Mountains & Ocean--More of Our Favorite Things

Monday, September 29: Mountain country. Lake Tahoe.
We’ve spent the weekend hiking in the mountains surrounding Jan and Denny’s home outside Tahoe City. Saturday we hiked 11.5 miles, up to 8400’ (climb of 1800’). Jan and Denny’s buddy, Al, has a GPS and could tell us almost anything we wanted to know about the route and where we were on it. But I astounded Al, and myself, by guessing how far we had come within .01 miles! The hike was a little tough on my joints but they responded very nicely to a couple of Vitamin N’s (naproxen=Aleve) and a hot shower. On yesterday’s hike, a little over 4 miles and a few hundred feet up, my boots felt good and I was moving well. (Though not fast; the guys were always way ahead. Jan is in fantastic shape but because of asthma, kept me company moving more slowly behind. Nice, plus we could chat.) We especially liked this second hike for the deep blue lake at the top, where we dabbled our toes and ate lunch in the sun. Robb admired the granite outcrops - he likes rocks.

So by now, we’re in pretty good condition to tackle the hikes at Mammoth Lakes, where we’re headed. It’s much higher there. We’ll be hiking at 10,000’ or more. But after a few days at 6600’ and above, and these hikes, we’re ready.(Al has lent me his hiking poles, and given them to me to use for the next week. Thank you, Al - they really help a lot.) Ironically, though, it looks like we’re in for some rain after this long stretch of wonderfully clear, warm weather.

The locals here would whoop and holler with glee if it rained today. It has not rained since March, and it is extraordinarily, unusually dry - Jan called my attention to it many times along the trail. It hasn’t rained since March - not at all. It may not rain for another few weeks, today’s forecast notwithstanding.

Here’s what I’ve learned about snow in Lake Tahoe: Late October is usually the start of winter rains. In November some time, the snows begin. Storms come quickly and often violently, with tremendous winds, but they usually pass over quickly. They dump prodigious amounts of snow; six feet is not an unusual snowfall. Over winter, thirty feet or more of snow accumulate and people are skiing on top of rock falls, huge boulders and small trees. Ski resorts set off charges to try to prevent unexpected avalanches, mostly successfully. Sometimes it is possible to ski into June, and one year, Jan had skied here before coming up to Wipigaki, our place in the north woods of Wisconsin, in early July.

I would love to hike here in the spring, which would probably be June, when all the wildflowers are blooming. Jan rhapsodized about them and showed me stunning photos she took on hikes this spring. Right now, though, the only color is a muted yellow from the few aspen scattered around, and some of the grasses and shrubs. What really impresses you in this area is the steep, rocky mountainsides, dramatic rock formations, and the blanket of very tall, very straight pine and fur trees. Not much water is flowing, and the Truckee River which runs into the lake is shallow, tranquil, and very pretty.

The potential for forest fire is never far from the minds of the people who live here. They have had to take extraordinary measures to protect their homes. Jan and Denny replaced their roof last year, and right now they are continuing to remove many of the trees, along with brush, near the house. When we arrived they were disturbed to see that as a result of the latest tree removal, they now have a clear view of one neighbor’s house which they could barely see before. The area for many feet around the house is now almost bare, and one very large tree which abutted their deck was just removed. Robb attempted to count the tree rings and estimated that it was 120 years old. Jan and Denny will miss it for many reasons, including the shade it provided from hot summer sun. But it had to go, and there are still a few more painted with the “red dot of doom.” People here are resigned to having to take these drastic steps. Earlier this year there was a huge forest fire that destroyed miles and miles in south Lake Tahoe. Everyone dreads a similar outbreak here.

This house is part of a 70-home community built on Juniper Mountain near the Alpine Meadows ski area. The enormous Squaw Valley resort is literally on the other side of “their” mountain and we saw some of the runs from the lake at the end of yesterday’s hike. Jan and Denny built it 25 years ago as a ski retreat (one of the reasons they are in such great physical shape - great skiers as well as hikers). It’s a wonderful place. Last night we all trooped up the road to an open house at a just-completed “Mountain McMansion.” The owners have just retired and moved here permanently. It was one of those homes that you see in magazines, with huge Palladian windows, decks everywhere, enormous stone fireplaces, wine cellar, spa - you know, the works. But I’ve got to say - I like this house so much more! It’s so comfortable, so well laid out, plenty of room without being a barn, wonderful views everywhere - who could ask for anything more?

