Another Eastside Trip--or how to lose a goggle tan in 5 days!

  My last day of work at Alpine Meadows was Tuesday April 10, so Kit and I loaded up the van and headed down to the Bishop/Mammoth area once again. I only had until Sunday to play because I was starting my new summer job doing mosquito abatement for the county, but that still left enough time to enjoy a little vacation. We started with 2 days of sport climbing at the Gorge, getting on some new routes that neither of us had climbed before, but by midafternoon on Thursday it was evident that a storm was on its way in.

Locomotive at Laws Museum

   For a little side trip we went to the Laws Railroad Museum just outside Bishop and wandered around among all the old buildings and machinery, even getting to climb inside an old locomotive and watch a small rock crusher at work in the mining display. Lots of photos, so here's the album.
   We brought bikes this time so we cruised over to meet a friend at the bottom of the Rock Creek trail for some shuttles as a handful of snowflakes drifted down from the clouds. The trail was quite mellow with lots of pedaling, but flowy and fun, and very scenic following the creek down through sagebrush and volcanic rock of all kinds. The lower section after the final road crossing had some short technical rock sections, not too hard but just enough to make it interesting and enjoyable on a big bike. I can hardly believe I've been climbing in the Bishop area for 6 years now and had never ridden this trail! From now on, if that area is not buried in snow we will be bringing bikes down on just about every trip :)

The lower third of Rock Creek

   A friend in Mammoth had offered us a place to stay and some free lift tickets for a day while we were down there, so with the snowy forecast for Friday we headed over to the mountain. Sleeping in the van was actually quite toasty with a down quilt, and much more comfortable than sleeping on the floor in my friend's apartment, and we woke on Friday morning to 6 inches of light dry powder covering everything. Snow was still coming down as we got ready and skied to the bus stop--really--it was much faster than walking there! Not knowing Mammoth Mountain very well we just took some exploratory laps in a number of different places. Upper mountain was closed all day and the snow was falling still, so we tried to seek out the elusive "free refills". Chair 22 was supposed to be the goods, but we got there a little too late to find fresh tracks, and after a couple of laps went back to the main lodge side. Chair 1 had some of the best skiing all day with some short fun lines through rocks and small trees. Did I mention how much snow was there? 3 FEET! Thigh deep, and so light! That also meant it was very cold out there, and despite both of us wearing down jackets, we got chilly and decided to bail at around 2 and seek out some nearby hot springs.

The van and the snowy Sierra

   After watching storm clouds drifting over the mountains from a steaming hot tub, we went back down to Bishop to camp out at another friend's house and make plans for Saturday. Possibility of backcountry skiing was tossed around, but the friends decided to ski Mammoth resort, and we went to sleep figuring we'd see what the weather looked like in the morning. Gray and cloudy, not terribly cold or hot, and not the best conditions for staying warm climbing in the Gorge, so we went back over to Rock Creek and took the dog for a short pedal. Following that, we parked at the middle section of the downhill trail and pedaled up to the top for a lap as it started snowing (again). Kit was kind enough to offer to drive the van down to the bottom so I could ride the lower section of trail, and I took full advantage of this. It felt much smoother than the last time and gave me a little bit of encouragement that I hadn't actually forgotten how to ride a mountain bike!!
   Following the ride we decided to head up to Benton for some hot spring time at the resort, with individual campsites each having its own private tub. Unfortunately the whole place was booked for a wedding...major bummer! Next plan, head back down to Bishop and camp somewhere warm. Upon waking Sunday morning, we had no plans for what to do with the last day, but settled on climbing at Granite Basin, a randomly located granite dome in the middle of the valley near Mono Lake.

View of the White Mountains the top of Granite Basin

    Hair Raiser Buttress 5.9 is a 5-star ultra classic bolted sport route, 3 pitches of amazingly fun and sometimes sketchy slab climbing, and it looked perfect for the day. What we didn't realize is that Kit started on the first pitch of a nearby 10c, wondering why it felt a little hard. Then, in the middle of the second pitch, I connected the two climbs with a nearly 40 foot runout in between bolts...yikes!! No falling! I'm not usually a fan of slabby friction climbing, but at least this one had good hand and foot holds that felt secure, so I just tried not to think about the runout and kept going until I was at the next bolt. A third pitch with some tricky moves that Kit led, and we were on top with an incredible view. We had no clue about the inadvertent linkup until looking at the guidebook at lunch, and counting bolts on both climbs. That climb was enough for the day because the sun had moved off the mostly east-facing rock and it was going to be cold in the shade.

More photos from the trip here!

   Back to Tahoe on Sunday night, and I had to be up on Monday at the ungodly hour of 4:45 to drive to Roseville for training on my new mosquito hunting job. We'll see how this summer goes, I think it will work out well given the schedule and cool bosses who are ok with me taking days off now and then for travel to races. It will be nice to actually save some money and be able to buy a full suspension trail bike for next season!
  I almost forgot to add, the Sea Otter Classic is this weekend--I signed up to race DH and DS but thanks to the new job I'll have to miss dual slalom qualifying on Thursday and not get to race the finals Friday. Boo. On the bright side, it gives me a little more time to practice and get to know the downhill course which I am not very familiar with. Being the first race of the season and knowing a lot of ladies have been riding and training all winter, I'm setting my expectations kind of low and just trying to have a good time, if I manage to pull off a great run all the better!