Jennie and Weaver Lake backpacking trip

I decided to go to the mountains after a long time of not going. Jennie and Weaver Lake loop trail is east of Fresno in the Sierras bordering Sequoia National Park. It is ~15 miles long, has fairly minimal elevation gain, and features two stunning alpine lakes, making it a pretty ideal weekend adventure. In addition to being outside, this trip gave me an opportunity to test some homemade gear, which I want to use on a longer backpacking trip later this summer.

The trip had an interesting start. In a surprising turn of events, Putz's own Arka decided to join the backpacking trip after flying in from Russia or wherever the night before. Instead of heading to the trailhead early Friday, we shopped for some last minute gear and food. We didn't actually make it to the trailhead until 4:30pm - right as the rain/snow/hail/thunder storm started. After a mad scramble to put on rain gear, we hit the trail.

Here is a photo of Arka looking sad while it snows. Soon after this photo, he came to the realization that he had not packed appropriately for this trip, and decided to turn back. Don't feel too sorry for him though, he later went on to have a lovely weekend fishing at Hume lake with a friendly vacationing family.

Around 6:30, the weather started to ease up, and stunning views were available all around.

I have never seen flowers like this before. Do you know what they are?

At around 7:30, I rolled into Jennie Lake. The storm had passed, the air was calm, the water was still.

The next morning, while walking, I took a selfie.

Here is a crazy looking tree that looks like it decided after a certain height that it wanted to be many more than one tree.

with the rain/snow from the past few weeks, there was an abundance of lovely flowers like this.

The highest altitude on this loop is ~9000ft, so there actually isn't too much time above the tree line. In a few places though, there are still wonderful open views like this.

These are some crazy looking mystery plants. Do you know what they are?

I used a Sawyer Mini inline water filter, attached it to a silnylon bag I sewed, and made a gravity water filter. It is very light compared to a pump and seems to work great. Here it is in action, hanging from a tree on the left at Weaver Lake.

Weaver Lake was so beautiful, and I was sorry to leave it so soon.

Hopefully there is another outside adventure in the near future!