White Pine Lake

I've been wanting to take the girls on a backpacking trip for awhile. Last summer I had intended to invite several other families to come, and before you know it, the summer was over. So as this summer was rapidly approaching an end, I knew the Saturday before school started back in August would be the last chance since the next weekend was a family reunion, plus all kinds of other activities start piling on, between soccer, ballet, gymnastics, and who knows what.

I set up my work schedule so I'm done at 1 on Fridays, so as soon as I was wrapped up, the girls and I started packing for our trip. I pulled out a couple backpacks and borrowed one from a neighbor so we'd all have one, plus a couple small tents. I ran to the store to grab some food supplies.

It takes about 45 minutes to get up to Tony Grove, where you park, and then about 2 hours to hike in to White Pine. I knew we'd need to get going quick, so we could get there before it got dark and before all the camping sites had been taken. We were just about ready to hop in the car when Landon saw what was going on and decided he was coming with us. We were packing light, so grabbed him some pajamas, a blanket, and some water, and the four of us were ready to go.

The hike is four miles, three of which are a slight but steady uphill, and the last mile is almost straight down. We got on the trail about 5:15, and I figured we'd arrive at about 7:30.

Just hitting the trail.

Last view of Tony Grove...no turning back now!

Stopping for a quick rest.

Beautiful scenery.

This picture doesn't quite capture this moment, but there were two large logs forming a T, one of which you can see to the side of me, the other I was sitting on. Where the kids were sitting right in front of me, they couldn't see the top of the T right behind me, and it looked like I was just floating there.

There were some fires down in the valley, which unfortunately sent smoke up into the mountains as well, so some of the scenes weren't quite as scenic as I'd hoped.

We arrived at the lake just as the clock struck 7:30, right when I'd estimated we'd arrive. We set to finding a camp site, and unfortunately most everything was taken. We ended up getting a spot a few hundred yards up the trail from the lake, so more private but not right next to the water. I was glad we'd found something, though, as we watched quite a few more groups hike past our spot. We set up our two tents, one for Landon and I, the other for Ashlee and Brynlee. We started cooking up our dinner, Ramen noodles and pigs in blankets, plus a whole bag of marshmallows. I had intended to bring supplies for s'mores, and knew we had some chocolate bars at home, so got marshmallows and graham crackers. Of course, the key word in that last sentence is 'had' and we all know that just because you had chocolate doesn't mean you still have it.
We had each brought two water bottles, plus I also had my camelback. We had all used up a little over one water bottle on the hike in. With all the water we'd been drinking, the girls got to learn by experience how to go to the bathroom in the wilderness, but it's still a bit of a work in progress. To make the noodles and for oatmeal in the morning, we boiled some water from the little river just around the bend from our campsite. As I was getting the fire ready, I had the girls go fill up the water bottles in the stream.

The campsite.

Kids posing by the fire. Brynlee changed into her fancy PJs pretty quick after arriving.
As night fell, we enjoyed a spectacular star show. I had my phone with Google Sky Map on it, which is an app that shows the stars, constellations, planets, galaxies, etc. and updates it as you point it around to different parts of the sky. Great app. Did I mention the light show was spectacular? I'm reminded of our family reunion this summer when Tyler, one of our nephews, commented on how many more stars you could see in Flagstaff than you can see in Phoenix. Hold on to your hats, because the night sky up Logan canyon is amazing with no light pollution. Luckily the smoke in the air didn't put a damper on the show.

I brought my glasses and reminded Ashlee to bring hers, figuring we would have a good, clear night for stargazing, and I'm glad I made the point of having her bring them, so I didn't have to hear, oh, I should have brought my glasses. I could have laid there on the ground all night staring up at the stars. We picked out satellites and airplanes among various planets and constellations. One light we never quite figured out, though. It was running approximately north to south, so not a satellite, so we thought maybe airplane, although it seemed too far away to be an airplane. Then we noticed it moving somewhat erratically, kind of zigzagging a little as it went. It didn't quite loop around as much as those maps of Billy running around the neighborhood in the Family Circus, but it was far from a straight line. I'm still at a loss.

I should have brought the nice camera with the shutter that can stay open for long enough to actually get enough light to take a picture of the night sky, but I brought the pocket camera, so no night pics.
It wasn't until we woke up in the morning that I realized the I should have checked on the girls' tent a little closer. They had brought one sleeping bag and one blanket to share, as had Lando and I, to save a little weight. We started with the zipped-open sleeping bag on the bottom and the blanket on top, but as it got chilly that evening, we switched to the blanket on bottom and the open sleeping bag on top. It wasn't the most comfortable night's sleep while camping, but not the least comfortable either. After we got up, I found out the girls hadn't unzipped their sleeping bag. I'm still not exactly sure how they slept in there, but from what I can gather, they had kind of folded it in half at a bit of an angle and both laid on top of part of it with the blanket on top.

Water boiling for the oatmeal, and a toasting Pop Tart. Apparently my kids have never eaten Pop Tarts?

Brynlee's facial expression isn't indicative of her mood at the time, just a weird time to take the picture, which is obviously why I decided to publish it to the world anyway.

White Pine is right between two peaks, named Gog and Magog. It's biblical; look it up. I'm not sure which is which, but here they are.

Checking out the lake before heading back home.

Packed up and ready to hike home.

We made it back in 2 hours flat, since after the first mile of straight up the mountain, we barely had to stop with the steady down hill back to the car. We had a guy run by us on the trail, who had somehow received just enough of a cell signal up in the mountains to get a message that his wife was going into labor several weeks early down in Salt Lake. I'm glad we didn't have to deal with an emergency like that.