Venturing Crew 566
Saratoga, California

(See also our Henry Coe/Mississippi Lake trip in 1995 -- 150KB.)

Henry Coe/Mississippi Lake Backpack: April, 1998

The Crew It's springtime in the foothills around the Santa Clara Valley, and the rangers and volunteers at Henry Coe State Park, above Gilroy, allow campers to drive WWWwwaaaaay into the backcountry (to the Oristimba Corral) on a weekend in April. Vehicle permits are distributed by lottery -- and we got one this year -- so we gathered a crew for a backpack from the Corral in to Mississippi Lake! It's about 4 miles, not a problem for a crew like ours. Here you see Stephanie, Jasdeep, Robbie, Ian, and Sunny (with Advisors Mrs. and Mr. Wesling in front) at the trailhead.

Spring ColorThe hills were alive with the blazing color of spring wildflowers -- such as Lupine, California Poppy, and Owl Clover. Here Mrs. W stops by the trail to check out the colors.

The tent's set up! Jasdeep and Stephanie show obvious pride in putting up a sturdy tent. We camped on a hilltop (steep climb!) overlooking Mississippi Lake, with a view into the side valleys -- outstanding!

Here's dinner! Many of us caught fish, with Ian probably getting the most (he's a longtime fisherman!) But the record for the trip was Mr. W's 16-inch largemouth bass, which was later filleted for our dinner.

Bass Chowder for dinner! Our "Master Chef" whipped up a big pot of Bass Chowder, which was made from hashbrowns, potato buds, milk, spices, and cheese in addition to diced bass -- thick and tasty.

Tastes as good as it looks! Jasdeep clearly is enjoying eating our "catch of the day" Bass Chowder. We should note that four of Mrs. W's midsize bass were fried for breakfast ...

Mixing up the dessert Robbie finishes the pot

Ian jiggles the ziplock bag of milk while Robbie slowly pours in the Pistaccio pudding -- resulting in almost no lumps! Robbie, with his endless appetite, cleans out the chowder pot.

Popcorn around the campfire As our evening winds down, Mr. W gets out his backpacking guitar for some songs, and Ian cooks up some popcorn. The stars were brilliant in the moonless sky and we had a great night's sleep.

AHH! Cool water After a filling breakfast and some more hours of fishing, we headed around the lake. We stopped for a bit more fishing, so Mr. W went for a cool swim, which he claims was very refreshing!


This was a great crew -- we had fun, helped each other, and learned a lot about good backpacking. I think we'd all do it again!

Send comments to [*]p.wesling@ieee.org || Last updated: 20 December 1999