I have been wanting to do this for a while.  Start my own backpacking/hiking blog.  I guess there is not a better time than now!

I have been backpacking since I was 7 years old,  and since then have seen much of this great country.  I started with my father and grew into my own during college as a full fledged backpacker.  I won't bore you with the details of this ascent, but will get right into my most recent hike and the events therein.  

I recently decided, with a little persuasion from my friend Mike (thanks buddy) that going barefoot was the way to go, and that the only way to transition to this prehistoric mode of transportation was to jump on the band wagon of one of the biggest up coming fads.  Barefoot shoes.  I bought my shoes (pictured below) and set out to test them in some of the most rugged terrain that I have experienced, Yosemite National Wilderness.  

The big debate amongst most people who aspire to be barefoot hikers is the idea that your feet can't hack it in the granite strewn and otherwise rugged landscape.  I set out to prove them wrong but along the way had some difficulties and some triumphs.

Late August, 2010

It was a hot and muggy 100 degree plus day in southern California when my companion and myself started the six+ hour drive from LA to Ten Lakes Trailhead Yosemite.  I had packed light.  Sparing room for only the essentials:

• Emergency Kit
• Cook Pot
• Stove
• Bear Knife (Sorry Mike!!)
• Sleeping Pad
• Fishing Pole and gear
• Fleece sleeping bag liner
• Clothes: Long underwear, wind breaker, T-Shirt, Toe Socks, barefoot shoes 
• Tent
• Tarp
• Treking Poles
• Cards
• And of course a large bottle of Sake
• Map and Compass
• Food
• Water Purification system
• Water bladder
• Flashlight

The weather was warm but as we made our way into the higher elevations it was apparent that temperatures would dip into the high thirties at night.  

We got a late start and didn't get on the trail until just past five in the evening.  Marco had never been on a backpacking trip in his life and I wasn't sure how he would hack it, the hike being a 6 1/2 mile climb with an elevation gain of nearly 3000 ft.  

As we ascended the trail, Marco began to take off, and it was all I could do to keep up.  After two miles of traveling we took a break at the crossroads where another trail headed back the direction we had come. (See Pic) Up to this point the trail had been mostly pine needles and soft dirt and so my feet had not troubled me in my barefoot shoes.  

Usually I have knee problems when hiking but my knee brace was keeping everything together and I was feeling good.  As we continued up the mountain the air was full of the ominous and beautiful quiet that is embedded in the very soul of places like this.  

We got to a meadow and from there I saw that the trail was beginning to gain in elevation drastically.  

We stopped for a quick photo op but the light was fading and we new that there was at least a few miles more to go.  In order to make it before dusk we would have to finish the hike around 8:00 and that meant that we would have to hike the 6 1/2 miles in a total time of just under 2 1/2 hours.  That meant averaging 3 mph, give or take for the steeper bits.  We set our minds to hiking and tried not to focus on the drastic scenery that surrounded us.  

We reached the top of the hill around 7:30 PM and took one last picture before the sun went down.  

I was feeling good still but the arch in my foot was beginning to get sore and the front pad of my foot was a little tender from the granite bits of rock that lay strewn across nearly every inch of the trail now.  

Down the other side we went and into the Ten Lakes Basin.  

We had a few close calls on the way down in the dusk.  Marco slipped and nearly tweaked his foot that he recently injured in a way that I'll not mention due to its simplistic and somewhat laughable nature.  I slipped a few times but was able to make it down unscathed.  

At 8 PM we finally reached the bottom of the lake basin and started to round the biggest lake, searching with maglight and headlamp for the any semi-flat location near the lake to set up.  We passed some hikers who were set up and ready to bed down for the night and they directed us southeast around the lake to a secluded spot that turned out to be, in the light of day, the most picturesque location that we could have stumbled upon.  But I get ahead of myself.

I have always despised setting up camp in the dark.  you never know what you are getting into until everything is out of your pack and you are already too tired to look for a better spot.  With flashlight and headlamp we divided and conquered.  Marco set to building up a fire ring around a jutting outcrop of rock at the forefront of our campsite.  I set up the tent and got out the cookware which we set up on my canvas drop cloth, now bearing the scars of many uses, and Mikes mishandled red-hot cookware.  Another story.  For another time.  

I started the fire, meaning to use my indispensable Magnesium fire starter and flint to do the dirty work.  I go tired of scraping of shards of Magnesium so I resorted to the ever effective lighter.  I had a blaze going in a minute or so and began to rustle up some grub.  While Marco retrieved more firewood, of which there seemed to be a limited supply due to our limited visibility,  I got out the one piece of equipment with which I have never had any experience.  The bear canister.  

The rangers who issued us our hiking permit had made it ever so clear that the bear canister was the most important piece of equipment that any backpacker would or could need.  They spent twenty minutes telling me stories of bear attacks on hikers who were not prepared.  I, being from the northern U.S. have not had much experience with bears and have always used a simple food sack and rope to free myself from the risk of bear invasion.  They assured me that this was now illegal and would not be effective.  "Stash anything you have that resembles or smells like food in it.  Even your toothpaste."  

