Mirror Lake via the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) — Friday, Jul. 26, 2024

This was a glorious trip! We set out from FR 9070 about 3:15pm on the trail heading to Mirror Lake. (The road is rough, so make sure you feel comfortable with the vehicle you bring). We got to the lake about 6pm (but lots of little breaks along the way. This trip was our first backpacking with our kiddos, and they did amazingly well! We found a beautiful site for the tent, got that set, found a spot to eat dinner and looked out at the lake (you could see to the bottom very far out)! After cleaning up, we got settled in our tent to play some D&D until nightfall. We slept really well just hearing planes fly overhead every so often. Next morning we got our feet wet in the lake a little (we saw some folks swimming and kayaking)! Then packed up and headed out. It was a beautiful late morning/early afternoon heading back enjoying seeing familiar landmarks. We met a few thru hikers but mostly folks doing a little overnighter or day hike. We saw some frogs in a pond, one pika, and loads of beautiful wildflowers. I’d highly recommend this area for an overnighter for any reason & especially introducing anyone to backpacking. It was an attainable distance, lots of beautiful things along the way, and the picturesque lake at the end. For the kids, they got a reward of some astronaut ice cream sandwiches we saved back at our car. The only downside was the bugs. Even with bug spray, we got some mosquito bits and our son got bit by a horsefly!