Overnight Bivouac at Mt. Baden Powell

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Upon discovering MeetUp Groups, I finally have an outlet to meet like-minded people who are adventurous and loves the outdoors. Over the course of summer I started hiking the local trails more. Though it wasn't all that hard, I gradually push myself to hike easy/moderate 5-8 miles 3 days a week. Then come September, one of the many hiking groups I joined had posted an event to do an overnighter at top of Mt. Baden Powell; located in the San Gabriel Mountains of the LA County. Sierra Singles Orange County group posted this and I thought this would be a great opportunity to push myself a little bit more and to "wet my feet" to what backpacking is all about.

DAY 1
At 3pm, the 6 of us at the Vincent Gap parking lot. Mountain Dave was the lead, but this trip apparently was a practice trip for Tammy who was working to earn the next level of the Sierra Club leadership chapter (I believe that is what it was. Correct me if I am wrong).

It was only 4 miles up to the summit but it was a very steep one especially with a 40lb backpack. Should this hike only be a few hours, but it took us a long time as I and a new friend, Kate was our first. We all ended hiking in the dark and arrived at the top by around 8pm.

I knew we won't be camping in tents, but in our sleeping bags, but it was really windy and chilly atop so we quickly set up camp. And what great timing to have clear skies to see the 360 views of the cities below. Good thing one of us had an SLR to capture the stars above and the city lights.

Throughout the night, we all mummified ourselves with what we had and as it gets later and later, the colder and windier it got. I don't think any of us got some good shut eye.

DAY 2
Regardless of the lack of sleep, it was worth waking up super early enough to see the sunset. Best part is we didn't even have to get out of our sleeping bags!

After an hour or or so the sun came up, it was warm enough to come out. Again, the views around are amazing.

The hike down was not too bad. I had survived my first backpacking trip! I'm hooked...

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