A most unique camping experience

Last weekend for Memorial Day, Tom and I decided to get out our backpacking gear and head up to the Emigrant Wilderness for a couple of days. We had been wanting to go backpacking for a while (since Tom got a new frame pack for his birthday last year) but hadn't gotten out on a major trip since then.

We left on Friday after work (with the puppa) and drove to an area near Pinecrest lake. Tom had arranged for our backcountry permit to be left at the ranger station there and we picked it up and headed off to find a site at one of the campgrounds nearby. We rolled into the first campground at 11:00 pm and searched in vain for an unoccupied spot. We moved up the road to the next option, only to find it full, as well. We were feeling a little panicked (and exhaused) by then, but fortunately we found a nice spot at the third campground. We pitched tent under a tree in our campsite, which turned out to be a very prescient move.

It started to rain at around 1:00 am, so the three of us nestled together in our sleeping bags in the middle of the tent to stay dry and warm. It was very cozy. At about 6:00, Banjo and I decided to make a run for the restrooms and found the very quiet campground looking like this:SNOW! Some of us (obviously) liked it a little better than others of us.

Anyway, the ground was wet and it continued to sleet almost all day. Banjo displayed unusual (for him) amounts of wimpiness - apparantly freezing cold gravel bits hurt his little paw pads. So we bailed on the original backpacking plan and decided to drive back to Pinecrest lake to see what could be seen there. We ended up playing some boardgames in our car during lunch, and then taking a 4 mile jaunt around the lake. It was a beautiful area and we enjoyed scooting up and down the rocky coastline and watching the fishermen who were out for Memorial Day. After our nice (albeit still sleety) afternoon, we stopped by the ranger station for a weather update (continued sleet and snow through the weekend) and decided to pack up and head back. We stopped at "columns of the gods" viewpoint on the way back, which was a cool columnar basalt outcrop that Tom hiked to and took these pictures. Sadly, this minor pit stop ended up being quite costly as his favorite hiking boots were apparently left as a sacrifice to the geology gods. We still have some hope they'll turn up, but it isn't looking all that likely.
The rest of the weekend was relatively uneventful - hanging out, doing a little grilling and catching up with some stuff around the house. Hope you all had a nice Memorial day, too!