Four Days In The Eastern Sierra
After living in Northern California for the majority of my life, I became increasingly enthralled with the Sierra Nevada Mountain range. It wasn’t until the last few years that I truly set out to experience the High Sierra as often as life allowed. Highway 395 became a recurring location for road trips and trail heads to simply check off the ever growing list. Backpacking opened the door to seeing the true beauty that lies beyond the visitor centers, hotels, and busy resorts. It allowed anyone, who was willing to put in some effort, to get deep into the mountains and out of sight of other humans for miles. For me, hiking went hand in hand with photography. I was finding a passion for documenting these places and sharing them in hopes to inspire others to do the same.
During this time, a few friends/coworkers of mine began to reveal their shared passion for getting into the wilderness. Each of us had different levels of experience with hiking and photography, but we all shared a strong interest in getting into the mountains. After many group chats and instagram messages, we decided to do a four day trip on a relatively easy trail that would allow us to enjoy two different lakes. Our group expanded to eight of us along with our three dogs. Only six of us would be there for the entirety of the four days, the other two would be meeting us after we arrived on the second morning.
We spent the following day fly fishing, drinking our preferred adult beverages, and simply enjoying each others’ company.
On the second morning, we all packed up our things and hiked just another mile and a half up a steep scramble to West Lake with minimal view of the trail. The Landscape was sparse with shrubbery and trees because we were now at just about 10,000 feet elevation. The water was lower than we expected but nonetheless, a beautiful location to set up camp for our final night.
Our last morning was slow and relaxed, full of mostly silence as we all realized these were the final hours before returning to reality for the remaining work week. I ran around and documented more of where we were before packing up my tent and rendezvousing with the rest of the group.
This wasn’t a very challenging hike for the average backpacker, but it was this trip that helped me solidify why I enjoyed getting out there so much. For the first couple of years with a camera, I felt a pressure to chase the most epic scenes to photograph and share. The photographs that stood out most were the ones that involved the people that I shared the experiences with. Nature continues to be a strong pillar of inspiration for my work as a photographer, and the list of bucket list hikes continues to overflow with ideas.
Here is to the next adventure, Cheers!
