Backpacking

Snake Encounters on the Trail with Kids

On our most recent family backpacking adventure at Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve, my family had two encounters with snakes.  Prior to heading out on the trail, the ranger showed our family the difference between a rattlesnake and gopher snake at the visitor center.  My children were immediately terrified due to all the noise the rattlesnake was making, but they slowly came in closer to the cages for a better look.

Selfie with a Rattlesnake

Hiking with kids slows down everything so ALL my snake encounters have been with my children.  I never saw snakes before we had children, not because they weren't there but because we probably hiked right past them and never saw them.  All our past snake encounters have been at a safe distance and since our children were small, they were high in their carriers.  FYI, no one got hurt during our last encounter except that I aged about 10 years from the scare.


1st Encounter - Rattlesnake: What Happened?
A mile into our first backpacking trip of the year, as were reached the picnic area of the park we took a little spur trail that crossed into some empty horse corrals.  My 4 year old son is the designated  "gate opener", so he opened the gate so the family could walk in.  Not more than five feet passed the gate, was a rattlesnake protecting a squirrel that it had just killed but my husband nor I saw it.

The victim....

As my son ran to catch up to my husband (three feet away from the rattlesnake), he suddenly saw and heard the rattlesnake and immediately turn around and started running, crying and screaming.  It was a DEATH scream.

I immediately got tunnel vision and all I could only see was my little boy running from a coiled rattlesnake ready to strike.

I grabbed my son, almost fell over as I dragged him to a safe distance, while my husband tried to catch his balance and run away with about 70 lbs on his back.  My husband's pack was 43 lbs alone, but our daughter was in the carrier during the rattlesnake encounter which made him very off balance.

We quickly made it over to the asphalt and headed to the picnic tables for a long break.  We explained to the kids that they did a great job protecting themselves and that the rattlesnake was probably more scared of us.  Our son was a little more shaken up than my daughter....she actually said "The rattlesnake is so cute!".

Out of mere morbid curiosity, I went back (by myself on the asphalt) to the scene of the crime to see if I could see the rattlesnake but all I found was a dead squirrel waiting to be eaten by the rattlesnake.  My mind was playing tricks on me and all the sticks looked like snakes near the squirrel, so I went back to the picnic tables.


2nd Encounter - Gopher Snake: What Happened?
As we reached the second mile, my son walked towards the gate to open it and my husband calmly said, "Snake".  This time my son did not scream but stepped back quickly and I immediately identified it as a Gopher Snake, which my son said "Mommy THAT one is not a poisonous one!!" and smiled.


We watched it for a few minutes, talked about the Gopher Snake and waited patiently until it slithered away into the grass.  We congratulated the kids again for being calm and careful on our second snake encountered and continued on with our trek.

A Few Learning Points
Of course these aren't the only things to do to protect against snakes, but more of "What I Learned" from our double snake encounter:
  • Talk to your kids about snakes and other wildlife BEFORE heading outdoors.
  • Learn about the types of snakes that are in your area and teach your kids how to identify them as well.
  • If you have a "scary" snake experience, talk about the incident later when your kids are calm.
  • Hiking "Sandwich" Order: Adult - Children - Adult.  To protect children from snakes and other wildlife.
  • Check out "Snake Safety While Hiking" by Walk Simply, about hiking with kids and snake encounters. 

Please refer to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife "Rattlesnakes in California" for more information on protecting yourself and what to do if someone gets bitten.  Also please educate yourself about the snakes in your area.

Snakes are a part of nature both in the outdoors and our urban areas.  There is a fear factor in snakes but that fear is diminished as we learn that they are part of the Nature-s Cycle of Life.


Have you ever had a snake encounter with your kids?

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A Tale of Two Mountains: Hiram Peak VS Ellis Peak [Guest Post by Nate Rische]

On our last attempted backpacking trip for this year, our good friend and fellow blogger Nate Rische of

In The Absence of Something Substantial

 accompanied us to the Lake Tahoe.  Unfortunately, I became a victim of altitude sickness and we were not able to backpack on the Tahoe Rim Trail.  On the other hand, Nate was able to hike up to Ellis Peak, enjoy the beautiful views of Lake Tahoe and mark off another peak he bagged!

I’m not Chasqui Mom. I’m not even a mom. And thankfully, because that would be awkward; I’m a guy. But while the chasqui were running up and down the Incan Empire,

my ancestors

were fierce warriors in Bohemia (the region, not the artists) known as the Chod. So you can call me Chodové Warrior. You might also remember me as

cheese-tester-guy

.

