Winchester's Lookout

Ok so this most amazing hike we went on happened by complete accident. 

The worst news is that Jim and Joe weren't there, so that put a wet blanket on this would be 

"highlight of my summer".

The Blacks asked if we wanted to go play at Twin Lakes up near Baker last Monday. 

We did want to go, but Jim was on reserve, so he couldn't risk going out of phone service range. But me and the kids really wanted to go, so we left him at home and that part is so sad. 

At Twin Lakes there was a trail to an overlook that was easy and a great view that they had gone on a few weeks ago. At that time there was snow on the trail, so they didn't go very far. 

Cut to NOW and there was no snow, so we knew we could keep going up if we wanted to. 

It was me, Lisa, our kids, plus Kyle and Lauren and their three kids. 

Joe stayed down by the lakes because his knee is still healing and still ruining our summer. 

So we just wandered up and up the trail, not really knowing when and where to turn around, so up and up we went. 

It seems like this summer I have been on trails with a thousand kids/people in my party - starting way back in Tahoe with 31 of us on the trail.

This time we had ten kids and four adults.

I wasn't totally sure the distance or the destination or the name of this trail...just keep going up and up and up.

Then we got to a few "sketchy" parts that we decided were safe enough for the kids to do. 

This part looked way more intimidating than it truly was - the kids called it "rock climbing next to a cliff".

Kyle went up to see how difficult it was. 

He said, "It's not too bad..."

I said "how is the view on the other side?"

"the view is amazing!"

"Then we are doing it."

So we did and it made our hearts beat,

But so did the view on the other side:

Look at those crags! 

From that sketchy point on, we still didn't know exactly where our destination was. 

Also Lauren is diabetic and she was having low blood sugar and kind of in a daze, so I kept asking Kyle, should we stop here? Is this a good turn around? 

But the switch backs are just so inviting. We kept going up one. Then another.

Then "lets just see what's over this one."

"There's probably only one more switch back."

Up and up we went, and the kids were getting a little sick of it, and we weren't totally sure....

and then over one last little climb, there was this:

Winchester's Lookout!

It's an old fire lookout that has a 360 view of the valley that blew all the minds.

Also the cabin was so neat to explore.

Look at Baker out the front door.

There was a "Zen Saying" on this wall that said:

 "If you're not having a good time, then you're not here." 

and we got to discussing the meaning of it:

Although we were in this amazing place, 

me and Lisa's brains were still worried about the future  (descending the sketchy parts with the kids) and the past (bummed that Jim and Joe weren't with us).

We weren't HERE. 

We let our worries ruin the good time. 

(But don't worry, we still had a really good time)

We hung out, rested, shared an apple. 

Lauren sat and recovered from her diabetic spell. 

The good news is: 

the descent was wayyyy easier than we thought it would be, 

we made it down safe, 

Jim and Joe insist we do it again WITH them. 

We ended the night with some Chair 9 pizza and a play by play recap of our adventures.