My Post-Pork-Rally Eastern California and ? Trip

[highz]

pods8:
The nuts of the Piñon (Spanish spelling for Pinyon Pine) are what are (I think) generally called "pine nuts" -- available in any supermarket. I actually am not too familiar with them myself (except for buying them once or twice in a store for some recipe). I could hear something falling on my camper roof from the tree next to me when it was windy, and I saw all these nuts on the ground (and still in the cones), and I knew they were Pinyon Pines, so I figured it out. I think they should be roasted, which I haven't done yet, but I ate a few raw anyway...I haven't died or developed any strange symptoms, so I guess they're not poison, at least.


You can eat 'em raw or roasted and they are very tasty either way. Around here, a lot of people like to gather the nuts, and I'm usually late to the party and find just the empty cones I've also heard that some people will let the squirrels gather and hoard the nuts, then they go dig up the hoard. Seems somewhat unethical to me ...

Some really beautiful images, Mark. Thanks for posting them!

 

[MarkBC]

Here are a couple of photos from where I camped last night/this morning, at 10,500' in the Whites, just far enough outside the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest to be legal. Looking across the gulf of the Owens Valley at the Sierras.
The lights down below in the dark are Bishop...and it's still Bishop in the daytime.

The area around the gravel where I'm parked is much nicer -- natural alpine!

 

[MarkBC]

I'm camped in the Volcanic Tablelands area of Owens Valley -- maybe call it upper Volcanic Tablelands 'cause I'm above most of it -- between US 395 (and Owens River and the Sierras) on the west and US 6 (and the Whites) on the east. When I got here late-morning I took several series of photos for 360° panoramas...but below is a link to one of them (uploaded to my website). Not great light, since it was mid-day, but it shows what it looks like. I may upload another one later, but the connection is too slow here.

"Upper" Volcanic Tablelands Panorama
I'm at Lat: N37° 32' 15", Lon: W118° 33' 26" at 6437' elevation, just off "Casa Diablo" road (good dirt/gravel road, except for some bad washboard in spots).

Here are a couple of photos I took where I stopped this morning to check out the BLM info board where 2 or 3 roads head off into/around the Volcanic Tablelands. It's a major rock climbing destination, mostly along the Owens River Gorge, which runs along the west edge of the Tablelands. It's cool to have 12,000-14,000 foot peaks to the east and the west.
Beautiful sunny weather all day today, but it started in the mid-20s and never got out of the low 50s where I am.

Looking west towards the Sierra Nevadas:

Looking east towards the White Mts.:

I'll do a long drive tomorrow (Thursday) towards home (Bend), but probably not all the way...I'd like to spend a night on the Alvord desert or thereabouts.

 

[DirtyDog]

Great panorama Mark! Good fortune on you weather overall!

 

[MarkBC]

Great panorama Mark! Good fortune on you weather overall!


Thanks, Aaron.
The first few days of my trip were cloudy and a little wet, but even that didn't affect my enjoyment, I'm glad to say. Now that it's sunny and dry it's even better! (sounds like I'm headed home to snowy winter, from what I've heard from my friends in Bend)

Speaking of "cloudy and a little wet", here's a link to a 360° pano I shot at my first night/camp-spot after the Rally, near/above Upper Summers Meadows, south of Bridgeport (Lat: N38° 9' 11", Lon: 119° 18' 34"; elevation 8043'). It was touch-and-go trying to get all the pano shots before my camera got wet.

Upper Summers Meadow panorama

 

[Lighthawk]

Great trip report, Mark. Looks like we followed your wheel tracks, at least from Summer Mdws (friday) to South Mono Lk. (saturday). But we headed toward Hawthorn on Sunday when the High Wind Advisory hit. It's been fun reading your posts. Guess you have got a cell adapter for your laptop?

Have safe travels back to Bend.

Andy

 

[MarkBC]

Great trip report, Mark. Looks like we followed your wheel tracks, at least from Summer Mdws (friday) to South Mono Lk. (saturday). But we headed toward Hawthorn on Sunday when the High Wind Advisory hit. It's been fun reading your posts. Guess you have got a cell adapter for your laptop?

Have safe travels back to Bend.

Andy


Thanks, Andy Yeah, it sounds like several from the Forum were/are over here.
I'm "tethering" my laptop to my cell phone with a USB cable. My Windows Mobile phone has an "Internet sharing" app -- a standard inclusion with the Windows Mobile OS. It also has an app that shares the phone's Internet connection via WiFi -- a so-called "mobile hot-spot" app.
Now I gotta get to sleep if I want to wake up in time to get photos by dawn's early light... In the old pre-digital days I could just run out of film and be done with it!

 

[ski3pin]

Really enjoying your report from the road through some of our favorite areas. Thanks for keeping us in the loop!

 

[MarkBC]

Thanks ski.
This is the last night of my vacation, and I'm in what's (probably) my favorite place in Oregon -- the Alvord Desert (after an 8-hr drive from the Volcanic Tablelands). I'd planned to camp out in the middle of the playa, but it's too wet (it snowed in Oregon while I was gone), so I'm camped at my favorite spot at Pike Creek, which is actually my favorite place to camp in the Alvord area, and I'm in the "site" that I like best -- one that has a full view of the entire Alvord Desert playa. Here's a view to the southeast (somewhat enhanced by HDR, but it really was nice light). You can see the standing water on the playa (which while only a couple inches deep creates impassable mud) and a much-larger area is damp...and I don't enjoy getting stuck.

After I get home, tomorrow/this-weekend, I'll probably add a couple more photos...maybe a couple of panos...from the Volcanic Tablelands.

Oh, yeah...when I got to Pike Cr I saw another party in another "site" a hundred yards away from where I am -- a big wall tent, but this is hunting season and it's a popular spot, so not a big deal. Then I heard gunfire, and it was close and loud! I stepped out of my truck to make sure there weren't any holes in the camper -- saw none -- so I figured they were just engaging in a little Happy Hour target shooting -- maybe beer-can shooting (probably Bud Lite ) in camp. Fortunately it didn't last long...maybe they just shot each other and that's why the noise ended. Whatever...

 

[Dughlas Stiubhart]

Nice sage, Mark! I do like the look of your HDR-enhanced images.