Backpacking Marion Lake

75 degrees the whole weekend.  At least that's what it was forecasted to be.  So we planned for a quick, last minute backpacking trip with our friend Brad.  I'd never been backpacking before.  I mean, I love camping.  Really love it - but I'm used to the kind where you have your nice tent, blow up mattress, sheets and comforters, 2 burner cookstove, regular sized pots and pans, 5-day cooler...You know, comfortable camping. :) (But still not in an RV!!! Not till I'm at least 50...)

Skyler said this was an easy one to try as my first backpacking experience, because it was "an easy one mile walk-in".....This was so not true.  It was at least 2 miles, up hill, through snow, part of the trail a very narrow 10-12 inches with a giant snow bank on one side and a drop-off of boulders on the other side, and did I mention UPhill?? I whined more than I should have, because it really wasn't so bad...Just wasn't the easy walk in as I was expecting...
When we got there at sunset, we came to this:

(Three Finger Jack)

And I was pleased. :)  It was worth it. "We're not there quite yet!" Skyler declared...Hmm, how much better than this could it get?? This looks like a nice place to camp to me!! We started around the lake and came to a hillside with probably at least 150 ft incline of LARGE boulders.  Skyler, jokester that he is, said we were climbing to the top to camp up there...But he wasn't joking.  I put on my brave face and started up (climbing boulders is NOT an easy thing to do with a pack...let me tell you.).  I scraped my legs, gnashed open my knuckle, tweaked my knee, huffed and puffed...and made it up half way.  I stopped and rested.  Skyler and Brad continued up as I hollered "I can't go any further, Skyler Anderson.  I am NOT going to the top!"  At least 10 more minutes of hollering and declaring that NO freaking way was I going all the way up there, only to hike up and down 4-5 more times during the duration of our camping trip. (I'm a very determined girl.  If I want to do something, I will do it until it's impossible to do.  If I don't want to do something, I will not do it.  Call me stubborn, but I prefer determined.)  Either way, I stood my ground (err, 75 ft high boulder-ed footing) and let them know I would NOT be climbing up there and they better come back down and find a campsite at the lake with me.... :)

 See the perch up at the VERY top?? That's where they wanted me to climb to..
And now for some better perspective...

See Brad?  The little white blob in the middle? Brad was 1/2 way up and this was zoomed way in from the bottom...Just to give you an idea of how big this "hill" actually was.  Each boulder was practically 5'2'' which happens to equal my height! :)

 

So they did come down after I whined enough... :)  And we set up camp about 10 ft away from the lake...It was lovely. :) We had gorgeous views of Three Finger Jack.  There were about 3 other camps set up along the lake where we were, so the next day we packed up and hiked around the lake a little further, until we got to the day-use only peninsula.  We climbed up to the top, where we had a view of Mt. Jefferson on one side of us and Three Finger Jack on the other, and Marion Lake surrounding us.  It was truly a beautiful place.  We fished:

We built fires:

(I built this fire by myself while the girls boys slept in)

Skyler & Brad hiked up to the top of the boulder hill...and took some beautiful pictures:

(Mt. Jefferson)

All in all, it was a fun camping trip and pretty good first backpacking experience...Hopefully the boys will still want to go with little whimpy girl again next time. :)

Love, K