One last camp and one "short" walk...

We thought we'd do one last camp out in the mountains before it gets too cold. We didn't have lots of time, so decided to go close, just up to the sequoia tree by Browse. We hurried, at little too fast, to get ready after work and ended up without a few essentials...air bed, hot chocolate pot, lantern...but we were able to make do and had a great camp. It was a little cool, so we had a fire. It was so nice. We haven't done one for quite a while. The campsite was somewhat changed. It looked like a flash flood had gone through not too long ago and the picnic table was lodged in a pile of logs. There were lots of piles of debris around that have never been there before. Still, it was a nice spot. We had great food, a fairly good sleep and a warm breakfast and then decided to check out some of the trail maintenance that the forest service said they had done. We were only going for a short walk, so we left water and walking sticks behind. They trail had been very well cleared and was easy going, so we decided to go just a little further. Then we came to a trail sign and saw the Syler Springs was only a mile ahead...sure we could do that. Anderson Valley was another 5 miles and we wouldn't take time to do that. When we got to a little spring, it didn't seem like it was as far as the sign said, so we went a little further to see if we could find the one the sign was really talking about...never found it all the way to the top and Anderson Valley. We were missing our walking sticks on the very uppity trail, so found some sticks along the way and when we were getting pretty thirsty, the snow showed up and we enjoyed an icy cold drink that way. Now we can say that we have found all three trails into Anderson Valley...they each have their pluses and minuses. We enjoyed them all! Coming back down was much easier than going up and we got back just in time for Paul to make it to his Saturday afternoon stake conference meeting. So much for a short, 12 mile walk!