Fall colors on the Eastern Sierra

[Lighthawk]

I've been inspired by MarkBC, DirtyDog and others with recent reports, so thought I would post a trip report from our visit to the East Side, Hwy 395 corridor. I've been in love with this area since the 1970's and the FWC is giving me more reasons to go, even in heavy weather.

Packing up in town was a bit discouraging with a cold rain coming in and I give my sweetie props for trusting that it would be ok. We drove up Hwy 80 friday night through the rain, finally getting a break in the weather once we got to Carson. The rest of the night was fine and a visit to Travertine Hot Springs helped wash away the work week and get us into vacation mode. The full moon peeked in and out of the mixed clouds. Already we were happy we went for it.

We camped up Green Creek road, off Summer Mdws. First thing Saturday morning I went out with camera in hand to admire the aspens lit with orange, yellow and gold, lining the creek next to camp. We drove up to Upper Summer Mdws and saw a golden eagle and a northern harrier cruising the meadows. I got a few shots with my 300mm from a distance.

The upper meadows were beautiful and we hiked to a mine site we spotted above.

The stamp mill was still there.

I researched the Union Foundry that did the castings http://web.mac.com/vtlyon/iWeb/The%20Lyon/Union%20Iron%20Works%20History.html

Lundy Canyon was in full glory.

We hiked a short distance up the trail to the beaver dammed lake. It was a sublime scene.
The weather was beginning to close out so we left while the getting was good.

Sunset comes early now, so our visit to the June Lake Loop was brief.

To be continued . . .

 

[Lighthawk]

East Side Sierra Trip Report, second half:

Saturday night we visited Whitmore Tubs near Mammoth. Unfortunately Shepherd's was cold, without enough inflow of hot water. So we went to another pool and had one of those rare instances of meeting a weirdo while in the backcountry. While soaking in the tub, some dude pulled up in an International, blasting us with his headlights. He was obviously high on something and began to badger me with questions about where we were from, etc. He basically wanted to pick a fight (at a hot spring???). After making no sense and even threatening to F me up, he drove off. Sad, and disappointing to me to have my girlfriend be exposed to this lunacy. We warned the next visitor, a nice normal guy, that there was a strange guy to look out for. We decided it would be best to leave the area and headed for Mono Lk.

We went looking for the site that MarkBC shared with us on his recent posts, but went the loooong way. I thought it would be fun to use the McPherson Grade to approach the camping area, instead of taking the short road from 120. Big Mistake: the brush got as tall as my camper and got tighter and tighter. I've got some nice brush burn on the side of my truck now. That's what it's for, I guess. It was a quiet night and we were glad to be by ourselves.

The camper was quite warm with my new reflectix insulation package. Temps were dropping and the wind kicked up as we headed down to the lake for a hike to some tufa formations.

I used my sigma 12-24mm for landscapes

We went into Lee Vining and into the eye of the storm. The strongest winds I've felt with the camper on had me slowing down to 40mph. We pulled into the Mono Lk Visitor Center to regroup and check the radar on my Droid phone.
Suddenly a metal dumpster flipped over and started rolling! I started my truck and was ready for evasive maneuvers.
We decided that Conway Summit and 395 north would be a foolish direction so we turned our back to the storm, like good sailors, and outran the weather heading east towards Hawthorn. It got sunny and we put on shorts again.

Next time I'll take the road from Pole Line (Mono Lk) to Bodie, then to Fletcher. I just didn't want to try it in the crazy weather and I read a post by DD that said it was a challenging road. Need a bit more info on that one.

We wanted to go over Lucky Boy Pass, south of Hawthorn. We had been there last month to visit the East Walker River Hot Springs (yes, we are addicts!). The road down was a lot easier this time, knowing I wouldn't get high sided. We had the whole canyon to ourselves and had a wonderful night.

I got out the tripod and did some 30 sec exposures.

Monday was our last day. I wanted to visit Rosachi Ranch on the East Walker and get my fly rod out.
Again, we had the place to ourselves, marveling at rock walls stacked along the volcanic outcrops.
I only had two hours, so I switched from dry fly to dry with trailing nymph pattern, finally to a wooly bugger and
split shot. Bingo! Suddenly I picked up a couple of smaller browns. In the next hour I caught a total of five trout: one rainbow, and four browns. Nice to know I still have the touch since I rarely fish much these days.

No that's not a fly rod growing out of SR's head!

