Backpacking Great Basin National Park

Mike and I joined some new friends he met through backcountrypost.com (Steve, Tessa, Yvonne, and Chet) for a one-nighter backpacking trip. We originally wanted to do the Under-the-Rim trail in Bryce Canyon National Park, but they had some bear attacks and closed the trail. :( So we looked for a plan B and scored pretty well! We drove out to Great Basin National Park in Nevada. I was impressed with the park: it was not busy at all, and it wasn't all sagebrush I thought it was going to be - it was actually quite beautiful back in the canyons! Our backpacking trip was a loop up to Baker Lake, over a pass into Johnson Lake, and then back to our cars. Baker Lake was at some elevation like 10,500 feet above sea level! The hike wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be either, but then again I was on some serious steroids for my poison ivy rash - that, yes, I dealt with while doing this backpacking trip! One night the itching was so bad, I hopped out of the tent and yanked my pants down right out in the open and smothered my rashes (on the back of my thighs) with anti-itch cream! But I survived.

Sterilizing some water with his steri-pen.

As we hiked over the pass to Johnson Lake, we also peaked Pyramid Peak (11,926 feet above sea level). Johnson Lake had some pretty cool run down cabins and mining structures and equipment. It was fun to explore those old places and to think people lived up there in the early 1900s!

Then we stayed at the Wheeler Peak campground that was absolutely beautiful, especially when we got to see some alpenglow on Wheeler Peak. The next day my steroids were really kicking in, so I rocked the day hike we did up to the Bristlecone pine grove (those trees are thousands of years old!) - I even kicked Mike's trash! And then Mike and I tried some random mountain biking trail along the highway and it was a total bust. It was a six-mile trail that should have only taken us about an hour to complete, but because the trail was almost returned to natural landscape it was hard to follow and quite sandy, and even technical at times, it took us over two hours to ride it. Boo.