First Backpack-Day 2

We emerged from our tent a little before 8am on the second day of our first backpacking trip somewhat rejuvenated despite neither of us sleeping more than a few hours. I didn't sleep very well mostly because Penny couldn't keep her trap shut. She wasn't barking (she very rarely barks). She does this annoying (and very loud) thing with her lips and tongue at night which sounds like she is smacking her lips from thirst. However, it doesn't matter if she's thirsty or not, she still does it. I had fallen asleep for a little over an hour before she woke me up. From then until about 3am I could not fall back asleep. Apparently Britt was having trouble going to sleep as well and we restlessly rolled around in the tent for most of the night. The elevation may have been a factor in our insomnia since we were at ~9,500'. The wind was also pretty consistent throughout the night, which may have helped keep us awake. I was able to catch a few z's for a few more hours before laying awake again until we decided to get up.After getting out of the tent, I went down to the lake to filter some water for breakfast. It was a pretty morning at East Lake in the Hoover Wilderness. I had some scrambled eggs with bacon (freeze-dried) and Britt had oatmeal. After breakfast I grabbed the camera and tripod and headed back south along the trail to get some pictures of East Lake Falls and Nutter Lake. While taking some pictures a few fishermen passed by and we made small-talk. When I got back to our campsite, Britt had collapsed the tent and had packed it away along with the sleeping bags. We grabbed our packs and left the noisy birds to their territory. It was 10am.Back on the trail, we headed north and northwest to the northern end of the lake. We saw a few people that must have arrived early in the day setting up their tents just north of where we were. At the outlet, I made a quick scamper to the northern shore of East Lake to get a few pics. After that, we headed down the trail towards Green Lake. A little ways before reaching Green Lake the trail crosses over the outlet from East Lake in the middle of a decent waterfall-Lower East Lake Falls. After taking a few pics of this, we decided not to do the hike up to West Lake and to take more time relaxing at Green Lake. What a great decision!Just before the trail reached the outlet to Green Lake, we left it to the west to find a lunch spot along the eastern shore of the lake. When we emerged from the trees we were met with incredible views over the lake, which included a ~800' waterfall cascading down from West Lake directly across from us. The shallow section of the lake (northern end) must be what the lake takes its name from. The color looks tropical. We found a perfect lunch spot on a little island which we accessed by walking over a bunch of fallen logs. Once again we had another gorgeous alpine lake all to ourselves. At least for a little while.We dropped our packs on the ground and plopped ourselves down on a big rock right next to the water. For a good 30 minutes we were the only ones at the lake enjoying the beautiful scenery. As the day approached noon people began to trickle in, but never numbered more than 10 at the lake at one time. We thoroughly enjoyed our time (over an hour) at Green Lake.Even though we wanted to stay at this spot for the rest of the day, we grabbed our things and left because we still had about an hour's walk to the Green Creek Trailhead before we needed to drive back to the Virginia Lakes Trailhead to get our other car and then it would be another ~2.5 hours until we got home (without stopping). As we walked beside Green Creek, there were a few sections of the trail that were very lush and provided Britt with plenty of flowers to check out. Some of these included Sticky Geraniums, Tiger Lilies, and Idaho Blue-Eyed Grass. There was one more waterfall I wanted to check out (Green Creek Falls), but I missed the place where I was going to leave the trail to find it because once again the topo map threw me off a little. I'm thinking the course of the West Fork Green Creek has changed recently because the trail never crosses this creek as the topo map suggests at the top of a set of switchbacks. This is where I was going to leave the trail to try and find the waterfall. When I realized we were on the aforementioned switchbacks we were only a little ways down them, but I didn't want to climb back up to search for the waterfall. It will have to wait until the next time we are here (we're hoping to do a day-hike to West Lake and the Par Value Lakes at some point).Another section of the trail that is different from the USGS topo map is the part near the Green Creek Trailhead. I'm assuming that at some point the trailhead was moved because the topo map has it being further west than it currently is. Also, the current trail follows the road from below a large pond (reservoir?) for a little while before branching off and zigzagging its way to the trailhead. We were pretty happy to be able to take off our packs when we arrived at the trailhead. We stretched a little before getting into the car and heading back to the Virginia Lakes Trailhead.Back in Bridgeport, we stopped at a gas station and bought some Gatorades, a pop, and some ice cream. The ice cream made us more happy than it probably should have. We sat on one of the nearby picnic tables and looked out to Sawtooth Ridge and the other peaks to the southwest. This was a great introduction for us to backpacking. We had experienced some pretty phenomenal scenery along our route and I think that this will be a trip that we remember for a while. However, I hope we have many more backpacking adventures that will compete with it. Back home, I was happy to sleep throughout the night without having to hear Penny's annoying noises. That's one more thing to look forward to on our next backpacking trip.