There’s another aspect of living here that’s new to us: BEARS. There are plenty of them around and in this house, all food must be put away, completely out of sight, especially at night. Bears are spotted on the roads frequently and a bear once came up the steps of this house heading for the front door. Luckily Jan hadn’t spotted it in time and yelled at Denny to close the door! They take all their garbage down to a central location. Some people buy the type of bear-proof garbage cans that national parks use; the city will pick up trash from those. I’d kinda like to see a bear…

I can’t help wondering what the retired people who live here year round do with their time. If you ski and hike, this is a paradise. If you don’t or you can’t, what would occupy your time? I was amazed last night to learn that the husband of a woman I spoke to commutes every week to Vernon Hills (yes, “our” Vernon Hills) for work! He leaves on Sunday or Monday, comes back Wednesday night. Given the choice of moving to Illinois or commuting, they chose this arrangement. They have a young boy and a teenager, and the wife thinks that things are working well. Of course this made me think of my cousin, Chip, who lives with wife and four kids in Providence, RI, and takes the red eye every two weeks to northern California, where his job is. It seems like a crazy way to live…

The life of a teacher: Jan has a seven foot snake named Silver in her first grade classroom. It’s been there for 25 years or more and is still growing - shedding its skin a couple of times a year. The kids love the snake (she says) (really) and since it’s very tame, she lets them hold it. (Not around the neck though. It’s a constrictor.) But Silver gets hungry! So every two weeks, Jan goes to some sort of non-pet store and buys a rat especially for Silver. She puts the snake in a box, adds the rat, closes it and goes away. Very soon afterwards, Silver is not hungry any more. Once a month, Silver produces a neat little nugget of poop which she picks up with paper towels and disposes of. The cage remains clean. Easy, eh? This narrative reminded me of something I learned at the Monterey Aquarium. The docent perkily announced to the crowd that penguins perform “projectile defecation.” They can “shoot their poop” up to six feet away. Yep, six feet, folks. This is a handy trick because it keeps their nests clean. (But how about the nest next door???)

Later…Fiddling while Rome burns. That’s almost what it seems we’re doing here. While Wall Street and all its worldwide connections implode, the common man screams and Congress ties itself into knots, here Robb and I are, blessedly removed from the madness and staring at timeless creations of nature born millions of years ago. What a time to be so disconnected from news. Signals fade in and out, wireless connections don’t work, we have no idea what’s happening to our financial underpinnings, yet the world continues to spin. We’re just going to keep assuming that we will survive, along with the rest of the world. Maybe we’ll be eating more rice and beans in the future, and that’s not all bad. It’s our opinion that the U.S. in general has been long overdue for a comeuppance. Here it is. Have a good day.…

Sept. 30 & Oct. 1, Mammoth Lakes: two beautiful days of hiking have been ours, with the great bonus of beautiful fall color against the dramatic granite mountains that comprise this area. This town is a resort for skiers, especially, and hikers. We came south on 395 from Lake Tahoe, traveling through part of Nevada and then back into California along the wide valley next to the eastern Sierras. We made a welcome stop at a Costco along the way where we bought gas for about $3.48/gallon, a drastic improvement over Lake Tahoe gas: $4.16-$4.20!

It was a beautiful ride quite devoid of traffic, with increasingly dramatic views. Close to Yosemite the road rose dramatically through bone dry, empty country, up to a spectacular view of Mono Lake, its water raided for years by Los Angeles until a lawsuit prevailed that limited the amount of water that LA could pilfer. We’ve visited Mono Lake twice since 1996; we’ve seen the markers that show the diminishing levels of the lake, and the dramatic “tufas” or pillars of calcium carbonate left by the evaporation of those saline waters. So we continued on, past the entrance to Yosemite, to Mammoth Lakes.

The next morning we took a beautiful hike in the Sierras west of Bishop, CA, 40 miles south of here. The drive there was so beautiful! The highway runs through the 100 mile long Owens valley, bordered by the rugged eastern Sierras on the west and the softer, older, more weathered White Mountains to the east. Thanks to the Owens River and mountain streams that feed it, green fields compliment the brown, and there are cattle everywhere. The early morning light cast beautiful shadows on the naked, rocky crags of the mountains. At their base are enormous alluvial fans and glacial moraines that slope gradually down into the valley. These are the kinds of vistas that both excite and frustrate a photographer - impossible to capture in a freeze frame!

Our hike, of moderate difficulty, began at Sabrina Lake, about 9000’ high. The trail ran along the lake, crossing a stream and eventually rising 800’ in a series of rocky switchbacks heading for another lake above. The colors! Brilliant yellow and orange grasses, shrubs and aspens blazed against the gray and white granite, running in swathes along invisible cracks and fissures providing just enough moisture to survive. In places it looked like a giant paintbrush had swiped the mountains with yellow. The leaves and the colors shimmered in the brilliant sun and the lake below glowed green to blue to black. Hiking back we saw a motor boat tracing a large circle, or perhaps a spiral, in the middle of the lake. Beautiful!

