Day 2 - Hetch Hetchy Campgrounds to Laurel Lake

6/21/2005, Tuesday - This was our big hike into the Hetch Hetchy backcountry. Our destination was Laurel Lake. The hike was over 9 miles long, with over 2500 feet of elevation gain. Today was a warm, sunny day. There should be no complaints really, but since I usually prefer cooler hiking weather, I was sweating before the hike even turned uphill away from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir! The hike was a little more challenging than I had anticipated. For some reasons, I had expected a "walk in the park" instead of a "real backpacking hike." After the first set of switch backs from the reservoir, the terrain leveled a bit. But within a mile of so, the trail took us straight uphills again. Some of the sections were quite steep, but the biggest challenge wouldn't come until we came upon Frogg Creek.

The rangers had warned us that the creek was overflowing and not crossable. A group we met at the stream also confirmed that it was not crossable. But since we did not want to camp elsewhere, we searched for a way. After heading upstream a little, we discovered a section of the river where two forks joined (or perhaps just where the river rejoined after going around an island) and came up with a plan. We observed that the first stream was easily crossable. Crossing the island was also doable - though it would require some bushwacking. Crossing the second stream - with water high and fast - was the challenge. Fortunately, we discovered a sturdy log that had conveniently fallen across. Our plan was thus to tackle Frogg Creek by crossing the first fork in teevas, bushwacking across the island, and walking across the second fork on the fallen log.

After crossing, we followed a trail that went a little more uphill. Sections of the trail were muddy from the surrounding melting snow. After about a half hour worth of hiking, we finally reached Laurel Lake - which was a surprisingly beautiful blue lake. We then scouted out for campsites and eventually decided to camp on the other side of the outlet of the lake. We had a close encounter with a deer (within a few feet) before we set up camp and another one afterwards. To reach the other side of the outlet, we we had to cross a stream by walking across a pile of logs that looked like a hastily put together Beaver Dam. We camped near the stream and lake that night.

We had pot tai (out of the box) for dinner. It was a filling, relaxing dinner befiting of one after a hard day's hike. The only excitement occurred was when Devan accidentally spilled a pot of hot water near Lilla's foot. Fortunately, Lilla was able to get out just in time. For desert, we had fresh baked cookies. We cooked the cookies on Devan's pan, which included an oven kit (i.e. an aluminum cover of some sort and a thermometer attached to the top of the lid of his new titanium non-stick pan). The cookies were perfect - down to the slight burn at the bottom.

All in all, this was a great way to start our trip. The weather might have been a bit warm, and the hike might have been a little more difficult than I orignally anticipated, but the varied terrain - wooded to exposed terrain - the beautiful scenary, and Lilla's botanical lessons more than made up for everything.