-----
Mods that worked for us this trip:
Like the new suspa lifters, but the 40# lift is a bit strong w/o anything on the roof.
Like the 24" roll of reflectix that I cut and fitted with velcro. Makes a HUGE difference. Wouldn't cold camp w/o it.
Like the pull-out ramp I made for my old lab. It beats lifting a 60# dog every time.

To do:
Find coffee cups that don't dump (twice!) on my upholstery when I hit the brakes!
Get small flexi tube so I can fill up Zodi (nickname: Bob), so we can fill him up before bringing him into the hot spring with us for a rinse/shower afterwards.

 

[Dughlas Stiubhart]

Thanks for the report and photos, Lighthawk. 395 is one of my favorite roads!

Stew

 

[SunMan]

Great pix, great trip. Bummer about the A-hole at Whitmore.

 

[rotti]

Great pictures Lighthawk and I enjoyed your trip report.

I wonder if you could share a little more info on your dog ramp? I have an aging 100 pound plus Rotti that no longer has an interest in jumping up into a truck that has a 4" lift on it. While I can still bench press her in its starting to become an ordeal for both of us!

Thanks

 

[kcowyo]

Those photos of the aspen in Lundy Canyon and the waterfalls are amazing! A lot of fun shots in this thread...

Congrats on the good fishing and nice to see an honest assesment of what worked and what needs an upgrade before the next time out.
.

 

[Lighthawk]

Rotti, the ramp is fairly low tech. I noticed there was about ten inches between the 1 x 4 supports on the floor of the camper, so I took some 1/4"masonite and added 1/4" x 1 1/2" aluminum support strips. The strips fit inside the corrugations on my Tundra. The ramp is only 9 1/2" wide with the rough side of the masonite turned up. It flexes quite a bit, even with my step ladder underneath. You might need steel strips for 100#dogs. I screwed a 2x4 to the end which we use to push/pull it out from under the camper. It says put while driving, even tho I rubbed a bit of ski wax on the aluminum runners.

My lab, Sadie needs a bit of coaxing, but can make it up and down with one of us tugging on her collar. It's not perfect, but it works. If my descrip isn't clear I can post a photo of the ramp, but I've pulled the camper off the truck for now.

 

[rotti]

Thanks for the info on the ramp - I'll have to throw something together.

I've found with my dog that Velveta cheese is the ultimate coaxing ingredient!

 

[ski3pin]

Andy, very nice photos and trip report. Although you really need to pay attention, we enjoy the aspect weather adds to a trip. Good idea not heading up Conway in the wind. We lost a windshield (sand pitting made it useless) in our old truck doing that. Our next exploration was to be up from Lundy Lake. Your photos sealed it! Thanks for the report!

 

[Lighthawk]

Thanks Ski. Lundy was on my wish list for a long time, but this was my first visit. They have a large damned lake and a paved road with lots of campgrounds along the lower stretch. So it does appear to be popular. We saw a ton of photogs there too, probably a workshop. Eventually the road gets to dirt and there are several beaver dams before the trailhead.

I have read that the mail route from Bodie to Bennetville (near TPR) went up this long canyon, and that there are ruins of miner cabins farther up canyon. Definitely keep it on your upcoming trip list! Might be worth a spring ski tour, depending upon how far they plow the road.

Totally agree about weather adding interest. Like, it's interesting when an invisible hand swats your camper sideways, or it's interesting when you see dumpsters begin to roll across the parking lot. lol Truthfully, it added to many of my photos that would have been dull in the middle of a sunny day. But also, it caused us to rethink our plans and adjust.

 

[MarkBC]

Lighthawk, you've got some real nice photos there -- thanks for sharing!

 

[generubin]

Absolutely beautiful pictures from one of my favorite areas. Thank you for sharing.
You were there at the very same time I was over in Butte Valley.

 

[Lighthawk]

Absolutely beautiful pictures from one of my favorite areas. Thank you for sharing.
You were there at the very same time I was over in Butte Valley.



Thanks Gene and Mark,

I can't believe I drove past Lundy Canyon all those years. It's a photographer's dream with fall colors. Thanks to Mark, we knew a cool place to camp at Mono Lk too.

I've been working on photography as a growing part of my career. Someday when I get tired of running a remodeling business, I hope to augment my income with photography. So far, it pays a little bit

Where's Butte Valley, Gene?

 

[generubin]

Thanks Gene and Mark,

I can't believe I drove past Lundy Canyon all those years. It's a photographer's dream with fall colors. Thanks to Mark, we knew a cool place to camp at Mono Lk too.