After lunch in Bishop, we headed up high again but this time into the White Mountains on the east side of 395, towards the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. This jaw-dropping drive took us up to 10,000’ on a two lane road that climbed steadily while winding around and around barren, rocky mountains, narrowing in places to only one lane. We were here three years ago. Recently we learned that the beautiful little visitor center had been torched by an arsonist. We had to visit not just to see these amazing trees again, but to lend our support to the place.

The visitor center will be rebuilt! The man who designed the center and its exhibits has been coaxed out of his depression over the fire, and will do it again. He was there with a work crew (prisoners) clearing away the debris. Money has come in for reconstruction, and we made our own contribution because this is a very, very special place. These trees can live thousands of years anchored in bare rock, subject to tremendous extremes of heat and huge snows in the winter - their only water. It is common to find a twisted, gnarled and bare sentinel that appears dead, but on closer inspection contains one green branch with needles and cones - alive! In the 1950’s, a Dr. Edmund Shulman undertook dendrology (tree ring) studies of these trees and determined that some were 4,600 years old - the oldest living things on earth. A so-called Methusaleh tree is among them, officially 4780 years old, although experts think it is probably over 5000 years old because some of the heartwood has disappeared and can’t be counted. Its exact location is kept secret so that no one will harm it. Thankfully, given the crackpot who set the visitor center alight. Obviously this is a very disturbed person, who was apprehended in the wee hours trying to break into a nearby computer lab; he is in jail and will stand trial for his various crimes (though he apparently denies setting this fire).

Wednesday, Oct. 1: Robb here: Today we did the famous “pie hike” recommended by Denny and Al. We drove up Rock Creek Rd. to its end at about 10,000 ft. The trail was an easy climb through the Little Lakes valley, past several pristine sylvan lakes to our destination, Chickenfoot Lake, in a spectacular bowl surrounded by 13,000+’ bare rocky peaks of the John Muir wilderness. They felt close enough to touch. Barbara urged me to hike up to Morgan Pass, another 300’ up. There I looked up at Morgan Peak, more than 2,500’ up and nothing but rock—very spectacular. So we hiked back separately, then rewarded ourselves for our respective efforts (6 miles for Barbara, 7 ½ miles for me) with chili and a piece of homemade pumpkin pie at Pie in the Sky, part of a little resort area on the way down. Our waiter said they had gone through 10 pies today (a slow day). He is a student back in Wisconsin, but wants to come back to the eastern Sierra after graduating to do rock climbing.

Later back at Mammoth Lakes we drove up to the Mary’s Lake area to see the beautiful views down to Twin Lakes. The Horseshoe Lake area is a moonscape! All the trees are completely dead; the ground looks like bleached clay and there is not a speck of ground cover. This is caused by carbon dioxide which is seeping out of the ground and unable disperse (usually due to being trapped by snow); there are signs warning that you could die in this area due to carbon dioxide inhalation. Weird!!!

Barbara here: Holy Jumping Jehosaphat, we’ve had our very own Forrest Gump experience! Just heard that a hiker who works at a sports store in town found ID cards (and cash) belonging to Steve Fossett while hiking way off trail in a very remote area! Fossett’s plane must have crashed in these mountains. This guy said that since Fossett’s first name (on the cards) was not Steven, he didn’t realize what he’d found. At the store, someone clued him in. Driving back into town from above, I noticed a satellite news truck in front of that little A-frame sports store and remembered that we had seen two helicopters while up above. No wonder! This town is going to be HOPPING until they find that plane. Meanwhile, though, we’ll be on our way west to the coast!

Saturday, October 04: Crescent City. Our last week of sightseeing begins on the coast just 10 miles south of Oregon. We’ve driven over 600 miles in two days to get here, and I can hear your groans. No, no! It was fun! We stopped, we gawked, we discussed, we laughed, and yes, we groaned occasionally also. Especially because we’ve run into our first real rains since we left at the end of August. A storm system lashed us with strong wind and rain yesterday afternoon and last night. It’s easier to believe now that this coast receives 200 inches of rain a year, with September-October being the sunniest. Of course we’re in coastal redwood territory now, and rain is what enables them to grow to over 300 feet and live so long.

