Downshift

Things have become a lot more civilized out here in California since Betsy arrived on June 9.

As the photos below will attest, we’ve been alternating our days between short hikes in the mountains and visiting places of “cultural interest”.

We’ve also been enjoying the stellar Sierra weather, which starts off in the 50s, soars to the low 90s by mid-day under cloudless blue skies, and then rapidly cools down for pleasant evenings in the dry air. It keeps us busy opening and closing windows, turning the AC on and off and adding or shedding layers of clothing.

We’ll soon be shifting gears (again) and taking off on a 10-day “Sierra Circle Tour”; a clockwise rotation around the mountains with stops at several national park sites, the Pacific coast, visits with old friends and, of course, baseball games. I'll cover all of that in a future blog post, of course.

For now here are some photos of some of the things we've been seeing and doing in the Bishop area.

U.S. 395 - El Camino Sierra - is widely celebrated in these parts, and rightfully so. (There is a store here in Bishop that sells nothing but U.S. 395 memorabilia; t-shirts, caps, stickers, etc.). The 395 starts at I-15 on the outskirts of LA and runs north to Canada along the eastern slope of the Sierra and Cascades. It is, arguably, one of America's most scenic highways and  more than deserving of having its own beer.

One of our hikes took us around Sabrina Lake about 15 miles west of Bishop.

At Chickenfoot Lake I ate carrots and hummus for lunch; but dreamed of KFC.

The massive Inyo National Forest stretches for hundreds of miles along the eastern slope of the Sierra, abutting Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks at the Sierra Crest. Much of the INF contains the also-massive John Muir Wilderness and the not-so-small Ansel Adams Wilderness. The number of beautiful hiking trails in the Bishop/Mammoth Lakes area is mind-boggling.

We stopped in at the historic Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery one day.

And we spent a hot afternoon at the Manzanar National Historic Site; the 40th NHS and 219th National Park Service site that Betsy has visited. Manzanar is one of about a dozen internment camps where people of Japanese descent - more than 100,000 mostly American citizens - were, essentially, imprisoned during World War II. Some of the other internment camps - mostly in western states - are part of the NPS system but Manzanar is probably the most developed (and visited) of these sites. The park service has done an outstanding job of developing extensive, clear-eyed interpretive exhibits in several original buildings, like the camp mess hall shown in the photo below, to tell the unvarnished story of this chapter of American history.

Manzanar is about 10 miles north of Lone Pine where Mt. Whitney, and the Sierra Crest provide a spectacular backdrop to an otherwise dreary place. Relatively few of the internees died at Manzanar and of those who did many of their remains have been relocated by family members. However, there are still a few souls resting in the camp's burial ground (pictured here). It's just outside "the wire" that formed the border of the one square mile facility, presumably because the families did not want the remains buried inside the internment camp.

 

Viva California! Viva Sierra!!

Not only did Betsy take this family's 2018 Christmas card photo she also showed the mom how to use the timer on her I-phone.

 

Can you see Betsy in this photo, inspecting the shoreline of Chickenfoot Lake?

Sorry, I just can't stop taking pano photos. Chickenfoot Lake is in the Rock Creek drainage about 25 miles north of Bishop and 10 miles south of Mammoth Lakes. At 10,200 feet the trailhead is, supposedly, the highest in the Sierra. It's an easy trail to the lake and the round trip distance of about six miles yields some spectacular scenery.

On one of our "cultural days" we took the "Tufa Tour" along the south shore of Mono Lake, led by a young intern working for the Mono Lake Committee.

Tufa is formed in Mono Lake when fresh water springs seep from the bed of the briny lake and interact with the alkaline waters creating calcium deposits that build up over time in "towers" above the spring seeps. When the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began diverting water from four of the five creeks that feed the lake, in 1941, the level of the lake began to drop, exposing the tufa towers.

It is difficult to overstate the influence and impact - both good and bad - that the LADW&P's diversions of water have had on Inyo and Mono counties. After an epic, decades-long legal and political battle the Mono Lake Committee and other environmental groups reached an agreement with the city to reduce the water diversions from the creeks that feed the lake. As a result the level of the lake is gradually rising. Although it will never regain its pre-1941 level, under the agreement, Mono Lake will eventually be maintained at a level about 10 feet higher than it is right now. The berm you see in this photo is evidence of the rising water levels just this year. Eventually some, but not all, of the tufa towers in this photo will once again be submerged.

Mono Lake has an incredibly simple, but vastly important, ecosystem. There are no outflows from the lake, which sits on the very western edge of the Great Basin and is three times more salty and far more alkaline than the Pacific Ocean. So there are no fish in the lake. Basically the only things that can survive in the briny water are algae, millions of tiny shrimp and millions of "hairy alkali flies". The shrimp eat the algae and migrating birds feast on the shrimp and flies. This simple ecosystem has made the lake one of the world's most important migratory bird habitats and it is the birthplace for the vast majority of California Gulls even though they live most of their lives on the Pacific coast.

Here's one final photo of Mono Lake, from a distance, that I took during a hike on a different day. The mountains just below (to the right of) the lake were formed by volcanic activity 600 years ago and are said to be California's "newest" mountains.

The volcanic activity 600 years ago created craters like this and in the photo below.

It's often called an earthquake fault but this fissure near the ski resort town of Mammoth Lakes is thought to have opened during that period of intense volcanic activity about 600 years ago.

We've become partial to the area around Mammoth Lakes as a hiking destination and I'm certain it has nothing to do with the Mammoth Brewing Company and their $10 growler fills of Epic IPA.

Minaret Falls. See it here in action.