I've been working on photography as a growing part of my career. Someday when I get tired of running a remodeling business, I hope to augment my income with photography. So far, it pays a little bit

Where's Butte Valley, Gene?


Lighthawk, Butte Valley is a small valley between Panamint Valley and the southern reaches of Death Valley. It is in the Death Valley National Park. If you google goler wash, mengle pass, or geologist's cabin, you'll find it.

 

[BSS]

Great photos there, thanks for sharing.

(sad to say,) I'm usually armed when I'm at any natural hot springs; Whitmore in particular - which I spend a fair bit of time at. I've never been physically threatened or anything yet, but there are sure a Lot of kooks out there running around. As a rule, I never go to the tubs after dark.

 

[Lighthawk]

Great photos there, thanks for sharing.

(sad to say,) I'm usually armed when I'm at any natural hot springs; Whitmore in particular - which I spend a fair bit of time at. I've never been physically threatened or anything yet, but there are sure a Lot of kooks out there running around. As a rule, I never go to the tubs after dark.

t

Butte Valley looks cool. Another place to add to the bucket list. Thanks Gene.

At the risk of opening a can o' worms, I can't say I feel good about anyone being armed out there. I've been visiting Whitmore since the 70's and have never had a problem where a gun would have been required. Most of the time was after dark too. The guy that was obnoxious to us was high on something (meth? heroin?) stronger than just pot/alcohol, so he was an anomaly in my experience. 99% are great people, including the next guy who showed up ten minutes later.

We did feel threatened enough that I considered my beer bottle a potentially useful tool
along with a couple of other ideas to trip him up. I just can't accept the idea that we should all be ready to do deadly damage to each other, justifiable in heat of the moment. If I pull a gun and he does too, then ? ? ?

Sorry BSS, I hope we can agree to disagree. Hate to get on my soapbox and I know I'm probably in the minority here. I want to respect your right to protect yourself, but unfortunately guns are tools that are much more than defensive. It's just too much power over me or another human to do the worst kind of harm in the hands of pretty much anyone who wants (or get's excited) to have one. That's scary.

Maybe I'll start a new group: Peaceful Soakers without Arms

Andy

 

[generubin]

Andy,

I have to agree with you. I am actually a gun owner but the guns stay home. I have been soaking various places for over 30 years. I never had a problem. But then again, I always soak and camp a long way from the nearest paved road. Dirt roads usually filter out the riff-raff.

There ain't no situation so bad, that a gun can't make it worse.

My friend, the Los Angeles homocide cop, told me 90% off the gun deaths he sees are family quarrels where throwing a frying pan would be far less permanent or a simple gun accident like the fellow's daughter crawling back into a window after sneaking out, only to be shot dead by her father. Another point he made to me that if an intruder comes in the house with a gun. Give him whatever he wants. This guy is going to be in high adrenaline mode with full alertness, you'll be groggy and poorly focused. A gunfight will surely end up with you the loser.

Gene

 

[MarkBC]

At the risk of opening a can o' worms, I can't say I feel good about anyone being armed out there. I've been visiting Whitmore since the 70's and have never had a problem where a gun would have been required. Most of the time was after dark too. The guy that was obnoxious to us was high on something (meth? heroin?) stronger than just pot/alcohol, so he was an anomaly in my experience. 99% are great people, including the next guy who showed up ten minutes later.

We did feel threatened enough that I considered my beer bottle a potentially useful tool
along with a couple of other ideas to trip him up. I just can't accept the idea that we should all be ready to do deadly damage to each other, justifiable in heat of the moment. If I pull a gun and he does too, then ? ? ?

Sorry BSS, I hope we can agree to disagree. Hate to get on my soapbox and I know I'm probably in the minority here. I want to respect your right to protect yourself, but unfortunately guns are tools that are much more than defensive. It's just too much power over me or another human to do the worst kind of harm in the hands of pretty much anyone who wants (or get's excited) to have one. That's scary.

Maybe I'll start a new group: Peaceful Soakers without Arms

Andy



I agree with you, Lighthawk -- sign me up for P.S.W.A.

The idea of armed soakers/hikers/campers scares me way more than unarmed "kooks". I've traveled lots of places -- both remote and well-visited -- all over the West for decades -- mostly by myself. I've never been armed, never needed to be, never wished I was, never had any trouble.
- Mark

 

[ski3pin]

Two more potential members of PSWA here, sign us up.

 

[chnlisle]

Add Pam and me to the PSWA list.