Mammoth Adventure!
Every year we celebrate 4th of July, and I like to do so by going out and appreciating the country I live in. There's no better way to do that than to go to Mammoth and have some fun!This trip was going to be just Adele and myself, since my parents were in Catalina, and some of Adele's friends weren't able to join us. That's alright, I was excited to show her Mammoth for the first time.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Friday afternoon we tried to beat the traffic of the Bay Area and left around 3:15pm. We crossed the Central Valley and were soon into the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. Don Pedro Reservoir looked nice. I was wishing I had my jetski to take it for a spin on the lake, but I knew better things awaited in higher elevations. We pulled through the gates at Yosemite, as I 'donated' $40 dollars for a yearly pass to the park. I suppose its worth it for how beautiful it is, but that's another story. Anyways, it wasn't long before we got to Crane Flat where we saw a grouping of cars near some Park Rangers. I knew something had to be going on, so I peered closer, seeing a black bear in a Meadow. I parked the truck quickly, grabbed the SX1 with 20x zoom, and went to see the bear. It's quite ironic, since I seem to be afraid of bears, yet this one didn't seem phased by the grouping of people watching him. A sad story of humans infiltrating the animal kingdom to the point of no fear between the species? That's another story for another day. I snapped a few pictures of the bear but he was busy sifting through the meadow looking for food I presume. I decided I had seen enough and we were on our way.
I was pretty excited as we approached Tuolumne Meadows. I took all in that my eyes could. I quickly picked up on some deer, and pulled the truck to a screeching halt, seeing a great photo oppurtunity. For some reason, I don't care much for regular deer, but show me a buck, and I think it's grandeur. Something about those antlers. I hopped out of the truck quickly, and crouched low behind some rocks. 2 bucks with felt still on their antlers were at the edge of the Tuolumne River, debating on the plunge into the frigid snow melt water. I started recording, and glady captured them taking the plunge and swimming across. I followed up with some other pictures and video of them in the meadow.
We continued on, with nothing else of much interest, just taking in the twilight views of Yosemite. We descended down the hill from the high sierras to the high desert, where Whoa Nellie Deli awaited us for a hearty dinner. As usual, the place was busy, even at 830pm out in the middle of nowhere. I got the fish tacos, and Adele had a steak salad. Satisfied, we continued on towards Mammoth. As we approached the gas station near the June Lake Loop entrance, we noticed a few cars pulled over on the other side of the road. If we only knew what they were stopped for, we may have known what was to come. As we drove, big splats started forming on the windshield from moths flying all through the air. It became more and more, to the point where all the splats nearly covered my windshield. I was almost driving blind! It was like an insect infestation! We proceeded with caution, and pulled into the first gas station in Mammoth. We were joined by many other cars on the road, all of us trying to clean our windshields. My grille and hood were covered too, and the moths left almost a sticky texture! We picked up some groceries at Vons, then headed to the condo where we rested up for the big day to follow.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
We awoke to a beautiful sunny day. I had a interest in exploring Mammoth Creek, so I went out on a little drive to explore. I ended up on a dirt road paralleling the creek off Old Mammoth Rd. It took me all the way down to the 395. As much as I looked, I never found any great areas of the river to fish. But it was fun to explore the road regardless. I made it back to the condo by 8am.
We gathered some lunch and headed to Moquito Flat Trailhead above Rock Creek Lake. When we arrived, we found it appropriately named 'Mosquito Flat' since we started getting swarmed and bit immediately at the car. After I packed everything to survive a catostrophe in my backpack, we finally got started on the hike. We realized we parked at the first parking lot, which is about 1/2 down the road from the actual trailhead. We left the pavement in choice of a dirt trail, and started what turned out to be a long hike!
The first lake we encounter was Mack Lake. It was pretty but nothing so enticing that we had to stop. Marsh lake followed, which wasn't much. I guess they say the third time's a charm, and it was true. We came down a slope to see Heart Lake with a mountainous backdrop. A stream paralled the trail and ran into the lake. On the other side, another stream came into the lake, but this time with a grander entrance in the form of a waterfall. I was truely in heaven!
