Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Okay, that doesn't alliterate, but I wanted to finish up my trip report and still participate in Flashback Friday this week, so here it is! When last seen, we were high up along Picket Creek, working our way down out of the Kaweah Basin. We pick up our story on Day 7 . Another day, another gorgeous morning in the mountains! That's pretty much how it went, and usually does if you're willing to get up early enough. We enjoyed a view up the valley to Picket Guard Peak, ate our breakfast, and began what we expected to be a moderately long day. The creek expanded and contracted in a maze of rocks and water that almost rose to the rank of "lake," all of it evidence of the glaciers that passed through long ago. Walking the dragon's back. Not far downstream we came on a lake in about a perfect setting. We kind of wished we'd gone a little farther the day before. From the far rim of the lake, we could see where we needed to go. Yup, need to go way back down there,...

When last seen, we had made our way into the Kaweah Basin , though not by too far, and camped near the upper edge of the trees. Let us resume our journey. Day 5 Just like all the mornings: perfect. By this stage of the trip we were in a pretty regular routine of crashing between 9:30 and 10 (whenever we could no longer focus on our books), and getting up about 5:30, in time for sunrise. This was a morning to hurry back to our reflecting pond for more photos in the first magical morning light. There weren't tons of wildflowers, but I loved the ones we had. Once we were done with the morning light and our breakfast, we broke camp for our shortest pack-hauling day of the trip. It probably wasn't much over a mile up to the lakes below those snowfields, and a pretty, easy walk to get there.  Glaciers clearly shaped the basin at some point. The granite was smoothed and polished, making a great surface for us to do the Pilates exercises we did morning and night. We had more plans, but...

Part II: Shepherd Pass to the mid-Kaweah Basin Last week, I shared the beginning of our 9-day backpacking trip into the Kaweah Basin in Sequoia NP. This week, I'll take us into the middle of the trip, and the middle of the basin. Give me a couple more weeks to get through the trip, because the scenery was amazing, and it's hard to pick just a few photos to share here. Day 2 We left off in the middle of the second day of the trip, as we entered the National Park at 12,000' Shepherd Pass. Descending from the pass. It's a broad, very gently sloping valley, in sharp contrast to the east side of the pass. Still dropping from the pass. We have to descend to the confluence of the deep valleys in the center of the photo, then climb up the valley to the right, and up to the basin below the dark peaks. We found more than one old cabin, probably reminders that before the area was a National Park, miners and sheep herders wandered everywhere. This cabin had a new door with new hing...