My Chicago Garden

My wife and I have decided to take a family trip out to California to see the grandparents (my mom/dad) and the extended family.  My family loves Yosemite National Park and I’ve been going there since I was a kid.  I’ve only been to the "high country" or "high seirra" a couple times, one of which was a one nighter (or was it two?) backpacking trip with some friends when I was living in the San Francisco area.  My wife and I have been talking about doing more camping and backpacking, but having lived in Kentucky for 5 years and now the Chicago area the mountains are basically non-existent.  And I just can’t stand camping out of my car in a corn field, I can do that in my backyard. I need a destination. Heading out to California gives us the opportunity to take a shot at backpacking in the high sierra’s of Yosemite.

We needed a goal so we picked a summit attempt on Mount Lyell (highest point in Yosemite at 13,000+ feet). Check out the ‘Outdoors’ link in the menu above and the Mt. Lyell link on the right to watch our planning and progress.

You don’t need to hike to the top of a mountain to get into nature, but do something next year to get out of the house!