At the end of August, my neighbor Matt and I masked up and hopped on a flight to California, where we did our best to avoid the Coronavirus, and wildfires. Even the flight presented a test: on one leg, I was sandwiched tightly between two other passengers, one of whom coughed herself to sleep. It was a joy. Luckily neither of us got sick.

The purpose of this trip was to hike the Rae Lakes Loop, a 44-mile trail in King's Canyon National Park in the Sierra Nevada mountains. This was my first backpacking trip and I relied mainly on Matt's wisdom and experience for the preparations.

The day we flew in, we stopped to see some huge sequoias (King's Canyon is adjacent to and jointly run with Sequoia National Park). Here we stand next to General Grant. To my surprise, right after this pic Matt hopped the fence and carved his name in the tree. Look for it if you are ever there.

We camped and checked our supplies at Hume Lake Campground. Matt is a hammock guy.

Striking out . . .

and immediately encountering a black bear. The annotation in the picture was necessary because, being conscientious hikers, we did not get a picture until we were a safe distance away. But before that, we stood right at the bottom of the tree looking up where this beast was perched. Who knew how fast a bear can climb down a tree?

We did the loop counterclockwise, so the first day we followed Bubb's Creek. We started at about 5,000 ft. elevation and gained close to 4,000 ft. over 13 miles. 

Therefore, we were toast by the end of the day. We finally had to modify our plan so we could immediately stop walking, moving, holding ourselves upright, etc. We found a little-used but beautiful little nook off the trail and settled in.

We encountered a bit of dust on the trail.

Early on Day 2 we passed Vidette Meadow.

We reached our highest point of the hike around lunch time on day 2. Glen Pass is at about 12,000 ft. This was our view looking forward, down on the three Rae Lakes (small lakes in the middle of this picture):

At Rae Lakes:

Obviously, we took a dip in the lake. Here I am out on a sandbar. Yes, it was cold.

Our campsite for the second night:

On Day 3 we had time for a side hike to Finn Dome.

From there, we had a nice view of the lakes. Our camp site was on the very left edge of this picture.

This view is looking back at Glenn Pass:

Some more pics from Day 3:

Our third and final campsite on the loop was at Woods Creek Crossing. This was a beautiful campground next to the creek, and the most built up site where we stayed. At this site and along the trail we met some other nice folks who were hiking the John Muir Trail (takes several weeks) or Pacific Crest Trail (takes several months). We quickly learned to refer to these trails as the JMT and PCT to avoid being mocked. 

Day 4 pics:

The highlight of Day 4 was Mist Falls. Just before the falls, we came to a shut-ins/playground area that was really fun to climb and swim around on. 

The falls:

Adventurous Matt took a dip and swam to the bottom of the falls. It may be hard to tell from the picture, but it was quite a forceful rush of water at the bottom. I did the same thing, except vicariously through Matt. It was amazing!

I had another close bear encounter just before finishing the hike, this time while solo because Matt was ahead. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a pic, so Molly does not believe me.

It was a fantastic trip and I can't wait to so something like this again.