Stani and I woke up in the back of the car a few miles from the trailhead on a forest service road.

We did a little packing and rearranging of stuff in the car, then drove the rest of the way to the trailhead at Wrights Lake to meet Ben.

It was considerably colder compared to the trip we went on 2 weeks ago. We sat in the car with the heat on while we waited for Ben to arrive. Ben had an early start at 4:30am, driving straight from SF.

He arrived around 8:30. We did our final bag prep, then hit the trail.

It was sunny, but still a little chilly. It was probably 30 minutes of hiking before we took off our puffy jackets and started to feel warm.

The scenery was beautiful. Granite boulders, pine trees, mountains, lakes, moss.

After snaking through some relatively flat terrain, the trail started climbing. With a few switchbacks and increasingly more impressive views, we gained the ridge and headed over into the lush meadow area where Doris Lake is.

Lake Lois was a just a bit further. We arrived at our camp site around 1. We found a spot above the lake for our tents, and a great kitchen and hangout area closer to the water. The next few hours were spent playing fetch with Stani, exploring the lake side, and chilling at camp.

We had an early dinner and were in our tents by 7:30 due to the chill in the air.

We had managed to camp in a spot that wasn't going to get any sun for most of the morning, and a cold wind was making it hard to get out of bed. Ben got up around 6 to make some coffee, and went back into his tent to stay warm. I got up around 7, put on my layers, made some tea, and found a sunny (but windy) spot near the lake.

We took it easy in the morning, and slowly packed up our gear. We were on the trail by 10am. The hike back made us realize that we must have been having a good time on the way in, because we didn't remember covering entire sections of the trail.

Back at the cars by 1pm.