Luckily I met Noe the first day of my Freshmen year and a few weeks into the semester we decided to head out of Berkeley to go on a backpacking trip. I’m very glad we did as this trip was longer (in terms of miles per day) then any other trip I had done so far. Because of this it really expanded my conception of what was possible in a weekend backpacking trip.
We posted this trip on our school’s hiking club CHAOS (cal hiking and outdoor society) email list and of the 1000 people on the list we only got one reply from Matthew Morrison, another person I would later go on to do many more trips with. We drove until we were almost into the park and at 2am we found a pull out on the side of the road.
(all pictures taken on my phone as I did not have a camera back in 2016)
The ranger was very skeptical of our plan and did not believe we could complete the 44 mile loop in two days. The whole trip her doubt motivated us to keep going. Finally she relented and gave us the permit, however she wouldn’t tell us where the no camping zones were as she was afraid we would sleep there if she told us. She also carefully inspected our bear cans and was very critical of our choice to not bring a tent.
Finally free from the bureaucracy of King’s Canyon National Park we set off into the open wilderness.
By 5pm the next day we were in the car and headed back to Berkeley, sore but inspired to do many more trips.
Anthony Ottati 