I love birthdays. I love my birthday. I love other people’s birthdays. I love celebrating birthdays. I love birthday surprises. And most of all, I love birthday surprises that involve making awesome memories. My boyfriend officially crossed the threshold into his late twenties earlier this month. He’d never actually been backpacking before, so what better place to take him than Lake Aloha in Desolation Wilderness?
Even with ski resorts closing their doors for the season and uncharacteristically warm weather in the Bay Area, winter is still very much alive and kicking in the Sierra. After a short day of wrestling pebbles and battling high winds on Hogsback, Josh and I called it quits and decided to go catch a sunset somewhere. We always talk about sunset, but by the time the sun starts to go down, we’re maybe still stuck on a route, or bouldering stoke is high, or we’re in the midst of preparing dinner. We headed east on highway 50 with Lower Echo Lake in mind, something nice and easy that we could drive up to and relax at.
Three day weekends are for adventures and Memorial Day Weekend was no exception. My best friend and I loaded up our packs and headed out to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Lassen is one of my favorite parks because it’s just so dang beautiful and it doesn’t have the crowds that Yosemite gets. Our plan was to backpack the Clusters Lake loop, but things changed a bit and we had the option of extending it. Day one was taking our time lake hopping from Summit Lake to Snag Lake.
