Birthday Backpack Trip, Day 2

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We had not camped near water, so we needed to reach our final destination sooner than later. Justin and his boys went to hike up a mountain while Dale and I hiked on to water.

Justin left directions that we would take a left at the junction, staying on the Pacific Crest Trail and should stop at either Mulshy Meadow, or a mile or 2 further, Dutch Meadow. Both meadows would be by the trail with no signage.

Nate, Bekki, kids and family friend Camilo, were to arrive in the afternoon and hike until they found us. Nate had most of our food, so we were hoping that they would actually make it.

Dale and I hiked and hiked. Finally, after several hours we sat down on a log. The trail extended out beyond us and we could see that there was no meadow. We googled Mulshy and found that it was several miles behind us. Dutch Meadow did not even show up.

We started back on the trail and figured out where we’d missed the cut-off trail to Mulshy. After walking about 3 miles we noticed a meadow to our right, not right off the trail, but a short walk down the hill.

In the meadow we found water. We filled our empty water containers and discussed whether we should set up camp or not. Dale thought that kids would find us, I wasn’t so sure. To be conservative, we started back to the cut-off to Mulshy.

We were hiking along when we saw our grandkids, then our son and his friend. They were out of water and hoping to find us. They reported that they had found Dale’s boot prints that started over to the cut-off and they went down that trail for a way. The trail to Mulshy was impossible to continue so they were hoping that we had headed on to Dutch Meadow.

We all hiked back to Dutch Meadow where we set up camp. Dale had the right hunch in this matter.



Nate and Bekki did not show up so we made a dinner using our remaining freeze dried veggies and beef jerky. Dinner wasn't bad, especially when washed down with our box wine. And stargazing with a glass of port is highly recommended.

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