When Elvin took Eliana backpacking, he periodically sent text messages back home, with pictures of what was going on. This made Karina want to go backpacking as well. She kept asking to go over and over, and Elvin decided that instead of waiting until next year, that he might as well take Karina now.
So he took a day off of work and started planning for the trip. But first came the packing... He made a packing list for Karina of stuff she had to take in her backpack--such as warm clothes, a toothbrush, as well as her stuffed animal cat which she sleeps with.
Karina tried putting on Daddy's backpacking backpack, but it was too heavy!
On the way up, Elvin let Karina have a special treat--Guarana, which Karina loves. It's a soft drink from Brazil that tastes a little bit like Squirt, but more fruity.
This is Mount Hood, where we were heading. This trip would be a 1-mile hike up to a place called Mirror Lake. The trailhead is about 1.5 hours from where we live.
And we were off! We started off by crossing a little stream on a very narrow bridge.
This is us on the beginning of the hike.
Karina brought her camera (Elvin's old camera) and took some pictures as well.
Then we got to a second bridge.
It was pretty slow going because Karina is not an avid hiker. So we stopped for lunch.
Here's a boulder Karina wanted to climb.
And Karina wanted to blow her emergency whistle, or at least take a picture pretending she was blowing it.
She then wanted to stop for lunch #2--a bag of Lays BBQ chips.
We FINALLY make it up to Mirror Lake. It was a fairly painful process because it took two hours! She hiked very slowly and then would complain about how long it was taking. Ha ha.
There were wild rhododendrons growing up near the lake.
We decided to ditch our packs and look for a place to do some fishing. We walked along the loop trail around the lake.
We found a nice little spot, which was picturesque and the reason why this lake got it's name.
This is the photo background of why people hike up to this lake, with Mount Hood in the background.
We didn't catch anything to moved on to a different spot. Still no luck.
We then crossed yet another bridge, this one with only one set of handrails.
And finally it was time to set up camp. Karina helped with the tent.
And she helped unrolling the sleeping mat and sleeping bags.
And then it was time for dinner. Cup-O-Noodles was on the menu.
And Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream. She never had had these before and declared that they were her favorite.
We decided to try our luck again. The water was really still now and truly creating a mirror effect.
And for dinner #2, we had apples with peanut butter. There were so many bugs out that we had to retreat into our tent. Also, it had rained recently--so all the wood was wet and Daddy was not able to start a fire. Karina was a little disappointed.
Karina, our sleepyhead, woke up at around 8am, despite the sun coming out at 5:30am and lots of loud bird noises everywhere.
After a quick breakfast, Karina decides that we should try to go fishing again.
We try our luck, but no bites.
And then a very thick fog moved in very suddenly, so we headed back to camp.
Our site was on higher ground and Karina thought it was interesting that it was not foggy at all.
We brushed our teeth, because we forgot to do it last night.
And then break camp...
And we are off. There was rain forecasted so Elvin wanted to start hiking down sooner than later.
Thankfully, it did NOT take us 2 hours to hike back down.
We ate on the go...Cheeze it's!
And we made it back before the rain!
And there is nothing like eating a nice, hot burger and fries at Burgerville after backpacking!
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