Our House is Y'alls House: Yosemite Backpacking Trip

When I first started my current job right after college in May 2007, I knew one thing was for certain, I was finally going to have funds to travel. The first year of working I took two trips, one to the UK (in November 2007) and a backing trip to Yosemite (in June 2007). Both of these trips I went by myself, but met up with a group at my final destination.
My travel goals were to do one big international trip a year and one backpacking trip a year around the states. I travel a lot for work and I have done a few international trips not related to work, but I have not done a backpacking trip since the one in Yosemite. I really would love to do a few more, one that has been on my bucket-list is a backpacking trip to Machu Picchu. I also hear backpacking in New Zealand is amazing.

However, let me get back to the details of my backpacking trip to Yosemite. I was becoming a REI junkie, since there was a store by my parent's house, and became a member, and with that I discovered a link of all these adventurous backpacking trips on the REI website. I booked a beginner's backpacking trip because well it was an intro to backpacking and the timing just seemed right. I grew up camping, but I had never backpacked and the thought of doing this in a new place with no experience was daunting. I am so glad I did the intro because even with my camping experiences, in bear free zones (unlike in Yosemite), I would not have felt fully prepared if I did a more experienced hike.
The experience was amazing and the group size was small so it was intimate and everyone was so nice and friendly (I am still friends on facebook with a few of the people from the trip). Our guides were fantastic and very knowledgeable. Overall if anyone is looking for a short backpacking trip (3-4 days long), then I recommend taking a look on the REI website. They are professional and fantastic. One day I would love to do the REI Grand Canyon backpacking trip, more details can be found here.
Well enough chit chat here are some of those moments I was able to capture on my very first backpacking trip.