So much of Chasqui Mom is about hiking as a family, and it may seem odd for a single guy to guest post. You’re thinking about it all wrong; I may be single, but I love to spend time outdoors with my family.  Unfortunately my blood relations all live far away, so I don’t get as many opportunities to get out with them. That just means I have to get out with my

other

family. Wonderful people like the Chasqui Family.

Nate carrying my daughter on a backpacking trip - Chasqui Mom

Don’t laugh; try to take a couple of

toddler’s backpacking

, and you’ll appreciate the need to invite along a guy like me, a pack mule willing to weigh down his pack with your extra gear and throw kids on his shoulder when necessary.

I’m not a mountain climber. I mean, I’d sure like to be at some point, at least a little bit. It’s on my to-do list, and you know how that goes. Unless you already climb mountains, in which case you don’t because you’re a little bit better about those to-do lists than I am.

So when I get the opportunity, I like to get what I can.

A bit back, I went camping at Highland Lakes, way up in the Sierra Mountains in the Stanislaus National Forrest. In fact, I think my quote about the location was, “Wow, this is remote. When the Chinese invasion comes, this is where I’m coming.” While driving out there, we watched the thunderheads roil on the horizon. We arrived at the campsite with enough time to set up my tent before it started to hail. Good golly, it hailed. Then rained on and off through the afternoon, evening, night, and even into the next morning.

Those of us camping had desired to hike along the Pacific Crest trail, but illness from one of our campers had cancelled that plan. We had the day and nothing planned. When the rain cleared up in early afternoon, I looked up at Hiram Peak towering over us, and knew what I had to do.

Hiram Peak - August 2012

There was no trail, so I surveyed the mountain and made my initial ascent along the west side, approaching from the smaller of the two Highland Lakes. I had a choice to go around the south or north side for the second half of the climb. The south side looked easier, but the north side remained in view of the lakes and campground. I erred on the side of caution, and took the north route. I circled around a plateau along the north side, and started my ascent towards the peak on the east side of the mountain.

Once I hit circled around on the east, there were gorgeous views of groves and valleys stretching on the southeast side of the mountain, scenery that we couldn’t see from our camp ground. I circled around on the east/south-east, and as I climbed the shrubby undergrowth gave way to a very loose rocky terrain. The summit itself was all rocks, boulders, stones, and rubble, everything in between. There was no clear path, and as I zig-zagged up towards the summit it got steeper and steeper.

Heading up to Hiram Peak

About 150 vertical feet from the summit, I took stock of where I was and what I had left. The terrain ahead was rough, and I’d seen great views already. I still had to climb all the way back down, and I made a decision. I’d done enough, I was satisfied to turn around. Or so I thought. I went back down. I thought I was happy. It was good enough.

I was wrong. I had been so close. I could have made it, I should have finished. I didn’t. I’d taken the easy way out.

Regret.

Fast forward a bit. We were set to go backpacking on the Tahoe Rim Trail, when one of our group succumbed to altitude sickness. I’m very grateful that altitude sickness is not something with which I’ve had much trouble. Cancelling our plans to backpack, we instead decided to setup camp nearby, but the afternoon was still open, and the trailhead to Ellis Peak beckoned.

I made the initial climb up to the first ridge, and an outcropping of rocks stood away from the trail. I climbed to the top, and looked out over the Lake Tahoe valley. To my right, Ellis Peak loomed.

I followed the trail as it led up the ridgeline, turning into furious wind, threatening to blow us over. Seriously, gale-force winds blowing up from the lake along the north side of the peak. Thankfully, we crossed over to the south side for the final ascent, and the mountain shielded us from the wind thereafter.

On the north face, in the wind, it was frozen cold. In the wind shadow, it was comfortable, and the sun streamed through the pine forest.

The trail led first to Ellis Lake, which is sort of a misnomer, because a lake there is no more. Simply a very large, grassy divot tucked in a valley before the real ascent started.

According to the trail map, the peak was only ½ mile away, and several hundred vertical feet above.

I wasn't going to quit this time. Following the trail, it turned up. And up. After a good climb, we reached the “peak” of the trail. I looked over, the actual peak rose above us another 150 feet, but the trail went no higher.

I wasn't going to regret again.

I climbed those final 150 feet and looked over the peak. It was astounding; climbing up the south side of the peak it was perfectly still. But peaking over the edge and looking down the north side, the wind threatened to knock me over.

Ellis Peak View

The view was spectacular. As beautiful as any I’d ever seen before, with all of Lake Tahoe stretching out before me. I’d say it took my breath away, but that was probably just the wind.

