the FIVE-STAR PROJECT [1].

# 1   |   J and I, Ansel Adams Wilderness, California [2008]
Canon G2, 1/50 sec, f4.5, ISO 50, 18.8mm (90mm @ 35mm equivalent)

Ugh, the days when I dyed my hair… But I still pack and wear those same glasses when I'm out in the backcountry, and yeah, they're kind of dorky. This was our first backpacking trip in the Sierras, when J was all of eight years old. I was a terrible father, planning two ambitious trips back-to-back for us. First, we were supposed to hike into Thousand Island Lake outside Mammoth for an overnight, then hike back out and drive a hundred miles south to hike over Kearsarge Pass for another couple of nights. Probably about thirty miles of hiking between the two, and five thousand feet of elevation gain. And yeah, J was all of eight years old.

We didn't make it to Thousand Island Lake that night (we did, though, make it to Kearsarge the next), falling a couple miles short after I carried his backpack partway along the PCT, heading west from the trailhead at Agnew Meadows toward the Ritter Range, far off in the distance. At the end of I-forget-how-many-hours of hiking, the sun sinking lower above Banner Peak, we pulled off the trail at Badger Lake, where I thumped my pack on the ground and started setting up camp. J ran off with a newfound energy, climbing up the rock wall at the southern end of the lake, still in sight. We ate dinner. It was quiet. It was so quiet, and I was already falling in love with the Sierra (we have returned every single summer since to spend a week backpacking throughout Kings Canyon). I took out my contacts and put on those dorky glasses. J ran around some more above the lake, amongst beautiful lodgepole pines and granite, surrounded by a sky that turned shades of pink and purple. At some point, we set the little camera on self-timer, clambered up on this rock, and smiled. Tired. I put my arm around J, his little right cheek smudged with dirt, me in flip flops. Proper.

Five stars.