When the Almond Tree Blooms

This time last year, instead of sitting here in Oakland listening to car alarms and subwoofers, I was savoring the high country of Kings Canyon National Park. My friend and co-adventurer Tom and I set off for a week long loop trip through the Rae Lakes Basin, a 40 mile trip with a 7,000 foot elevation game. The backpacking odyssey took us up one river valley, over a 12,000 foot pass (the highest altitude I've ever reached), then down into the Rae Lakes Basin: a string of beautiful mountain lakes surrounded by craggy peaks and full of mosquitoes. We enjoyed our time at the lakes immensely, but were relieved to find a bug-free campsite on our last night by the Kings River. An experience as this is best seen through the pictures, which of course can't really do justice to the magnificence of the mountain wilderness I had the good fortune to pass through. The photos are arranged in chronological order, so the viewer can get a sense of the progress of the journey. One part of the