On our first day, we set out for a three day backpacking trip through Devil's Postpile National Monument and into the Ansel Adams Wilderness Area. We stopped here to take a picture and load my 45. Firearms must be unloaded inside the National Monument and we are now just outside the borders. Bears are very active in the area and bear canisters for storing your food are required for backpacking in this region. The 3+ pound plastic cylinders are no fun to load into your pack and the rental fees are no bargain, either.
Here I am at the same spot before we remounted our packs. We've probably hiked only a little over a mile and Andra was already asking herself if she really likes doing this. Devil's Postpile is around 7600 feet elevation and we expected an uphill climb to our camp, but the terrain far exceeded our expectations.
Our first stop was to be Fern Lake about 5.1 miles in. We considered camping there, but most of what we wanted to see was near Beck's Lakes. We figured it would be easier to launch day hikes from Superior Lake, and at least that was one thing we were right about. Figuring we had climbed up all this way (around 8700 feet) and that Superior lake wasn't that much higher, the three mile trip North wouldn't be so bad. Wrong. Those little contour lines weren't showing a slight climb to Superior Lake. In fact, what they were showing was a large drop followed by another accent to over 9400 feet. Tired but convinced we had the energy to make Superior Lake, we left a perfectly nice camping area at Fern Lake and continued on.
Once we had walked our way down from Fern Lake and realized how much climbing we still had ahead, our spirits were not so high. The trail had no shade, was baking hot, and very rocky. I had to stop several times as we made our way up near a waterfall just to give my legs and back a break. My packing methodology of placing a reasonable amount of gear weight into Andra's pack and placing everything else in mine generally works well. However, this time that pack was starting to feel like a ton of bricks. By the time we had reached the trail fork we were well over 9100 feet and so tired we walked right past Beck's Cabin without even seeing it. With just under a mile left to Superior Lake and only another 350 vertical feet, we ground on with sheer determination. When we reached this site, I can still remember the dull thud my pack made as it hit the ground. I was wiped out. Having hiked over 8.5 miles and now standing at over 9450 feet elevation our camping spot was a sight for sore eyes, legs, back muscles, and shoulders, etc.