Adventures of Johnny United: South Fork of the San Joaquin River! 12-Mile Hike!

Yes! We survived a 12-mile hike!

Remember my friend the River Rockerman from last year? He was gracious to extend an invitation to us to join his family's tradition of hiking 6 miles into the Sierra National Forest to camp out by the South Fork of the San Joaquin River for the entire week! I jumped at this opportunity to establish a new tradition: The Manly-Man Annual Trip (MMAT). For this year, it was just me and my two boys (Monk and Master Fisherman). I confess, we were not "manly-men" because the ladies humbled us. We are talking about the Fourth and Fifth Generation of hikers of this wonderful family tradition. Hands down, the ladies got us beat in terms of hiking. But I am so very proud of my boys. They did not give up, although their bodies were screaming with pain. And they finished the hike, they kept the faith. (2Tim 4:7).

I carried a pack weighing one fifth of my weight while the boys carried packs weighing one ninth of their weights. Two miles into the hike, we were in for a surprise. We didn't believe how heavy a pack could be. This was when I picked up the backpack of MF to move the pace along.

My trusted stick from the Feather River.

Almighty God is so good to me! Thank You Lord for my health, which I often take for granted.

We hiked in with four older children on Tuesday (6/29) morning and hiked out with five younger children on Wednesday (7/1) morning. What a tremendous accomplishment!

Hiking in Tuesday morning at 6:30 AM.

While we were deep in the forest, we could fish, swim, eat, and even jump off a bridge into the river more than 20 feet below!!! Unfortunately, I was not able to capture the moment when the RR's daughter jumped. How exciting!

Who wants to jump off this bridge? Not I :-)

We survived a horrendous thunder storm with lighting, thunder and down pouring rain. Praise God we were prepared and did not get wet or cold. Also, the natural fireworks only lasted about two hours.

Nailed this baby brown with a Kastmaster after the storm.

After the lessons, we handed the poles over to the two children.

The RR hopped some rocks that I had to pass because I didn't want to risk falling ten feet and cracking my head. He is so deserving of his nickname :-)

The River Rockerman!

As far as fishing goes, we will never be hungry there. I landed browns and rainbows with my trusted Z! Yes, no trout (wild or otherwise) can resist the Z! Also, my newly homemade bass fishing jig was a big hit. The wild trout tore the tail to pieces. The RR tied one of the jigs to his fly fishing pole and was having a great time landing natives with it. Awesome! We didn't catch any trophy trout this time, but we caught plenty of pan-frying sized ones.

The RR and his family are still there until tomorrow (Friday). We wanted to be back in SacTown by 5 PM yesterday (Wednesday). It was a five-hour drive one direction.

We were tremendously blessed to hang out with a group of awesome people! It was very easy to get lost hiking into and out of this forest, so it was extra nice to be able to hike out with the group leaving early Wednesday.