Sequoia POCer Party Part I

This past weekend Brian and I went to Sequoia to celebrate Derick and Anna's impending baby with a bunch of Purdue Outing Club peeps. We hadn't seen any POCers since our Red Rocks trip last fall so it was fun to catch up with people and celebrate. I haven't been to the Sierras for several years, I'd forgotten how beautiful they are with all the trees and granite. I really like the scrubby desert too. 

I made a hat for the baby based on the Windschief pattern, but I forgot to take a picture of it. It turned out pretty cute. I think I'll do that pattern again. I may alter the decreases though because I wasn't wild about how they went. We also bought a board book of The Runaway Bunny, the prettiest baby book ever written. I hope they enjoy reading it together. 

Saturday we went low-key canyoneering with Brendan and Stephanie on the East Fork of the Kaweah River. I'd never really been canyoneering before so I was very excited. It was not a camera friendly outing so we don't have any pictures, but the river was beautiful. We started about 3.5 miles up Mineral King Road and bushwacked down some cow paths to the river. From there it was about 2 miles along the river back to 198, where we had a cocktail at the Gateway Lodge while Brendan hitched a ride back to the campsite to pick up a car.

We had a great time sliding down rock ramps, floating through deep pools and bumping over rapids. Everyone but Brian jumped off a 15 ft. rock. Brian scouted the depth of the pool for us, despite being very disinclined to stick his feet down into the dark water. Shortly after lunch Steph rolled her ankle scouting a ramp so we had to take the last bit of the trip a bit slow and careful. It clearly hurt pretty badly at the time but luckily the next day it didn't seem to be getting worse, hopefully just a minor sprain. Although I managed not to damage myself the next day I was sore everywhere, I guess I should have stretched after all that swimming. Hopefully next year we can do a more technical canyon with some rappels and waterfalls and things.