Camping, Hiking, TREES!

I feel the need to explain how I got a four day weekend.  If only the weekend activities interest you, skip the next paragraph and start where you see the*. 

I work nine hour days.  This means every other week I have a three day weekend.  The government counts pay periods in two week increments.  During training we had 'normal' weekends, Sat/Sun.  At the end of the second week of training, we had our third day, Fri, off as well.  Since Sunday was the start of the new pay period, we switched to our actual lieu days for the rest of the season then.  Now, not everyone got three days since the new pay period started on Sun and some people work Sun; yet they still got two days.  Since my days off will be Sun/Mon and the second Tues of the pay period, I got a four day weekend, Fri-Mon.

*With the prospect of a four day weekend and wanting to get up to the tallest point in the park before it snowed, five of us decided to camp near the trailhead and get an early start Saturday morning.

We left the dorms Friday afternoon for the Wild Rose campground.  It was up Emigrant Canyon and was quite lovely.  Still, no trees.  Notice the blue pack with the yellow flower.  Kate's most recent procurement and loving it!

We stopped and wandered around the charcoal kilns for a bit in the morning.  I was more interested in the pinion/juniper forest we were in.  Trees!  Oh, how I've missed you!

Having government keys and a friend with a vehicle that could handle the road, we bypassed the trailhead and parked up the access road for one of the park repeaters and cut off about four-five miles from the 14 mile round trip hike.  Having hiked almost three days straight, my legs were ok with this.

Jeanette, who has the same pack I do, and the rest of our group strung out along the trail.

Telescope peak: 11,049ft and our goal. I think it's quite lovely, for a peak.

My goal was to get to the bristlecones.  I was in desperate need of some trees and to see these wonderful pines I'm deeply attached to was heavenly.  I could have sat in the grove and not made it to the peak and been completely content with my hike.  Hooray for the b-cones!

I did make it to the top and we had lunch and enjoyed the view.  From Telescope, we could look west and see Mt. Whitney (it's there amid the dust), the highest point in the lower 48.

We could also look east into Badwater Basin and see the lowest point in the US.  Kind of cool. 

My usual contemplating pose, this time it's the Panamint Range.

Our group at the top: Me, Lauren C., Paul S., Jeanette M., and Drew K.

It was a wonderful, wonderful trip.  It was originally my idea, but it was those I went with who made it possible.  Thanks!

And for those interested in my NaNoWriMo progress, I'm moving write along with my spy novel (pun intended).  As of yesterday the 12^th, I'm at 23,996 words.