Backing up, however, we began with a beautiful drive up over Tioga Pass and through Yosemite’s high country of spectacular granite domes. It felt wonderfully familiar since we spent five days camping up there in 2003. We recognized so much of it, and stopped for the n-th time at Olmsted’s Point, where you can climb around on a huge rock and see Half Dome in the distance. Lots of 20-30 somethings speaking different languages up there! And we saw many, many CruiseAmerica rental RVs. So just like in Chicago, there must be special travel packages in the fall for foreigners to come visit the U.S. I felt happy they were here!

Then we drove down again into farm, ranch and wine country, traveling northwest to land at Clear Lake, billed as the largest natural lake in the state (Tahoe doesn’t count; part is in Nevada). But we were surprised to find that the east side where we stopped was an obviously poor area. I guess the other side of the lake is where the resorts have landed. But in our area we saw countless double-wide mobile homes, some in parks and others on separate lots, many of them in very dilapidated and sad condition. There were simple houses as well, but so many houses look almost like they could be in Appalachia with old cars, furniture and toys, knickknacks, trash. We stayed at a little resort which is coming back to life and found out from the manager that a few years ago, Clear Lake was infamous as a drug haven. (A couple where we ate dinner looked like former pot growers who are recent converts to evangelical Christianity.) Not only marijuana (virtually a staple crop in the hills in this area) but serious drugs. Eventually the federales moved in and cleaned up the area, and the county supervisors are making an attempt to bring the place back to its former glory as resort. But it must be tough going because most of it still looks pretty sad, with dead hotels, resorts, restaurants and shops everywhere. One thing that may help is that the wine industry is coming back to life here. Apparently, grapes were grown here in the 1800s, but during Prohibition vineyards were destroyed and replanted with pears and walnuts. (This area is the largest exporter of Bartlett pears in California!) Now land is being bought up and turned to vineyards. A Jim Fetzer, of Fetzer wines in Mendocino County, bought a huge amount of land along the lake and has converted it into a very snazzy organic farm which will be a tourist destination. We stopped there to look (pretty) and down the street, sampled some wine at a local winery. The red wines here are said to be exceptional because the soil is volcanic, with a unique mix of minerals that lend a certain flavor. I tasted several reds at that winery; they were good, but I must admit I didn’t think that they were that different from others elsewhere.

We eventually made our way to the coast, plagued at times by heavy rain. We stopped for lunch at a little town which must have developed a certain reputation for growing pot. Our guidebook suggests not mentioning the word in town as it makes some folks a little … testy. But the people in the place where we ate was a perfect cross-section of Northern California: local graybeard with flannel shirt and baseball cap who looked parked there for awhile, RV couples on the move, car travelers like us, and a couple that just had to be from LA. They had “a look” - dressed in chic black and pumpkin (both), perfect haircuts, expensive jewelry, she had Uggs on her feet and an expensive looking purse, and they both just had a certain air of … we are somebody. The food: organic, home made, of course. Good, too!

We’ve already driven through some beautiful areas of redwoods on the way up the coast. We stopped at a visitor center and talked to a ranger about hikes, so as soon as the weather clears, we’ll be able to get out into the woods. Today, though, we’ll drive up to Oregon where there is a really gorgeous but small grove that we dipped into (and out of) on our 2004 journey. Even in the rain they will be beautiful. And what I especially remember was the absolute enormous stumps back in those woods, that must be from logging in the 1800s. We’ll take photos…

On last night’s news, people in Santa Rosa were ecstatic about the rain - ecstatic! Not one person complained. Last rain was in mid March, and northern California is DRY. They are happy that winter is here!

Some random snapshots from the road:
· In ranch country, a “pancaked” old barn; looked like it just fell down flat one day
· Homeless man at a ranch gate right off the road: under a pink and white beach umbrella, with a shopping cart full of god knows what and piles of other stuff strewn around … ?
· Three “ranchettes” for sale
· Chinese Camp: pop. 150. A spooky, decayed and overgrown group of ancient cottages that must have housed Chinese laborers building the railroads in the 1800s. Proof: tracks next door. Nearby town: Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe RR tracks.
· Don Pedro Lake: a very, very, very low reservoir in ranch country
· The Cash and Dash
· Full Belly Farm
· Sunset Strip: a dilapidated mobile home park in Clear Lake.
· Huge trees that we eventually identified as walnut
· Best name for a coffee place: Tumbleweed: Fastest Brew in the West
· Organic Natural Fast Food
· Yo Hum Mamas for Planetary Survival (at Organic Grace … co-op?)
· Getii Up: smoothies, expresso

Last but not least: We started tracking mileage again on our two last fill-ups, and we’ve learned that we’ve gotten 42-43 mpg. That’s pretty astounding to me because a lot of that driving was up to 10,000’ and down again. Of course, on the downs, we’re getting almost free mileage. But still… Good little car!!

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