Starting Out: Cottonwood Lakes... without the Lakes

After work on Friday Kyle and I hopped in the car, drove up to Burbank and met up with Steve, Serj and Chloa for our backpacking trip.. stopped by The In-laws for some last minute needs for the trip and then hit the road.

We actually started toward the lakes around 9pm.... got there between 12-1, I don't remember exactly when. I do remember looking at steve at 2:30 in the morning and saying "ok, we need to find a place to camp now" by 4am we had camp set up. We were supposed to get to the Lakes... That didn't happen.

(this is when I said we needed to stop.... I don't look very happy, haha! )

the guys digging out a place for the TeePee

I was FREEZING! I have no idea what was wrong with me. Everyone else was in their sleeping bags, falling asleep. Kyle was out as soon as his head his the ... bundled up shirt he used as a pillow ( he let me have his pillow, what a guy) I was fully clothed, hat on, in a my sleeping bag, had Steve's sleeping bag on top of me and had his coat on and was in front of the fire, and still nothing.. i couldn't stop shivering.. Until 9 am when the sun hit our tent, it was like an oven! So warm and wonderful.. The rest of the trip was great.

Chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast

Home Sweet Home

Pretty cool to see this when you wake up

Our make-shift way of making pasta and hot cocoa


Serj, Kyle and Steve.. great guys, so much fun, I laughed a LOT

We nicknamed this the marshes of Mordor (yes, a Lord of the Rings reference) because there were streams that came through the valley, but because of all the snow it was SUPER marshy and we didn't know exactly where to step, we might have had a couple close calls of sinking into the water (it wasn't very deep)

yay! we made it through :)

I love the look on Chloa's face, the What is wrong with this guy, but I can't help laughing, face.

yay for fun married trips!

They didn't know what to do with their hands so they picked up rocks.... boys

the girls

we came across this sign on our way back, yeah we didn't even hike in the right direction to go to the Lakes. But we had fun, and what can you expect when you hike in at 2 in the morning.