This past weekend, me and some friends went to the Shores Lake Rec Area for a hike.  We planned to hike 6.5 miles to the White Rock Rec Area, camp for the night, and hike 7 miles back to the Shores Lake Rec Area.  The hike was really fun.  The trail starts off pretty easy and follows a creek for much of the first part.  We came to a waterfall and stopped for a little bit.  While we were at the waterfall, we saw a boy scout troop heading in the opposite direction.  No big deal, except one of these guys was carrying a propane tank!  Not one of the bottles (although that would have been bad enough), he was carrying one of the tanks you would use for a grill!  

     So, after talking with them for a little bit, and trying to spread the lightweight backpacking gospel, we headed on.  There were some bumps where the trail would climb for a little bit, then go down for a bit.  Finally, we could see one of the buildings at the White Rock Rec Area, but it was about 1400 ft above us!  Then the climbing started.  We gained the elevation fast!  Needless to say the last couple of miles were tough.  After we made it to the top, we picked out a campsite for the night.  I got to pitch my new tarptent, and it did very well.  The wind blew pretty hard that night, but after guying out my tent, I barely noticed. 

     The next morning, we got up, broke camp, and headed out.  We planned on hiking the second half of the loop (7 mi) back to our cars.  This part of the trip was beautiful!  We hiked along a bluff overlooking a creek for a good chunk of the trial.  We crossed a creek once, went over a few more bumps, and through a small boulder field.  Then we were home.  Not a whole lot to say about this trip, because we did it pretty quick.  The seven miles on the second day only took about 2.5-3 hours.  We stopped twice (I think), and they were only 10 min stops.  
     All in all, great trail, and I'll probably be taking people back there again sometime soon.