The reason I go backpacking is to disconnect from reality for a few days and get in touch with Mother Nature. Cooking over a fire, drinking from rivers, counting stars, and putting that whole hygiene thing on the back burner.

This is usually how my backpacking trips go, that is unless the Warriors are playing an elimination playoff game on the road!

On this three day trip, I was guilty a few times of checking my phone for service (to no avail) and boring (maybe annoying?) everyone else on the trip by talking basketball with my buddy Kai. I finally was able to settle into zen nature mode after 24 hours in the wilderness when I found a magical area with service and the “we won!” text messages started flooding in. The backpacking could begin.

My childhood friends, Kai and Nate, and I have logged some solid backpacking trips over the years. We always seem to pick the most grueling trails that push us to the edge of death by dehydration (slight exaggeration). These trips always end with us telling ourselves that next time we will find a “way chiller” hike.

Well it turns out for our Memorial Day weekend trip we chose another one of those “hike until you drop” type hikes. Oops. For some reason 3,000 feet up a mountain and 2,000+ feet down the other side in one day with little to no shade didn’t quite register to us.

Well, long story short, we made it and spent an amazing two nights on the Santa Cruz Trail in the Santa Barbara backcountry watching the sun set, traversing mountains, and getting to know a new group of people in which Nate and myself were the only “out-of-towners” (SB lingo…). A solid trip and another trail to check off the list.

My timelapse of the sunset. A little disappointed in the readjusting focus and pulsating sun. But you get the gist of what we saw.