There And Back Again

The views at our Coyote Trail campsite were pretty nice.

It’s too bad that there weren’t any hiking trails or anything to do along this road – we were fully stocked and would have stayed for a few days. But after a nice, leisurely morning we packed up and headed in to Bishop.

Since it was already pretty hot there we quickly turned north towards Mammoth Lakes. That drive was uneventful, but along the way towards Mammoth Mountain we missed a turn and ended up at a place called Twin Lakes campground.

Of course, there was so much snow that the campground wasn’t actually open.

We leashed Bailey up and took him with as we walked around. California ended up at 170% of their normal snowpack this winter… and it showed.

 

The General Store looked like it was going to need a new deck.

 

 

 

 

This canoe looked like it was ready for the scrap heap.

 

 

 

But we did get to see this awesome waterfall.

After a tailgate lunch at Twin Lakes, we got back in the truck and went all the way to the resort, Mammoth Mountain, which was actually still open. On June 7th.

I watched the few skiers and snowboarders jealously, wondering how much a lift ticket cost this time of year. Not that it mattered – we’d have to rent everything if we wanted to go – it’s just that this is the first time in about five years that we didn’t get a single day on the mountain.

Not that I’d trade what we’ve been doing for a day on the mountain! I just missed snowboarding, was all.

We took some time finding a place to camp, and as usual we kind of stumbled across a great site by turning down an unmarked road.

For the first time in a while we didn’t have to worry about dead trees – there weren’t any. Somebody had logged there recently. And when the wind picked up that evening, we were well protected.

The next day we broke down camp and went back in to Mammoth Lakes, this time to Black Velvet Coffee. I worked on a blog post and Michael looked at the weather.

See, a big cold front was moving in, and while it was bringing snow to Oregon and Washington, it was bringing a sharp drop in temperature to Lake Tahoe (our next destination) and Mammoth Lakes. The forecasted high for Sunday June 11^th was 49^o in Tahoe, with clouds and wind. Mammoth wasn’t looking much better at 51^o. Looking south, it appeared that Bishop was the answer, with a high temp of 65 on Sunday. Although it was supposed to be pretty windy, at least it wouldn’t be windy and cold.

Wondering just how far south this weather front was going to go, I looked up Death Valley. Big mistake: the weekend high temperature there was forecasted at 110^o.

That’s not a typo.

The overnight lows were in the 90’s. And the next week, after the weather front passed, high temperatures were forecasted at a frightening 120^o.

Bishop it was. Thursday June 8^th we stocked up at the local grocery store (Vons) and took advantage of their rewards card at their gas pump (Vons is under the same parent company as Safeway). We actually got 50 cents off per gallon! That might have been our cheapest fillup in California.

Our last stop before heading out Buttermilk Road was the Bishop Chamber of Commerce. See, I found this nifty article called A Road Warrior’s Guide to Bishop, CA that outlines all the stuff a dirtbag traveler (or climber) would need, like where to get a shower, do laundry, and where to get water for free. The article said that the Bishop Chamber of Commerce has a spigot outside the building that can be accessed day or night.

I love the internet.

The wind had picked up as we headed out of town, and it seemed to intensify as we turned on to Buttermilk Road. (If you’re a climber, this area is the home of the legendary Buttermilk Boulders). We ignored the ominous sign alongside the road (“FLOODED”) as the road itself was quite dry, and set off in search of a sheltered site. Somewhere we could get out of the wind.

Several of the no-name roads we turned down were flooded, though, so there were several 5-point turns or just backing up for several hundred feet to get back to the main road. We were starting to get worried when we found it.

It wasn’t the most sheltered – but we didn’t really think we were going to get out of the wind entirely anyway, and the views were spectacular. I think this might be the most beautiful campsite we’ve ever had. I couldn’t wait to take pictures the next day.

We decided to set up the annex to the tent – which was a serious pain in the ass since it was so windy out – but once it was up we were both pretty happy, as it gave a place to get out of the weather. The wind howled most of the night so we both slept with earplugs in. I got up around 7am to quiet skies and immediately grabbed my camera.

The wind picked up around noon on Friday, which was about the time I decided to go back to bed. For the past few days I hadn’t been able to figure out if what I had was allergies or a cold, but that day I knew it. I had a cold. I’d call the timing lousy, but when is a good time to get a cold? I slept for a while, then got up eventually and hung out in the annex, reading. The wind was howling. It was so noisy in the annex that Bailey wouldn’t stay inside – he went out and lay down under a tree.

That night there was a brief hour, maybe around 10pm, where the wind died off almost completely. It was a full moon (or pretty close to it) so I grabbed my down coat, my tripod, and my camera.

I love a full moon in a dark sky. I didn’t even need a headlamp to see what I was doing, it was so bright out.

The craziest thing about our site – which was at least seven miles from Bishop – was that it had 4 bars of 4G LTE service. So the next day I did what any person with internet access would do: I checked the weather channel constantly.

Bad news. The wind was going to continue all weekend.

Maybe it was a good time to have a cold after all?