This weekend I went back to Mount Langley, site of my only solo camping trip. The first time I went was in 2003, and it wasn't supposed to be a solo trip. However, everyone that was going to go with me bailed out, one by one. I had the pass, and always thought that I wanted to go into the woods by myself for a weekend- so that was my chance.
This time I went with my girlfriend Lisa, and our friends Deanna and Steve. Of course, getting out of L.A. proved to be the hardest part of the trip. Once they picked me up in downtown, it took us another 1.5 hours to make our way up the 5 and out of the city. We finally arrived at the campsite at around 1130 (after gorging on In-N-Out burgers on the way up) and set up camp. After one beer we were all exhausted and went to sleep. We agreed that we wanted to start hiking around 7 a.m., so I set my phone alarm for 6:15 a.m. Well, my alarm goes off at 6:15 but it's still ridiculously dark at that time so I hit snooze and fall back asleep. When I wake up again it's 7:30 and I'm shocked that Deanna and Steve aren't up yet. I'm not shocked that Lisa is still snoozing happily. She loves to sleep and is the only one I've ever seen be able to sleep soundly and entire night while in a tent. I wake up and start rolling up my sleeping bag while waking up Lisa, telling her we're running late. She swears it's still early, but I show her my cell phone to see the time. Lisa asks me to look at my watch, so I dig it out and...lo and behold it's actually 5:15 a.m! D@mn cell phone coverage!
We're already up, so we eat breakfast and start hiking. The trailhead starts at around 9,000 ft. so I immediately feel the altitude as we're hiking. I wanted this to be an enjoyable experience for Lisa, so I did my best to carry as much of the stuff as I could. My pack had to be around 40 lbs, and I was feeling it. It's funny how much different a hike looks when you are with other people to point stuff out to. I honestly had only done this hike a few years ago but barely remembered anything from it. Being that we were with Deanna and Steve (two hardcore outdoorsmen) we powered up the hike to the lake we were going to camp at in 3 hours, with no breaks on the way. We stayed at Lake #3 (the same lake I stayed at the first time) and it was as perfect a scene as I remembered it. The lake was right on the treeline, so there was lush vegetation all around it, but jagged peaks outlined our view all above the lake. After lunch and relaxing by our tents, we started towards the summit. We went above the creatively named lake #4 (right above lake #3) and started up the hairiest section of the hike. Switchbacks went over patches of snow and some scrambling over rocks. Lisa and I got to about 12,500 ft before she got a little too freaked out by the heights and technical hiking, so we waved at Deanna and Steve and went back to camp. On our way back we stopped at a spot by lake #4 that I couldn't pass without stopping for a while. It was at the end of the lake, and a little stream was running off of the lake. There was a small grassy area where you could sit by the stream as it ran downhill from the lake. It was comfortable, and the view was awesome. You know how people tell you to go to your "happy place" when you're getting stressed? This is the spot that I'll think about.
Lisa and I have never had a problem entertaining ourselves, and back at the camp was no different. I tried to fly fish, we drank some wine from my boda, played cards, and hiked around the campsite. It couldn't have been more than 55 degrees in the shade but once in the sun we were in shorts and t-shirts. We were starving and ready to start dinner, but figured we would walk up to lake 4 to see if we could see Steanna coming down. When I looked through the zoom lens on my camera, we spotted them just coming over the ridge. Thank god Deanna had on that bright pink t-shirt! We followed them down and actually got some good pictures of them hiking in. Once they got back, dinner was made (trader joe's mac and cheese) and we had a little more wine and some hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps. We were all dog-tired from the day and went right to sleep. I passed out, but woke up in the middle of the night with extreme soreness and couldn't fall asleep for like two hours. It didn't help that our tent was smelling soooo bad from our lack of showers. Imagine a baby diaper in a bowl of sewage. I started to lose my mind because of it, got up and went to the bathroom and stretched, and then could finally fall asleep again.
The next morning was perfectly still. I was up at 6:30, and fished some more.
The golden trout were jumping everywhere. Everywhere except onto my line. I was making excuses when some guy walks down on the other side of the lake and hauls in a fish on his second cast. I gave him the fist shake and retired my fishing for the weekend. Our hike out was almost as tough as the one in, but we made it; albeit very tired and very sore. After stopping at the Pizza Factory at Lone Pine an filling up, we made the trip home safe and sound.Mount Langley is an awesome place. It's 400+ feet shorter than Mt. Whitney, and because of that it's not nearly as popular as Whitney. However, the scenery is much much better, there is less people on the trail, and I enjoyed myself the entire time. It's definitely a place I want to go back to again year after year.