We made our way to the other side of the lake where I couldn't resist taking a detour over to the waterfall. I just had to cast in to see if there were any trout. I rigged up and started fishing. I had a few bites, and finally hooked a small brook trout. The coloring was stunning. I saw another huge fish through the water, at least 16" but never got him to bite. While the fishing wasn't red hot, the scenery really made up for it. We had lunch on the grass streamside and relaxed.
We packed up and continued on. Following a lake and stream up an entire valley is really dangerous when you are hiking with me with a fishing pole in hand. It wasn't long before we came up on the next lake, Box Lake, and I saw another spot I wanted to fish. I fished the inlet, and was able to land a nice rainbow.
Theo was taking his afternoon siesta on my backpack!
We moved up the trail and found a fun stream crossing.
Shortly after, I casted a few more times into the stream. We arrived at Long Lake which had some beautiful granite cliffs lakeside that gave it some character. By this time we were feeling the altitude and the days hike. I fished a bit at Long Lake.
I wanted to continue to just one more lake, Chickenfoot Lake. It was a bit further than I thought, but we made it. There was still snow along the shore in several places, and the backdrop of a huge cliff made the lake different from the others.
We enjoyed the lake and decided it was time to head back. Surprisingly, the hike back seemed to take quite awhile, I think roughly about 1:15 with a stop or two. Feet and legs were sore. All in all, I think we hiked about 6 miles roundtrip in over 10,000 ft elevation. I had a 30lb pack on my back. I was ready to relax!
We stopped at Tom's Place for dinner and then headed home. We struggled to stay up past 10, hitting the hay pretty early.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
After the hike on Saturday, we didn't want to do anything rigorous today. We woke up and decided to head to Convict Lake. We arrived, launched the boat, and started trolling Wooly buggers.
It wasn't long before Adele had a hookup and grabbed the rod. Despite wanting some help, I told her she could handle it, and to reel it in. At this point she was outfishing me!
(Me holding Adele's fish)(below)
A few minutes later my rod went off and I was able to land one. We continued back towards the inlet and decided to anchor. It was relaxing listening to the creek come into the lake while I fished. I was stripping a olive Wooly Bugger parallel / back towards shore through the current that was entering the lake. I landed several fish. I wasn't able to get any bites on the pink power worm, but the flies were doing the trick.
Around 12, we headed back and loaded up the boat. We enjoyed lunch lakeside on some rocks.
We headed back towards Mammoth and the Lakes Basin. The waterfall coming into Twin Lakes was amazing as usual. We went up and viewed the waterfall from the top, and checked out Mamie Lake. We continued pass Mary to George were there were floods of people. After awhile, we finally found a parking spot, and walked the shoreline but decided the inlet was too far.
We headed back to the truck and decided to go for a drive.
We got on the 395 north towards Obsidian Dome. We followed the dirt road off the freeway, and came up to the big mound of rock. It was pretty rugged and impressive looking, but nothing like the scenery of Little Lakes Valley. We circled the dome, and came into Glass Creek Campground. We checked out the creek and continued on. The map showed the road, however, we found a pretty rough road going in random directions. After a quick panic attack that we were lost, we popped out to a clearing where the freeway was. Relief!
Glass Creek (Below)
We made it back to the house, cleaned up, and dined at Roberto's. Great mexican food. We then drove down with the rest of the world to Crowley to watch the fireworks. We sat on the roof of the truck and enjoyed the show!
Monday, July 5, 2010
We woke up early to try and get an early start around 615am. We managed to leave the condo by 8am and get on the road. We turned off the June Lake Loop road, 158 and strolled down to Silver Lake, taking pictures of the waterfall along the way. Arriving at Silver, it was glassy and a great view. We launched the boat for a few minutes of fishing, and I was able to land a small trout on the Elk Hair Caddis at the inlet.
We loaded up and headed to June Lake beach for some R&R. The water is so clear!
Around 1pm we continued on to Yosemite. I couldn't help but stopping at a few sections of the Dana Fork. There were some fish, but nothing landed, and the skeeters were thick! We moved onto Tuolumne meadows and took a stroll through the meadows and stopped at the bridge. Stunning!
We moved onto Tenaya Lake and dipped our feet in the water which was quite refreshing.
We stopped to enjoy the views at Olmstead point.
We then found a waterfall roadside which was pretty cool.
The rest of the drive was pretty mellow, giving us time to reflect on all the great fun and scenery we had encounted in the past couple days. We'll be back soon!
