Rig bags his 2nd 14er!

This year for our annual father/son outing we were shooting for Mt. Langley, another California 14er. We invited our good friends the Hills, who just moved to Reno to meet us for the hike.

This was Rig's first time carrying his own pack.

Rig was really looking forward to spending some time with his best friend Micah again.

They insisted on hiking together.

There were scattered thunderstorms that we were hoping not to fall victim to.

But the rain came, and it came hard. We tried to take shelter under a tree, but to no avail. We were all soaked to the core. It was a little scary how fast the trip went from nice and pleasant to cold and miserable.

We had hoped to make it a little further the first day but the boys were shaking uncontrollably and we decided it best to set up camp and get them in something dry.

The boys were fine once we got them in something dry and fed them some hot chocolate.

We woke the next morning to sunny skies and views of Mt. Langley.

It was only 4 miles and 4000 feet away.

The boys with a view of Cottonwood Lakes where we had camped.

The hike was a class 2 scramble with a lot of sand that is not much fun to hike up.

It had a couple of fun little bouldering sections.

Rig zoomed right up them.

After the struggle we had on Whitney last year I expected Langley to be tougher than it was, but Rig made it look like a piece of cake. He was the first one to the summit to claim his second 14er.

His buddy Micah was not far behind.

Soon we were all enjoying the summit together. I look pretty silly in me pirate hat but unfortunately the way the Cougars are playing, I would have to say Damon looks more silly.

The sand that made things slow going up made things fast coming down.

You could launch off the rocks with reckless abandon and land in the soft sand.

Micah getting some air.

Rig with a little something he picked up from Mr. Miyagi.

We saw a bunch of marmots.

Descending the snow Rigdon couldn't resist trying to ski it.

He had mixed results with that.

We got back to camp with plenty of time to hike out that day but our friends talked us into staying one more night and we were glad we did. It gave us a chance to do the things we rarely have time for.

We ran through the beautiful meadow,

climbed on rocks

and logs.

I even took a swim in the frigid mountain lake. Luckily I am microscopic in the picture because I am wearing my all white board shorts.

We even got treated to a beautiful mountain sunset.

The next morning we had 6 miles to hike out. We got up early and skipped breakfast in attempt to make it out and to McDonald's for breakfast.

We were on the trail by 7:00. To our car by 10:00 and to McDonald's by 10:40,

but it was 10 minutes too late. I asked the lady if there was anyway we could get a couple Egg McMuffins and I was swiftly denied. We were stuck eating McDoubles.

Two California 14ers down, thirteen to go.