Big Pine Lakes Trail

We stopped at the Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center to pick up our backcountry walk-in permits, bright & early. Beautiful clear view of the Sierras.

Ben's all geared up!

Wasn't too long before we hit snow. I was testing out a new way to strap my camera to my shoulder straps, so Ben was regularly ahead of me while I fumbled and swore to myself.

We never actually hit Baker Creek - I just like taking pictures of signs :)

For the record, I do NOT approve of this type of marking up the natural landscape. Leave No Trace, y'all.

Overlooking Second Lake, where we originally planned to make camp. We eventually moved to a less-exposed area in the woods closer to the lakefront.

Enjoying a much-appreciated lunch break in the sun.

Our new campsite in the woods - we spent a while gathering dead wood so we could have a fire burning until we decided to go to sleep about 4-5 hours later.

I really love fire - I spent some time just messing around with shutter speeds and apertures.

This was my very first attempt at long exposure photography. Definitely some things to improve, but it was fun! The cold was annhialating the camera batteries I'd brought though, so I didn't spend time adjusting the focus and the exposure wasn't quite as long as it could have been.

We were able to restart the fire pretty easily by using the hot ash/embers from the night before. Thank goodness, cause damn it was cold.

My phone got so cold the camera started doing... whatever this is.

I had to break through this ice to get water. I'd broken it yesterday afternoon too, but it froze again overnight.

This is where I had my camera stand for the long exposure shots.

I left my water bottle too close to the fire :(

Just a frozen shoelace.

If you can't read it, the left side says "6-7"; the right says "Summit".

                                Ben! -->

Fresh snow! We were the first to head out to Summit Lake since the snowfall.

Summit Lake!

We stopped by our campsite on the way back down for a quick rest.

Chasing the sun as we headed down the mountains.