Sometimes you think you’ve seen all you need to see, and that little bit of effort at the end isn’t worth it. You’re good enough. Maybe you’re thinking of the climb back down, or what you’re going to cook for dinner or whatever.

You’ll never regret staring out over the top of that mountain, even if it costs you a little more. Good enough isn’t, and you’ll always have unfinished business with that mountain.

At least until you do something about it. And maybe the view at the top isn’t any better than you’ve already seen. That isn’t the point; the whole idea isn’t about what you saw, but what you did. Or did not do.

My lasting memory of Hiram Peak is staring up at the top from below.  But from Ellis Peak, the whole world was at my feet.

Hiram Peak, I will see you again.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Have you ever had a "trail regret"? What did you do to overcome it?

Join in on the conversation by leaving a comment here! You can also join in on the conversations on 

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Twitter

 that is updated daily with outdoor activities and other wonderful posts and links from #OutdoorFamilies!

Related Links and Posts:

  1. Book Review "The Last Days of the Incas" - Guest Post by Nate Rische
  2. In the Absence of Something Substantial by Nate Rische
  3. The Toughest Backpacking Cheese

Three Days in One: Salkantay to Andenes Camp

Back in 2007, my husband and I took our first real adventure to Peru where we visited the Amazon Jungle and hiked to Machu Picchu. This is a series of post I've been writing about since I started this blog.  The first post on this particular day can be found at: The Savage Mountain, Nevado Salkantay.
Getting ready to come down Salkantay!
Tuesday, October 17, 2007
We started heading down Nevado Salkantay and it was cold, rainy, windy and muddy but it was much better than hiking up the mountain!  I was very glad to have some energy back and could hike again.  I learned a very good lesson on my way down the mountain to never buy cheap gear! Half way down the mountain my cheap poncho broke....I tried  to fix it but I just got wet.  Never again will I buy cheap gear.  I also wished I had a Balaclava because I had to hold up my scarf around my face to protect my face against the freezing cold wind the entire trek down.



This was the longest portion of the trek in my memory, my zombie trek.  I was cold, wet, hungry and I felt super disconnected I was just walking because I had no choice.  Sit down and rest in the pouring rain or just keep hiking, I chose the latter.  The energy that I felt early was gone, probably because I had barely eaten anything and I started singing to motivate myself to keep walking.  Once we got off the actual mountain and were hiking on flat ground I just wanted to be in our lunch tent!  I don't remember who else was walking with us except Jesse (my husband) and Edwin (one of our guides) but it was foggy, raining so we couldn't see too far ahead of us.  I kept asking Edwin, "How much longer?" and he would say 15 minutes, an hour or so later we finally saw the red tent in the distances and we made it.

We ate our delicious lunch in the pouring rain in a slowly forming swamp, we all sat there talked, recovered from the mountain we just came down.  The guides told me I looked like the women from Puno because my cheeks and nose were so red but after a few days had gone by we realized my nose was burned from the freezing wind.

Rosy Nose and Cheeks!

Jesse made me a make shift poncho out of a garbage bag which of course I wore for about two hours and it never rained....fail.  A group member later remembered she had an extra poncho that she let me borrow for the rest of the trek.  The rest of the afternoon we walked through a beautiful green valley as the rain slowly let up as the sun came out.

Garbage Girl....
Everyone felt good and was in good spirits when we made camp, except the Australian who became sick at the top of Salkantay, he ended up riding the horse all the way to camp.  I felt really bad for him because he really wanted to hike but he couldn't stop throwing up and just looked awful.  I was in his situation the day before so I knew what he was feeling.

Beautiful valleys

Goodbye Salkantay....

Andenes Camp
This day felt like it was three days in one! First getting to the pass at Salakantay, making it down the mountain to our lunch tent, and then walking through the green valley to our second camp at Andenes.  Even though it was a very tiring day, this was one of my favorite days because of the changing scenery from the rocky pass to the green lush valleys.

Related Posts and Links:

  1. Chasqui Mom: Peru Posts
  2. The Savage Mountain, Nevado Salkantay.

Bears, Waterfalls and Decisions at Hetch Hetchy

Backpacking at Hetch Hetchy - Yosemite National Park this past June was certainly an adventure! We had programmed a Senior Backpacking Trip for our graduated high school seniors from our Spanish-speaking church where my husband and I are youth leaders.  Originally only my husband was going to lead the group but situations arose that I along with our two children were able to attend.


