Memorial Day in the Eastern Sierra: Cerro Gordo, Centennial Canyon, Boxcar Cabin, Jack Gunn Peak, Mono Basin and Sonora Pass

I've been so busy lately I've had to neglect calipidder.com a bit. But we were able to squeeze out to 395 to pay a visit to some of our favorite…

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Pine Creek to Granite Park: Bear Lakes Loop Day 1
Granite Park

Pine Creek to Granite Park: Bear Lakes Loop Day 1

Things started off weird.
After a warm night of car camping at nearby Horton Creek, Sooz and I headed up to Pine Creek to start our planned nine day adventure. Although early, there were some light poofballs of clouds. So that forecast of ‘hot, clear, and stable for the next week’ already seemed shot. Nuts.
Pine Creek is one of the few trailheads I hadn’t yet used to access the high country so I was looking forward to the new scenery. I knew it was going to be a big climb – our goal for the day was to get into Granite Park (7 miles and about 4000 feet of climbing) – but since I wasn’t familiar with the trail I didn’t know how easy or hard the climb would be. I can hike uphill all day on a well graded trail, or even when I’m working my way through a pile of talus, but those ‘sierra steps’ built for stock break my pace and really wear me down.

Pine Creek Trailhead
Pine Creek Trailhead

Fortunately, the first couple of miles follow an old mine access road and are wonderfully graded. We chugged up the hill, watching the Pine Creek Tungsten mine drop away below us, and eventually reached some old mining tunnels/prospects dug in the wall towering above the trail. We kept hearing voices but no one was on the trail in front of us. Eventually we saw the climbers on the rock and it all made sense.

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Christmas in the Eastern Sierra

Shrouded Mono Lake
Shrouded Mono Lake

For the first seven years I lived in California I always flew back to Michigan to visit my family at Christmas. Each year I would inevitably face midwest snowstorms, holiday travel crowds, cancelled flights, etc. But it was always worth it to visit my family.

Last year was the first year I skipped the holiday travel – the overwhelming aggravation of it, combined with ticket prices that were 3x the previous year’s cost made me switch my family visit to summer, and it was a great decision. I sure do miss the Christmas traditions, but trading it for less annoying travel and time on the beach in the summer is a compromise I’m willing to make. So I made the same decision this year.

Since we don’t have any family out here, we found ourselves with the second year of a non-committed Christmas. And what do we do when we find a free day in our calendar? We hit the road, of course. At the last minute, we decided to spend the holiday in our favorite place in the world – in a tent in the Eastern Sierra.

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Fossil Falls: Thanksgiving 2009 Kickoff

Fossil Falls
Fossil Falls

Every year we take off the week of Thanksgiving to explore the deserts of Southern California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. This year, our trip took us through Death Valley, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, and Mojave National Preserve. Over the next week or so, I’ll be posting trip reports on specific parts of this trip since many of the things we did deserve their own entries.

The trip started relatively low-key, with an uneventful evening drive from the SF Bay Area to Fossil Falls, just north of Inyokern, CA and off of 395. Arriving a little before 10 pm, we were slightly concerned about finding an available campsite at the 11 site BLM campground, but our worries were unfounded – we were the only campers in the park. I am not as familiar with this southern end of 395 and wasn’t comfortable trying to find a campsite in the dark, so I was glad it all worked out.

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