South Fork of Big Pine is a place filled with awe, from beautiful glacial lakes to dramatic mountain ranges, it's a place I'll never forget.
For my thirteenth birthday I wanted to do something special and amazing. I had always wanted to go backpacking but my dad never had the time to take me. Then Covid-19 happened and my dad had tons of spare time on his hands. About a year before Covid-19, my dad had heard from a co-worker about an amazing backpacking spot called North Fork of Big Pine. The North and South fork of Big Pine trails are located in Inyo National Forest in the Sierra Nevada I knew right away that I wanted to go there for my 13th birthday. In June, I got the permits and and we started to prepare for the trip. It would be my first backpacking trip ever. In August, just a couple days before the trip we found out that our permit wasn't valid for North Fork of Big Pine but it was valid for the South Fork of Big Pine. South fork of Big Pine is the less crowded than the North Fork, also South Fork is right next to the North Fork. I was really disappointed because I had heard that the North Fork lakes were much more beautiful, little did I know how amazing our trip would be. On August 18th we started driving to Big Pine, California. After 4 and a half hours we arrived at glacier lodge, the motel we were staying at for the day before the trip. Our trip plan looked like this: Day 1: Hike to Brainerd Lake. Day 2: Hike to Finger Lake and then hike back down to Brainerd Lake. Day 3: Hike back to Trailhead. We took a quick hike to get a sneak peak of the trail. We hiked to First Falls which was beautiful, all the scenery around was amazing. We then headed back to glacier lodge and went to bed. The next morning we woke up, put on our heavy packs and started hiking. The trail starts off right beside a beautiful river.
Then the trail goes into valley with lots of wildflowers.
After hiking for and hour and a half we came across a pretty fast flowing river. We crossed the river on little branches that could barely support our weight. I was really freaked out but I managed to make it across. Shortly after our river crossing we saw a beautiful waterfall.
After the waterfall there was a massive boulder field we started hiking up. Switch back after switchback, we slowly made our way up the super steep mountain. After thirty minutes we were awarded with some amazing views of the valley we had just hiked through.
At this point I was started to get exhausted from hours of hiking with a 35 pound backpack on my back. But the the breathtaking scenery kept me going, all around us were stunning high mountains with dramatic ridge lines.
After trekking a couple more hours we finally made it over the lip on the mountain, I was overjoyed to get a break from super steep tough terrain and rewarded with an amazing view of beautiful mountains with glaciers atop them.
I thought we were getting really close to Brainerd Lake but our gps said we still had some more incline to do. We kept on trekking along and saw 2 hikers, they were the first humans we had seen the whole day on the trail. We had to go up yet another steep hill, at this point I was mentally and physically exhausted. We had to take lots of breaks, I kept on thinking, would this ever end? We saw another waterfall
and knew that we had to be getting close to Brainerd Lake, water has to come from somewhere. Then finally we came across a lake, I was happy that we had "finished" the hike but disappointed, because it was very small and not that beautiful. It turned out that it was just a small pond not Brainerd Lake. After another thirty minutes we finally made it to Brainerd Lake, The 6 and half hours of hard work was worth it when I saw Brainerd Lake, it was simply breathtaking.
We ate tunafish with bagels for lunch which was so delicious. Out of nowhere blustery winds and rain was falling down upon us. We tried to set up the tent which is very challenging when rain and wind is blowing everything away. Against everything, we managed to set up the tent and put all our bags and equipment inside. We went inside the tent and rested. It had been a crazy amazing day, so fulfilling, the mountains we had conquered were ginormous. It had been one of the toughest days of my life but we managed to make it to the campsite. Eventually the wind and rain passed, we made dinner, ate dinner and then went back to our tent to go to sleep. The stars were spectacular, I stared at them thinking about my 13th birthday till I feel asleep. The next day I woke up, I was officially 13! I was exhausted from the all the hiking we had done before but the plan was that later in the day we would hike to Finger lake. The two hikers we had seen the day before had said that Finger Lake was on of the most beautiful lakes they had ever been to. After we had breakfast and purified enough water for the day ahead we started hiking to finger lake. We didn't really know where Finger Lake was, but my dad had an estimation and we followed his intuition. We found a trail with blazes and followed the trail up to Finger lake. Again we were hiking up super steep terrain but this time we only had one daypack with us. After an hour of trekking we made it. Finger Lake was even more beautiful than Brainerd Lake! Easily the most beautiful lake I've ever been to. The water in the lake was turquoise like the carribean, with snow and beautiful mountain ridges in the distance. Unfortunately I didn't bring a camera because I didn't want to bring a couple extra pounds of weight so I wasn't able to take any photos. We then had lunch next to the lake and explored the mountains around the lake. We eventually headed back down to our tent. We all had mild symptoms of altitude sickness, since we had just hiked up to an altitude of almost 12,000 ft. At one point my brother was hallucinating and thought I was a pit bull. When we got back to camp I lied down and rested. I was so hot that I jumped in Brainerd Lake which felt amazing!
After jumping in the lake I took a nap outside. We had ramen for dinner which was so tasty. I read and then went to bed. Overall it had been an amazing birthday that I'll never forget. The next day we had breakfast, started packing up all our things which took quite a while and then headed out and said goodbye to Brainerd Lake. The hiking was mostly downhill which was nice and we made quick time. We got to the lip of the mountain and started going down huge boulder field. It was the start of the weekend and there were a lot more people than there were the first day. We eventually made it down the super steep mountain, crossed the river and started hiking through the valley towards the trailhead. I was so excited to get my super heavy backpack off my back. Eventually we finally made it back, my first ever backpacking trip was done!