Before I get too far into my weekend adventure, I want to explain the title. It sounds high and mighty. But this is a blog entry about two meteorologists from different weather disciplines, who came together and rode on Pegasus. See? It’s a clever Greek weather theme.

My station, along with every other station in the Fresno and Bakersfield television markets, has a wonderful (to my knowledge) working relationship with our local National Weather Service forecast office in Hanford. Meteorologists from the NWS office make the rounds to each station in the Central Valley periodically, and your local weather anchors also sometimes drop by their office and check in. It’s awesome that we have each other for a resource and can stay updated on the latest and greatest advancements.

Another cool aspect of our weather community is that we have a really strong female meteorologist presence in the Central Valley. I point this out because it’s somewhat rare. A study from a few years back quoted results from a 2010 survey – just 21.6% of local weather broadcasters were women (http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00079.1). It’s amazing to see that not only every station in the Central Valley has a female on their weather team, but there are also multiple female Chief Meteorologists. I could write several blog entries on women in weather, but that’s not the focus of this entry. My tangent point is that the weather women in this area have a unique bond over this unusually high female representation. Many of our get togethers are thanks to one meteorologist in particular.

Christine is a lead forecaster in our Hanford office (in fact, she’s the FIRST female lead forecaster ever at that office). She is constantly reaching out, creating partnerships, new programs, the list goes on, and she somehow finds time to plan gatherings with other local meteorologists. We had been talking about hiking in Sequoia together for literally a year, and we FINALLY had aligning schedules and made it happen this past weekend.

Her favorite nearby trail is Franklin Lakes in Mineral King. I’d done two hikes out of Mineral King before – Eagle Lake, and the unmaintained Sawtooth Pass to Sawtooth Peak. There seems to be hundred of miles of trails to explore from there, and it’s such a unique area that I think of it as a separate park. It is part of Sequoia National Park, but it has a completely separate entrance, along with a sort-of maintained 25 mile road just to get in there. I highly suggest drowning yourself with Dramamine ahead of time (please don’t actually do that).

I left Fresno just after 4 AM, backpack stuffed full of food, water, and something awesome (will reveal soon, fits the Greek theme). We met up around 5 AM, added two of her friends, then we rode off into the sunrise. It was important to get an early start – we had forecast afternoon storms.

The parking lot had more cars than I’d ever seen there, and many people were unloading and gearing up for their trips. We headed to the trailhead, and I was looking forward to moving uphill. It was COLD, and I was ready to get my heart rate up!

The trail was unlike the others that I had hiked in the area. This was hardly wooded, so there were constant views. The trail initially leads toward Farewell Gap, where there were wildflowers and big patches of snow. We even spotted a fawn!

There are several creek crossings, all of which were doable without waterproof shoes, as long as your balance is good. As we got closer to every crossing, the wildflowers would become unbelievably vibrant. Reds, yellows, purples, you name it.

The trail was never too steep or tiring. It is uphill the whole way to the lake, but I barely noticed. It could have been because Christine and I were occupied with chatting most of the time. Let me also point out that Christine was carrying an almost 2 year old up the ~3000 feet of elevation gain over 6ish miles.

I don’t recall seeing a single human on the hike up to the lake, and there also weren’t any backpacker camps around when we got there. It doesn’t get any more peaceful than that. I can’t get over the fact that there’s still snow from last season on the mountains.

We ate some lunch, then Christine went for her usual swim. Let me tell you, I was dry on shore with long sleeves, pants, and a light rain jacket, and I wasn’t all that hot. It was pretty cloudy. The water temperature must still be in the 40s. She’s brave!

Now, for the moment I was looking forward to the whole morning. I pulled from my pack…

A GIANT FLOATIE!!!

I’d seen the massive inflatables on social media over the past few months, and I thought, “what more perfect scenario to use one than in an alpine lake?” I’d get to be on the water without having to freeze. Win-win!

Of course, the heavy air mattress pump and D batteries I had lugged up the trail didn’t work, so we had to inflate it manually. And we were above 10,000 ft. After the dizziness subsided, “Peggy” was ready for her maiden voyage.

See the Greek connection?

Since Christine was pretty accustomed to the frigid water, she became the designated kicker and I was the steerer. My feet were out of the water more than they were really in, but OH how they BURNED from the cold! Hers must have been numb.

We took a tour in the lake and made it pretty far out. At one point, there was a break in the clouds and we got an up-close view of the lake bottom. The water was a beautiful turquoise, and we could clearly see fallen logs that were at least 20 feet down.

We made it back to shore and packed up. The hike back was an easy downhill. Every so often, the sun would come out and illuminate the wildflowers. It was breathtaking, and it smelled divine.

When we got below Farewell Gap, we saw building and darkening clouds. Eventually, we heard distant thunder. We were glad we were heading down into the valley at that point. We got sprinkled on a little right before we reached the car.

What a beautiful day! We had sunshine, clouds, a distant storm, a lake, mountains, and animals. All in all, I counted 10 deer, several marmots, 2 grouse, along with horses and mules.

Still waiting on that mountain lion spotting. For now, I’ll have to settle for Pegasus.

Special thanks to Ben and Kraig for being our photographers, and also for keeping an eye on the little one while Christine and I were playing in the lake!