Our complicated "two trips in one" Big Basin backpack trip was a success despite complications such as last minute cancellations and no water available at camp Herbert.
The trip started Friday with two hardy souls (one being Wen, my co-leader for the trip) hiking three miles from the Waddell creek trail head to Camp Herbert with a supply of extra water for Friday and Saturday nights. After their water hike they met up with the beginners at the Waddell Creek Trail head and this time everyone hiked in the three miles with the usual backpacking gear. They set up camp at Camp Herbert and had a generally fun first night of camping although the night was marred a little bit by a very noisy large group camping in one of the other sites.
On Saturday, the advanced backpackers (all two of us) met up at my house and headed to the Big Basin headquarters for our 9 mile hike to Camp Herbert. One of the advanced backpackers had to cancel on the backpack but did join us that day for part of the hike. So three of us set off from headquarters at around 10 a.m. We hiked to Silver Falls on the Sunset trail. As we were hiking to the falls, the beginners set off from Camp Herbert on their day hike to the same falls. We all found each other just as the advanced bunch was finishing up lunch at Silver Falls.
We had lots of lively conversation at Silver Falls and enjoyed the beautiful falls. After catching up with each other, the day hikers set off to explore Golden Falls while the two of us with backpacks continued our hike to Camp Herbert. All but one of the day hikers finished their explorations and headed back to Camp Herbert. The one day hiker was the woman who had to cancel on the advanced backpack and she headed back to Big Basin headquarters and drove home that night.
The two of us with backpacks finally made it to Camp Herbert. It was a tough haul with packs and we were glad to see camp. There was one person in camp who had backpacked in that morning instead of Friday night so we got a nice greeting from her. We set up our tents and then took a well deserved rest. Soon the day hikers returned and a couple more backpackers in our party also showed up. They had gotten stuck in awful traffic on their way from Sacramento Friday night. They got to Big Basin too late on Friday to hike in so stayed in a motel Friday and hiked in late Saturday afternoon. So we were a jolly crew of I believe about 9 people that night in camp.
The conversation in camp was lively and engrossing that night. We cooked our dinners and had a great time chatting away. We enjoyed being near a babbling brook and having tall trees tower over us. The beginner crew marveled at how much nicer it was that night since the big noisy group had moved on and that night we only had a couple of small quiet groups for neighbors.
We did have a bit of an unpleasant adventure that night. One of the women decided to take an evening walk but she failed to inform anyone about this. We were all talking away when someone asked "where is so and so?" We called her name and looked close by and there was no sign of her. So we organized a search party to go find her and make sure she was OK. We eventually found her and she was fine if a little embarrassed at the trouble she caused. When you are backpacking as part of a group it is really important to tell folks where you are going! It took us a little while to come off the adrenaline/worry rush from the search, but we soon regained our equilibrium and enjoyed the rest of the evening.
Sunday we slept in as late as we wanted. We had breakfast and then everyone hiked the three miles back to the Wadell Creek trailhead. It was a very pleasant morning hike. Most of the beginners packed up their stuff and headed home. The two of us on in the advanced crew were kindly shuttled by one of the beginner crew cars back to Big Basin headquarters. The drive back to my house was uneventful.
I was pleased with how the trip turned out and Wen and I learned lots of useful information about backpacking at Big Basin. The best things about the trip for me were the beautiful hiking scenery, the friendly group of women on the trip, and the fact that the beginners did so well and had a good experience with their first backpacking trip!
Cathy