07-12-2026 Hike

This day was the start of our backpacking adventure. I woke up before 4:30 and finished putting my stuff into the different bags that got loaded into the hiking backpack, my travel backpack, and the car. Ann got up and drove me to Joe's house, where he was already out with the food items on a table. I unloaded my stuff out of the car, kissed Ann goodbye, and started deciding which food items from Joe to bring with me. Jason and Mike showed up pretty soon after. We had hoped to be moving by 6:30, but it was around 6:50 when we got rolling. The first part of the drive went quickly, Joe drove the whole way up. We got caught up on what everybody had been doing. Stopped for a bio break in Adelanto, and I got an XL fountain drink. Stopped again at a place on the 395 where we had stopped before (had a Subway and a Chester's), then continued on to Lone Pine, where we stopped to get sandwiches for lunch at Schat's Bakery. Joe also got some Paracord at an outfitter's store that was open on a Sunday. The bakery was hopping, so we ended up buying pre-made sandwiches. They were okay. The bread was delicious, but my egg salad didn't have a lot of flavor. We drove through Bishop and turned off to go to Mammoth, where I filled up Joe's tank. Then it was a fairly short drive to Coldwater Campground, which is quite large, might be a place to consider staying sometime. We drove to the end of the campground, where there was a parking lot for overnight hikers. We unloaded our packs and finalized what we were going to take. I made the mistake of bringing just one pair of long pants and a pair of shorts, should have brought my two pairs of convertible pants. Other than that, I brought everything that was on my list. We started hiking around 2:45, and my map estimated we would hike about two miles or so. But it was calculated from the entrance to the campground, so the distance was shorter. It was uphill, I think we gained about 800' in a mile or so. We got to the turnoff for Arrowhead Lake after a little over a mile, then we walked along the western shore of the lake to find a suitable campsite. Found one, then Joe found a better one across a small creek crossing and a little further from the marshy area of the lake. The mosquitoes and flies were intense, so Joe and I started exploring higher ground for suitable sites. We found a couple, he is pretty good at scouting sites. Weather was nice, cloudy but clear. The mosquitoes weren't as bad here, but they were still super annoying. Got the tent set up quickly, and not too long after we started dinner. I had a prepared Indian curry dish that I'd bought, and I served it over Minute rice. It was tasty, but the pouch was kinda heavy. I brought out the little bottles of Fireball whiskey, Joe and I split one mixed in Chai tea, which was good but probably cooked off some of the alcohol. Good dinnertime conversation, light-hearted and friendly. After dinner, around dusk, we scrambled down the rock slide to a place where we could get water to filter. This was our first time using the filters, and they had to be back;flushed a number of times to get the filtered water flowing. The mosquitoes down by the water were voracious, and this was overall pretty unpleasant but necessary. It was full-on dark by the time we were done, my headlamp was just adequate to show me the way back to the tent. I got ready for sleep, inflating the mattress and laying out my sleeping quilt (really nice for this kind of camping). Was in bed by 9:15 or so, got to sleep okay for the situation.