Mammoth journeys to bear country and beyond..

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From Vegas we drove another fair distance and braved the high temperatures of death valley to reach Mammoth Lakes. Matt was occupied for a large portion of the journey by conspiracy theories surrounding 'Area 51' and it's possible whereabouts.. (he saw a sign-like it would be THAT obvious!) Approaching Mammoth was a little surreal as we headed through blistering heat we had a perfect view of snow-capped mountains and signs for shops selling skis etc!!
Our hostel was a very 'quaint' little log cabin type arrangement with bunk beds made of big logs and bear carvings all over it. We met a few interesting characters over the 3 days we were there, Glenn the pot-smoking drunk hiker, Jeff the chef who seemed to only eat ready-meals, Chuck the 70 odd year-old marathon runner..you can imagine the conversations!! We spent majority of the afternoon trying to go up and down the stairs without feeling breathless..quite some feat when you come from valleys and desert several hundred feet lower!
Our first day in mammoth was started overlooking the mountains from the balcony and we headed into town to try and find the bus to the mountains..failing to locate the stop and having no map we took a free trolley-bus around mammoth and whipped up a storm on the BBQ!!
The following day we decided to locate the public pool.. boring i hear you cry...oh no..finding it was an activity in itself. Head for the highway and turn left at the green church-seems simple enough but it is literally in the middle of NOWHERE! Driving AWAY from civilisation past the airport and then stopping outside a house to ask for directions from some hillbilly-looking people who kindly informed Matt (we sent him in while we sat in the car) that we could have driven in they wouldn't have shot at us without a couple of warning shots first.. Matt i don't think found this as funny as them..but with their help we found the pool and had a nice relaxing swim at high altitude.
Our drive to San Fran next on the Agenda... Of course it's about time we had a look at some more rocks and things..where better than Yosemite for a bit of bear-watching too. Alas we never saw a furry friend..but plenty of rocks!

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