Don't Try This At Home ... or Away: Mammoth Lakes, June 2008

[click on pics to enlarge]
My early May, ambiguous scan ("well, there's still something there, but we're not sure what; we'll know better in August") behind me, we pulled Albatross out of storage, washed and loaded it, and set out for Mammoth Lakes on June 2. Since we left at mid-day, the L.A. traffic was minimal and we headed out 405 to 5 to 14 to 395. The 14 has to be one of the singularly ugly drives around. Of course, going North, it's all uphill. In fact, the whole outbound trip is uphill, from sea level at our place to 7,800 feet at Mammoth. Stopped at Camping World in Valencia thinking we would pick up a small propane heater, only to find the one we wanted didn't work above 7,000 feet. As Loni couldn't leave empty-handed, we picked up a very nicely constructed aluminum fold-up-legs step to put on the ground outside the coach door. It has scrape strips on it to clean the debris off the shoes and I'm sure it will get plenty of use. The wind started blowing as soon as we hit the 14, and for the rest of the trip it was howling in our face. A steady 35mph, with gusts to 50. Guess what that does to gas mileage, especially in a constant state of climb? Hummers start to look economical, that's what. With gas well north of $4/gal, refueling a 55 gallon tank was an event.

Things got much better view-wise as we transitioned to the 395. Once you hit the Sierras, this is one of the El Primo drives in the U.S. The mountains still had plenty of snow on the peaks, the air was clear (with all that wind, it was sparkling). We kept the rig at 55mph and surprisingly kept up with most of the pace of the truck traffic. Guess the fuel cost is finally slowing those guys down a bit. Although the LD tracks quite well in the wind, it still was tiring to constantly be buffeted by the gusts, so we called it a day and stopped at the Diaz Lake campground (county) just south of Lone Pine. Nothing to write home about. Dry camping, but a decent lake to look at and the mountains behind us. Half-price senior’s rate was $9. Uneventful night and we lazed about the next morning as we only wanted to get as far as Bishop. Back on the road, the wind-in-your-face was even worse, so we were happy to only go that distance (about 100 miles or so). Once in Bishop, we opted for electricity and water and stayed at a commercial place, Brown’s Town, about ¼ mile south of the city. We gave up the idea of biking into town when we found we had a hard time even walking in the winds. Walked up and down the main drag, and stopped in at the Mountain Light Gallery, which features the photography of Galen Rowell. He was a National Geo photographer and mountain climber (solo’d El Cap) who died way too young in a plane crash, and I think his work is the color equivalent of Ansel Adams.’ This place is a must-see for anyone traveling 395. Back at the rig, I tried out for the first time my handy-dandy new multimeter ($10 on sale at Sears) on the power outlet. What? 174 volts? Tried another and got the same reading. Everyone else seemed to be hooked up just fine, so I marked it down as a defective meter and plugged in. No problems. We avoided the culinary temptations of Bishop, and ate in.

On to Mammoth the next day, with the winds almost entirely gone. Thank goodness. But, oye, a huge climb up the Sherwin Grade, from 4140 feet at Bishop to 7000 feet at the summit in only 15 miles or so. Have you ever seen a gas gauge needle literally move? Spectacular views of the mountains, though, as you trudge up the grade. Mammoth Lakes is a few miles west of 395, about 30 miles north of Bishop. We were headed for Old Shady Rest campground (USFS), which is right at the entrance to the town of Mammoth Lakes. Again, no hookups, but beautifully set in the pine forest. Our site again was just $9 a night, with the Golden Age passport, or whatever it’s called these days. Right across the main road in (SR203) was a commercial RV park with rates above $50, but of course with utilities. The solar panel is saving us mucho buckos.

We almost have the campground to ourselves. I’ll bet it isn’t 5% full, if that. No one is near our site. We drove all the loops to pick one out that had some sun exposure, despite the trees, so we could recharge. I think we got a great compromise, as we soaked up plenty of juice each day, but still were in the woods. We reserved it for the next 9 days, and settled in. The weather is spectacular--- blue skies, no wind, and 70+ degrees during the day. Utterly perfect. The nights got a little chilly, down into the low 40’s, but that’s what down comforters are for. All in all, we couldn’t ask for better weather. Stayed that way the whole time we were there. I decided not to shave this trip, and discovered I'm now a greybeard. Don't know whether to thank simple age or the cancer treatments for that.