A huge heat wave had come over most of the West Coast but we were hoping that the temperatures would drop due to the higher elevation at Hetch Hetchy.  Temperatures were nearing 100 degrees in the immediate San Francisco Bay Area, so we hoped it would be cooler in Yosemite.  Alas, it was not cooler.

The Group
We planned to hike the Lake Vernon Loop, approximately 27 miles over a 3 day/2 night backpacking trip.  That is what we planned but things were about to change as we started out on our adventure!  It was all of the graduates first time to Yosemite National Park, and almost everyone's first time to this section (Hetch Hetchy) of Yosemite so everyone was very excited.

Backpackers Camp
We arrived Friday afternoon at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir Backpacker Camp, set up camp, had dinner and made our final preparations to start our trek the following day.

Setting Up Camp

Gear for Six Adults & Two Toddlers
A few of us went on a search for water, since all the bathrooms did not have potable water.  The bathrooms had sinks and flush-able toilets and even had a separate kitchen "washroom"  There were signs on the walls stating that potable water was located at the "Comfort Station" but the few backpackers we saw never heard of the elusive "Comfort Station".  We eventually drove down to the Hetch Hetchy Day Use area and found the drinking fountain.  It was still quite warm when we finished all our preparations that night, so we all climbed into our fly-less tents and stared at the beautiful starry night and drifted off to sleep.

Day 1 - Bears, Waterfalls and Decisions
The following morning we started our trek a little later than we hoped but everyone was in good spirits and we started our first day of backpacking.  Everyone gasped when we had our first view of the reservoir and Wampama Falls.  The youth were amazed that Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is one of the Bay Area's water source and that they were going to drink "their" water from the source.

View of Hetch Hetchy from Wampama Falls

We all happily hiked along the reservoir, crossing the O'Shaughnessy Dam into the tunnel, where we finally started hiking off pavement.  We all knew it was going to be hot but we never knew it was going to be scorching hot.  We calculated low 90's but in reality we were hiking in over 100 degree weather for large portions of the day, peaking at 105 at the hottest point in the day.

O'Shaughnessy Dam
About two hours into hiking, we were walking in an open rocky meadow when another hiker (not of our group) all of a sudden said, "Wow whats that?!" and low and behold it was a small California Black Bear and her two cubs! It happened so quickly that none of us reacted they way we though we would react.  It was the groups first time seeing bears in the wild, except for my husband.  I think we were all internally scared but after a few minutes had passed of the mama bear and cubs munching on some berries, we made a safe passing of them on the trail.

Mama Bear and Cubs
The bear sighting gave us an adrenaline rush and we made it to Wampama Falls, then Tiltill Creek Falls where we all happily hydrated.  We eventually made it to Rancheria Falls on our first day but just barely!  The hike itself wasn't technically difficult but with heat wave upon us made every slight uphill feel like a giant mountain.  We would all huddle around the shade like cows, drink water and have snacks.  There was one large non-shaded section between the two first waterfalls but thankfully that section was switchbacks going downhill.

Get ready, no shade here!
After hours and hours of hiking along the reservoir (about 8 miles) we made it to Rancheria Falls dehydrated and exhausted.  The heat made everything less enjoyable, but after we kicked off our boots, had some cool refreshing river water and relaxed at our gorgeous campsite by the river and as time passed all our suffering had been forgotten.


We had to reevaluate our trek at this point, for the following reasons:
  • THE HEAT
  • Day two was scheduled to have two ~1500' climbs on exposed rock faces.
  • The members of the group where suffering physically, including myself.  Nausea, headaches and some "other" digestive issues had hit the group.  Thankfully it was all related to the heat, food change and not related to the treated water.
The leaders had a little pow-wow, figured out that our meals had not been affected and we decided we were going to camp at Rancheria Falls for the two nights with a day hike to Tiltill Valley, instead of the Lake Vernon loop.  Some disappointment was felt by all but we had to make the correct decision based on the circumstances we were in.  These are the great moments where we can use outdoor experiences to real life, especially for graduating students entering the military and college life.

After our bellies full of pepperoni bacon pizza, we taught the group how to properly leave a camp clean and bear safe, we had a water-filtering team down by the river and I laid in the tent with my babies relieved that the day had come to an end.

A few more pictures of the day...




To Be Continued! Coming up Day 2 and Day 3....

Related Posts and Links:
  1. Wordless Backpacking at Hetch Hetchy - Yosemite
  2. The Toughest Backpacking Cheese
  3. Latinas Outdoors
  4. Yosemite National Park - NPS.gov
  5. Backpacker Campgrounds at Yosemite - NPS.gov