out was tricky as well as the rocks were pretty slick. Some of us swam across the lake and back while others just waded by the rocks. It was fun and refreshing and beautiful once again.

Chase get back here!!!

That night we were greeted by more deer in our campsite. Its funny how on these camping trips we all turn into 14 year old boy scouts. We were entertained for a long while by shining different colored flashlights into the eyes of the deer to see what they looked like. It was all quite silly but hey...we had fun and its another memory.