Bishop part two- more lakes, fireworks and a waterfall

The next day we were pretty tired from the previous day's hike, so we decided to go to Lake Sabrina which was only a short walk from the parking lot. We fly fished here. I caught one fish, which was unfortunately better than most fisherman that day. It was a "free fishing day" so there were lots of people there.

Afterwards we drove to another nearby lake which has this beautiful stream flowing into it.

It took me a bit to actually enter the water because although the water is crystal clear, there's deep, black mud between the path and the stream. I finally talked myself into just going for it, and dropped thigh-deep into the ice water. It was fun but I caught nothing. I could see fish looking at my fly, but they were either not hungry or too clever to bite. In the truck my legs were radiating cold thru my pants.

I was in awe, surrounded by such beauty. I asked Asher to bring my camera 

to me so I could take some photos from the water. These two are the result. 

We happened to be here on July 4th. Lucky for us, we could see the city's fireworks right from our campsite, yay, no traffic! I had picked up these special fireworks glasses at the campstore which were pretty impressive. They make any light glow with a kaleidoscope of color.

 The effect on fireworks!

Looking at the fire!

Asher fell asleep as soon as the fireworks ended. He was still roasting his marshmallow in the fire at the time.

When he woke the next morning the first groggy thing he said was, 

"I missed the fireworks!" I reassured him he had, in fact, seen every single one.

Finally it was time to pack up our tent and head to Vegas, but first, we hiked 

a waterfall that we'd noticed on our drive thru the John Muir Woods the previous day.

Made it to the waterfall!

Asa wasted no time by jumping right in!

Asher waded in the water and then Daddy leaned him back to dip his head in. When he pulled 

him out he had a mohawk....and ended up completely wet, which may have led to skinny dipping. 

On our way back, we took a different route passing by gold mine remains.

And then the trail just stopped. We improved and crossed the river using 

downed trees and made our way back to the original trail. 

Of course Asa laid in the one tiny muddy section towards the end of the hike, so we 

bathed her in the river before putting her in the truck for the 7 hour drive to Vegas.

The kids first tent camping experience! {Bishop, California}

First of all can you believe these kids have never been tent camping? I mean, come on, they were RV camping a mere 6 weeks after leaving the hospital from birth. Yes, it's true. Well we have been wanting to do it and when our friends, Justin and Rachel, invited us along on their camping trip to a place with no RV sites left, it seemed the perfect time! What did we do with the RV? We found a local place that let us store it for two weeks for $20! Brilliant plan! (We figured two weeks so we could also make a quick visit back to Vegas without the added expense of pulling the RV there and back since we had the option of staying with friends.)

They made friends with our neighbors of course. 

Our first full day we spent in the John Muir Wilderness hiking to Treasure Lake.

The river is so clear!

Asher said, "Hey Mommy, take my picture on there." He's really begun appreciating having his photo taken.
He's all of a sudden more willing while his sister has become less willing to be photographed. Interesting.

It's a beautiful trail, but a very strenuous 3 mile hike when you are each carrying a backpack PLUS a nearly 40lb child. Especially when that child is sleeping! The 11,000ft elevation didn't help either since we had been at sea level for about 9 months prior. In any case, I would not recommend this trail to those with small children. I may have actually threatened Asher with the possibility of becoming a tasty little snack for a bear if he didn't keep walking. We nearly turned back a few hours into the hike, but I'm so glad we pressed on.

Isn't that grass ridiculous?! I love it!

Once we reached the lake, we joined up with our friends and broke out the MREs (military "Meals Ready to Eat") for lunch. I had never eaten the hot dinner packets before and was shocked that they are seriously burn-your-fingers-hot after you just add water! We ate pasta with meat and red sauce, chicken, spice cake and a strawberry milkshake. Surprisingly good considering we've had it sitting in a box for years.

Learning to fly fish has been on my bucket list for years, so I was super excited when Justin offered to teach me at Treasure Lake. The water was so clear I could see the fish and cast to them. I actually caught five fish, golden and rainbow trout, in a short amount of time! Asher was my fishing buddy manning the net. It was so much fun. Our friends were there for a few hours and caught a ton, like 45 fish! By the way, it's $15 per day for an out of state fishing license.

I showed both of the kids how to do it too. 

Silly boy!

Since it took us so long to get up to the lake, we didn't have a lot of time to spend there. I would love to return and get a backcountry permit to camp there by the lake for a few days. Instead we started back down, this time enlisting our friends to help carry the kids down the mountain.

Yep, she's was out pretty much as soon as we started down!

The wildflowers were really pretty. Unfortunately we just missed their peak. Justin was here
two weeks earlier and they covered the ground. Now they are sporadic, but still beautiful.