BDML backpacking trip August 3-6, 2025
Useful links: Alltrails Map, Trip Photo Folder, Gear spreadsheet
BDML (and a few friends) spent a FUN few days traipsing through the Trinity Alps :) We saw SO many waterfalls, the prettiest mountain lakes in existance, and even tried our hand at some off-trail bushwhacking! It was our biggest crew yet with 19 backpackers braving the wilderness, many for the first time ever!
BDML backpackers at the trailhead!
From left to right: back row: Dane, Qi (Teo's roommate), Seongheon, Jared (Teo's friend), Alex (Teo's friend), Agnes (Alex's sister), Hao, Mark; front row: Tianyu, Ivy, Ziyang, Cora (Dane's Fiancé), Clive, Teo, Xinyi
Our ultimate destination: the beautiful Canyon Creek Lakes!
The Canyon Creek Lakes Route
Day 1: red segment from the trailhead to The Sinks ~3 miles in. Day 2: blue segment from The Sinks to lower Canyon Creek Lake. Day 3: purple segment day hike to L Lake and back. Day 4: blue and red segments back to the Canyon Creek Lakes trailhead at Globe Mill!
This year, a bit more prep was done beforehand, and we all ended up prepping meals together. Instead of mountain house meals, we ate dinners of couscous, rice, noodles, chicken, and tuna on the trail -- it was delicious!
The trip began with a 5 1/2 hour car ride from Palo Alto up north. We all stopped for (free!) permits at the Weaverville Ranger Station on the way. It was HOT in the towns nearest the trailhead (Weaverville and Redding), but pretty cool once we got into the mountains! the iSpaRo car (EmJ, Kayla, Venny, and Stanley) had been submitting conference papers down to the wire... they hit the trail about an hour after everyone else. The afternoon hike to The Sinks was ~3mi and involved a gradual climb of ~1,100ft elevation. We saw lots of wildlife on the trail!
After a good night's sleep in The Sinks, everyone headed up another ~2,000 ft to lower Canyon Creek Lake. The climb was a total of ~5 miles, but we were rewarded with a refreshing dip in the lake upon arrival! Much of the Day 2 afternoon was spent splashing and sunbathing on the rocks nearby the lake. On the way up, we passed two groups who had had their food eaten by bears up at the lakes, and we actually ended up seeing some bears (far away) from the rocky campsite area! Funnily enough, the deer ended up being more of a problem for us! Since they lack salt in their diet, they naturally crave it; any sweaty clothes or hiking pole straps left outside our tents got munched during the night -- a natural salt lick!
That evening, our large group broke into smaller ones, some who went to bed early and some who stayed up late playing games in the tent. Some decided to go stargazing ~1am and saw LOTS of comets, likely part of the Perseid Meteor Shower!
Gecko-handed BDML backpackers at lower Canyon Creek Lake!
From left to right: back row: Mark, Qi, Kayla, Stanley, Seongheon, Jared, Venny, Tianyu, Alex, Cora, Dane; front row: Ivy, Ziyang, Xinyi, Clive, EmJ, Hao, Agnes, Teo
On day 3, everyone headed out in groups for a (pretty intense) day hike up to L Lake. There were some loose trail-like paths but were mostly quite hard to follow. As a result, we ended up doing quite a bit of bushwhacking through spiky Manzanita groves and scrambling up and down rocky cliffs.
Dane and EmJ decided to try crossing L Lake -- no completely dry paths were available, but after taking their boots off, they managed to get across fairly unscathed and (mostly) dry! Xinyi, Ivy, and Seongheon took the most treacherous path down, doing a really impressive job of bouldering down some pretty steep rock faces!
Pictures from the day hike can be found below:
Day four was our last day in the woods. Since the drive back was so long, most of the group got up pretty early and began hiking down the mountain ~7:00am after a quick breakfast. Since the trail was pretty gradual and all downhill, hiking was fast: the same trail that took us two days to hike up was done in just 3-4 hours on the way back!
A few final notes:
- Some prep that will be nice to do before next year's trip:
- Cleaning etiquette -- making sure everyone knows how to clean dishes and understands the importance of packing up food properly into bear cans.
- General guidelines -- rules like setting up camp/doing your business ~200ft+ from water and trails need to be made explicit
- Guest policy -- was super fun to have guests join the trip this year! Communication beforehand needs to be better though :/
- For future reimbursement -- drivers get reimbursed for gas by mileage, per Stanford's Transportation Guidelines. Food requires receipts! For our big group, we spent ~$800 on food this year, just under $50 per person for four days.