The advantage of the Shady Rest campground is that it feels like you’re out in the woods, but you’re only two blocks from the beginning of the town, so walking or biking in is a snap. We did both throughout our stay. Got a paper each morning from the newsstand, an occasional pastry from Schatz Bakery, used the local library for emails, and caught a couple of movies at the local duplex. Just about perfect. Found a homey place to eat called “The Stove,” which features gargantuan portions of decent (not great, but no complaints) food and true home-made pies. Now, even though I still can’t taste any sweet, I’m still a sucker for pie a-la-mode, so we scarfed some blueberry down and left no prisoners. Hey, I gotta put back on a few pounds, after all. One afternoon found us at the Village, which is the upscale condo-commercial development just up the hill from town proper. One restaurant was having a half-price sale on the whole menu, including drinks, so we loaded up and watched sports for a couple of hours. Life is tough when you’re doing serious kicking-back.

Despite Loni’s best efforts in that regard, cooking wonderful meals and trying to stuff me at every turn, you burn a LOT of calories at that altitude, especially when you hike and bike further up the hill. Not having an ounce of fat to burn, I essentially always was operating on my last meal, and using it all up. I think I came back at an even lower weight than when we left. Upper 130’s, if you’re keeping track. Altitude aside, biking around Mammoth is great. Most streets have bike lanes, or dedicated side paths. There’s even a very nice bike trail loop that circles the area. And everyone in the town scrupulously stops for you if you so much as look at a crosswalk. Hope that’s not the result of some prior “incident.”

Speaking of incidents, don't try this at home or away. We have one of those cheapo, but useful, rectangular Weber grills that use a propane flame. Has a lid on it, and a starter button on the side. The drill is to hook up the propane tank, let it run for about a minute, then push the starter. Simple. Yehhhhh. Don't: (1) leave the lid on while running the initial gas feed and (2) put your head down close to the unit when you go to press the igniter. KAWHOOOMPH! Lid blows up and off, banging head. Flame leaps out and singes hair. Idiot stands there and says "I don't believe I just did that," then goes in for skull examination by dear wife. Had a lot of trouble combing my hair for the rest of the trip. It gets real stiff.

We drove the rig up to the Twin Lakes/Lake Mary area, and parked at Mary. Broke out the bikes and toured around, including a ride up to Horseshoe Lake. Very weird surroundings there, with acres of dead trees. We first thought it was due to the infamous bark beetles that have devastated other areas of the Sierras, but a sign posted near the lake set us straight. The whole area sits on top of deposits of CO2 which get trapped by the snow and saturate the upper layers of the soil. They warn people not to walk alone in case one trips and falls and lands in a “pool” of the stuff and passes out. Yikes. We stayed upright, and tried to hike upslope to another lake, but stopped after half a mile due to snow banks crossing the path. Mucho exhausted at that altitude, so we ate our sack lunches where we stopped, and came back down. The lower areas, around the other lakes, aren’t subject to that problem and they were beautiful. Again, virtually no one there so we had it to ourselves.

Another day we drove up to Devil’s Postpile. We just managed to beat the cutoff date for this, because for the rest of the summer you can’t drive in there between 7am and 7pm. Travel is only by shuttle during those hours as the road is narrow and the parking is limited. We found a very nice small campground at the Postpile trailhead, right next to a rushing river, so decided to stay a night there instead of returning to Shady Rest. Except for a Grizzly Adams look-a-like in the adjacent site, the place was empty at night. Very nice falling asleep to the sound of the rapids. Hiked into the Postpile, and it looks exactly like the pictures. Very strange formation, but smaller than I expected. We decided to hike on down (and what goes down, must come back UP) 2 1/2 miles to the upper (best) and lower Rainbow Falls. The upper is a pretty impressive 101 foot drop, and really does have rainbows at the base if you get there at mid-day, which we did. Having done it, I wouldn’t bother again with the lower falls, which are more a series of rapids.

The downside of visiting the local library is that my few remaining clients could contact me with “urgent” work requests. The upside is that by working a few hours I could pay for the darn gas for the trip!

We saw an old 1970 LazyDaze that had a for sale sign posted ($3,000). It was in fair shape for its age, although no beauty. I took some photos and eventually posted a sale notice on the LD group forum site. I suspect it’s more of a Craig’s List candidate, however.

All in all, we highly recommend the Mammoth area for its sheer beauty, convenience, and amenities. You can get a fine wilderness experience and balance that off with what the town has to offer. The best of both worlds.