I got out dinner, which consisted of italian sausages, bell peppers, and asian noodles.  Or cup-o-noodles, to those of you who think me boastful in my backpack cook capabilities.  I always like to have fresh food with a fresh meat source for the first night because I easily tire of the old bags of dehydrated food and actually like the cooking experience in the outdoors.  I started to cook on my cheap but effective single burner stove, which runs off a normal propane canister but lasts forever.  It cost me ten bucks and has lasted for years.  Sure, it won't boil water in 1.5 minutes, but it works good enough for the money.  

Marco kept killing the fire so I had to re-stoke it and get it burning again. As I stirred the sausages and grub, my obnoxiously good hearing, which makes up for my poor vision, brought to my attention an onlooker who was somewhere within ten feet of my back and has stepped on a twig. I alerted Marco and he turned with his flashlight.  

"There's two green eyes over there," he commented, backing up from the imminent threat.  I assured him that we were safe and that if it was a bear,  it probably would leave us alone if we made ourselves bigger and made a racket.  We got our treking poles, and of course our bear knives, because one can never pass up the opportunity to skewer a bear at knifepoint.  

Anyway, the eyes did not reappear, but our fear of them stayed, and we ate quickly and as the fire died, we kept jumping at every sound.  I have never feared sleeping in the woods but I was a little skeptical of sleeping in bear infested woods, a point of which the rangers had assured me was plausible.  

I heard it again!

Quick I flashed my light over to the tree line and saw......... a cowering little deer.  Dumb!  I would later find out that our camp was right next to a stream and meadow, both drawing points for the local wild life.  

We finished up and went to bed.  Stomachs full and looking forward to the morning light.  

Halfway through the night I woke freezing to death due to the fact that I had been showing off my ingenuity and ability to pack light.  I had left my sleeping bag and replaced it with a fleece liner which my wife had sewn for me to use as an extra layer when packing in the snow.  Re-inflating your sleeping pad during the night due to deflation on account of the elevation is not a pleasant experience when crammed inside a two (should be one) man tent the size of a large sleeping bag.  

I woke with the light and Marco kept on snoring.  He swears by sleep aids and slept to nearly nine, missing the beautiful sunrise over the lake.  I explored our area a bit, found deer prints and pellets near and around our camp site.  

I refilled our water containers from a nearby pond and rebuilt the fire, which had died to embers but not gone out entirely in the night.  Coffee is a number one priority and so I started a pot.  Once Marco woke from his snoring slumber we took a little hike around the lake and met a few fellow woodsmen fishing by the lake.  (See pics)

The Lake

Marco and I at the crack of 10 am

From the left

Awesome Rock Islands

We decided to cook a little breakfast, eggs and cheese.  After, we went for a hike, started to go to one of the higher lakes, but decided against more ascent.  

The grass felt great on my feet!

We gathered firewood along the way and had also gathered large pile after breakfast in order to negate the night before where we were forced to search for firewood the entire time we were out and about.  

We walked the perimeter of the lake and then decided to do a little fishing.  The wind was picking up and we had seen several fishermen who were having luck.  5 hours later along with countless lure changes we called it quits and decided that we didn't really want fresh trout all that much.  We retired to our campsite and took solace in our bottles of Sake and a good dinner of dehydrated food.  I ate an entire two person ration and was stuffed to bursting.  We built up the fire, hoping for no more green eyed visitors as it grew darker.  I figure it must have been a big cat of some kind, lynx or mountain lion.  Bear are rarely found above nine thousand feet.  

Nevertheless we didn't have any visitors.  We played cards and drank and were merry.  Until we heard the sound of someone puking their guts out which carried over the lake fairly well.  I went to investigate in the waning light and found a couple who had been in the area for three days and were due to leave.  The woman was dead sick and they were foreigners, and didn't speak great english.  I offered my help and left them to their misery when they declined.  I walked up to another group of campers at their campsite later and asked if they new about the situation.  "Sure isn't bacteria in the water.  They told us she was into something." Meaning drugs.  I felt no pity once I heard that and the last thing I wanted to do was hike out in the middle of the night carrying a puke scented woman.  

We finished up the night enjoying the stars (or lack there of due to the clouds)  and hit the sack,  sad that we would have to climb out in the morning.  Before retiring I got all of Marco's spare clothes and put them on, and also indulged in a sleeping pill. 

I slept like a baby.

New rule.  Always bring sleeping pills on backpacking trips.  

The next morning we busted camp and hike back up the side of the valley wall.  What a scenic vista!

Good bye Ten Lakes!

Things to remember for next time:  

• Barefoot shoes are great!  But not on Granite. Ouch!
• Get a lighter sleeping back.  Fleece just doesn't cut it.
• Bear Canisters are great, but bulky and a pain to lug around. Is it worth it?  Yes
• Deer sound alot like bear when you are setting up camp in the dark.
• Buy a better head lamp.  Extra batteries too.  
• Sleeping pills!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Read up on Small fish lures 

A great time all around.  Wouldn't change a thing.  Maybe two or three though!  Thanks Marco. Good times buddy.