Taken from a bridge in Devils Postpile National Monument.

Mind bending?

The Devils Postpile; hexagonal basalt columns formed under volcanic pressure and scoured by glaciers. The Postpile was proposed to be blown up and used as material for a dam when President Taft stepped in to save it in 1911 by creating the small national monument.

What a letdown! We visited the Devils Postpile area in 2007 and recalled there being a small cafe at the nearby Reds Meadow Resort that served pie ala mode. So we had our hearts (and stomachs) set on that as a treat after our five-mile hike. AARRGGHH! But it all worked out for the best because we were plenty hungry when we tried the much-recommended cafe at the bowling alley in Bishop; perhaps the only bowling alley cafe in the country with a maitre d', raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing and asparagus as a side. I had the fried chicken, which was excellent. Betsy had the 60/40 burger; 60 percent hamburger, 40 percent bacon. Oh, and guess what they had on tap? Mammoth Brewing Company's Epic IPA. A perfect end to a perfect day!

We took another "cultural trip" one day into the White Mountains east of Bishop to observe the oldest trees in the world, the Bristlecone Pines. A side benefit of the trip was some pretty spectacular views of the Sierra Nevada across the Owens Valley. The trees in the photo above look pretty healthy but in fact these Bristlecones will not live as long as some of their neighbors because they are in better soil and grow faster, making them somewhat more susceptible to disease.

Instead it is trees like this that seem to be barely surviving in thin, rocky soils that have the better chance of cracking the 4000-year mark; because they grow slower making the wood is denser and less susceptible to disease.

The interpretive sign said this tree toppled over and died in 1675, when it was more than 3,000 years old.

The White Mountains are a great place to look at the Sierra Nevada. The road to the Bristlecone Pine forest looks rather benign here but it does have its twists and turns (see video).

Betsy is diving into beautiful California!

Looking down on Silver Lake, one of several lakes on the June Lake Loop north of Mammoth Lakes. In case you had not noticed, there are lots of lakes out here.

Here's another. Parker Lake, one of our hiking destinations.

Will aborted quest for 14ers abort 14er quest?

I’m writing this short post to wrap up my bachelor life here in California. Betsy arrives on Saturday!

Much of my time and about 99 percent of my energy since the last post has been devoted to reaching, but failing to climb, Mt. Tyndall and Mt. Williamson.

There are routes to the summits of both peaks that are, in theory, well within my capabilities and experience and I made an arduous three-day, 28-mile hike with an elevation gain of 7,500 feet carrying a heavy pack to reach the base of Mt. Tyndall at the top of 12,000-foot Shepherd Pass, which is steep and still covered in snow requiring crampons and ice ax to negotiate the final 500 feet of gain.

The Shepherd Pass Trail might be my most demanding backpacking experience ever.

But I got there in fine shape, the weather was great and I had plenty of food.

Yet I passed on the mountains. Turned around and went home empty handed.

I’m not sure exactly what my problem is. Age, anxiety, self-doubt?

It didn’t help that I talked to a 20-something kid that slipped descending on the slick snow near the ridge crest of Mt. Tyndall. He said he was well on his way to oblivion until he grabbed a rock ledge and stopped the slide. But he was ecstatic with having reached the summit.

“My first 14er,” he told me.

I had a very similar experience at very nearly the same age (on a Colorado 13er) and have never been comfortable on the steep snow climbs. Maybe it was his story and those memories that spooked me. Would Mt. Tyndall be my last 14er I wondered?

It also didn’t help that the handful of climbers that had used the weekend to get there left soon after I arrived leaving me as, seemingly, the only human being in the daunting vastness of the Pacific Crest. Maybe that was it?

Whatever the reason(s) for my discomfort it may well be that the sentence in my obituary will have to change from; “Mr. Pasley climbed all 75 of the 14ers in the lower 48 states.” to “Mr. Pasley climbed 70 different U.S. 14ers.”

Because I was, potentially, out for so long I tried to conserve power on electronic devices and did not take very many photos. But here are a few of the few.

One of the nice things about the Sierras in the summer is the bomber weather. Weeks pass without any hint of rain or snow. So why bother with a tent? I had hopes of making it all the way to the pass in one day but by the time I reached a place called Anvil Camp where there is water and shade and (compared to most of the rest of the trail) relatively few rocks I was gassed. So I spent my first night here.

Above Anvil Camp there are no more trees (or shade) and plenty of snow fields to negotiate.

It may not look like much but a trail through piles of rubble like this is a godsend, especially with a heavy pack.

Most of the carcass of this deer was half-buried in the snow field a few hundred yards above this point and someone may have moved the severed head here. An omen? On a positive note I also saw several live deer at various points along the trail, and on other hikes.

This is the start of the final ascent, about 500 vertical feet, to Shepherd Pass. It looks a lot steeper when you are standing there...and much steeper when you are standing at the top on the way down!

Believe it or not this is Sequoia National Park. The eastern boundary of this vast park adjoins the even more vast Inyo National Forest near the crest of Shepherd Pass.

That's Mt. Williamson.

This is Mt. Tyndall. The "easy" route ascends the rib on the left to the ridge crest, then left along the ridge to the summit. A lot of climbers used the snow just to the right of the rib. It's not that hard of a climb.

Descending back down the trail.

Still descending.

One of the things that makes that makes the Shepherd Pass trail arduous is that, about midway, it loses 500 feet of elevation to skirt some cliffs. On the return those 500 feet have to be regained to reach the Symmes Saddle which you can see in this photo.

The Owens Valley about four miles above the trailhead. The green spot out there is the town of Independence, the Inyo County seat.