Back in Time

It may seem strange, peering through this on-line window into our lives, to find the Bristlecone Pine Forest re-enter the room. Perhaps the ancient forest has been in our parlor, out of sight the whole time we haven't been posting. That would be nice, if a little dirty and prickly. But it's not the case.

No, we had to drive the full six or so hours to revisit the Bristlecone Pine Forest again after our quick stop back in July, and, although we've only finished posting about that trip recently, it had in fact been more than a month between visits when we pulled into the moonlit campsite Labor Day weekend. In fact, the length of time it took us to tell you about that trip speaks more loudly about the tenor of our lives in August than any post could have. Suffice to say, life was full.

The truth is that our last trip there only wet our appetite for exploring the rest of the area. There are miles of Bristlecone forest in the high regions of the White Mountains, as well as many more miles of Pinyon-Juniper habitat. Add to that the region's mysterious-but-lovely remote character, and we just had to revisit.

Anyway, we had a good trip. The Guenthers came up on Saturday with their baby, and we spent some fun times with them. Unfortunately, Elijah didn't savor the altitude, and spent one unpleasant night in camp, and therefore a more pleasant second night in a motel in Bishop. Libby and I spent three nights in all at the campground. We got there really early Saturday morning (about 1:00) to find that the whole campground was full. We found a handy Pinyon Pine to throw up our tent under, and then moved into some vacancies created when our neighbors headed out in the morning (lucky day!).

We had brought some peanuts along, so we threw some of those out in hope of attracting some Pinyon Jays to our campsite. Then we went for a drive out to Deep Springs College, a famous migrant trap near the Nevada border. It's pretty dramatic - a giant dead-end valley with a salt pan and a single green patch of trees at the college. Unfortunately, it's private property with posted No Trespassing signs, so we came right back to camp. On the way, we spilled three gallons of water in our car! Yay! Mildew!

Libby and friend

We spent the rest of the first day hanging around camp with the car doors open and teaching the neighborhood Scrub-Jays and Chickadees to eat out of our hands. We were pretty excited to have our first Californian Juniper Titmouse come into a pan of water we put out, too. When the Guenthers arrived that afternoon, we all went for a walk in the Schulman Grove area that we had visited earlier. Elijah fussed a bit, so he didn't get to ride in the cool baby back-pack that the Guenthers had borrowed for hikes. He did get to see some cold old trees, though, but he may not have appreciated that. I'm not sure.

The next day we went all the way to Patriarch Grove. That's a long drive on a dirt road to the upper limits of a Bristlecone forest. The largest Bristlecone in the world is there, and we had fun wandering around in the alpine wonderland. The whole area is a brilliant white from the dolomite the trees grow in, and there are only stunted plants growing between the gnarled Bristlecone trunks. It's 11,000'! We saw a lot of people around. It turned out that the gate to the Bancroft Research Station on White Mountain (California's third highest mountain) was open, so a lot of people were making the visit to the summit. It cuts 4 miles off the round trip, and apparently those two miles are pretty steep. That explained the crowd at the campground.

Group picture with The Patriarch

That evening the Guenthers decided to make a trip to town, so Libby and I had dinner by ourselves, burned all the firewood, and helped Dustin pack up.

They drove back up the next day and we all went for a hike to the Methuselah Grove, where some of the oldest non-clonal organisms in the world grow. They don't tell you which tree is Methuselah (4800 years old!), but we had fun guessing. We also debated the thorny issue of whether or not you can say you saw a specific tree (Methuselah) if you don't know that you saw that tree, but you have reasonable assurance you saw every tree that it could have been.

After the hike, Libby and I were in a fine hurry to get home before it got too late. Unfortunately, construction around Independence meant it took about two hours to get from the Bristlecones to Lone Pine! Yuck.

I took lots and lots and lots of picture on this trip, and put too many of them on Flickr. Still, if you like babies, birds, mountains, or trees (which you should, you know): take a look: Labor Day Weekend Camping.

Heading Home

Libby points out some growth rings on a Bristlecone Pine.

On the morning after our backpack trip we packed up the truck and got back on the road right after breakfast. We were going home, but on the way we wanted to make a couple of stops. Our first stop being in the wrong direction, we didn't want to waste too much time!

It didn't take too long to reach Mono Lake. We were hoping to see some of the birds that stop over there on their southward migration. We did, and then we got ourselves some ice cream at the Mono Cone. That ended up taking over an hour!

Anyway, our next stop was more exciting. We turned off of 395 at Big Pine, heading into the White Mountains toward Westgard Pass. This was our first visit to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. There are trees in this forest that are nearly 5,000 years old! It's a long way above Big Pine, though, with the Schulman Grove Visitor's Center (recently burned down and replaced by a temporary trailer) located at 10,000 feet.

In Schulman Grove, we went for a walk on the Discovery Trail, learning about Schulman's discovery of the first tree over 4,000 years old in that very grove. We had a good time ooh-ing and ahh-ing over each gnarled and wind-carved semi-snag for an hour or so, and then got going south again so we could say goodbye to Bill and Becca, who were flying out that night. We decided, though, that it would be nice to come back and visit the Bristlecones again when we had more time. A trip we just made over the Labor Day weekend!

Anyway, a mercifully small gallery of pictures is uploaded on Flickr: Homeward Bound Set.

The pictures from the entire trip to Mammoth have now been uploaded, and you can view all of them within the Peeler Lake to Snow Lake Loop Collection.

Backpack Notes, Day 5

Fading sunset over Lake Mary

As always, you can read about the day in more detail on Bill's blog. The notes that follow are my own brief observations.

Our final day of the backpack trip was characterized by one mood: haste. Bill and Becca felt a lot of stress about getting home before it was too late, and so we got along at a rapid pace. That was fine, but by the time we reached the bottom of the trail it had taken its toll on our feet.

In the morning, a group of marmots and a single American Pipit were foraging in the field by our camp. We were also visited by a Gray-crowned Rosy Finch. That was the first of that high altitude bird we got a good look at all trip - a fact in sharp contrast to the species' abundance on our higher altitude pack trip last year.

Some of us were able to avoid removing our boots for the water crossings on the way down due to Dad's efforts at finding a way across. This didn't result in saving time, though, because he ended up slipping and falling in as he helped Becca across. I still appreciated not having to take off my boots, and while Dad dried, Libby and I watched a Junco fly-catching in a shaft of sunlight along the creek. There were also a pretty male Yellow-rumped Warblers foraging in the trees in the area.

Libby and I stayed the next night at the cabin, eating a yummy dinner of burgers at Burger's in Mammoth with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Carol and Uncle John. During dinner, we laughed at stories about embarrassing moments they'd experienced all over the world. Afterward, we crossed the street to the Village - where a band was rocking out to '60s and '70s classics. Aunt Carol texted Sierra and tried to see if she could find us on the webcam showing the plaza, but the camera was off-line for the summer.

That evening there was a spectacular sunset, so Uncle John and I hurried down to Lake Mary as soon as we got back to the cabin to see if we could get a picture of its fading splendor. Unfortunately, it was mostly dead by the time we reached the shore, but I uploaded a picture hinting at its brilliance on Flickr, which you can see above.

Of course, you can see all of the pictures from the day on Flickr: Backpack Day 5 set.

Backpack Notes, Day 4

Rock Island Lake

Our fourth day of hiking took us from Arndt Lake to Snow Lake back via Kerrick Meadows. You can read about it in sparkling detail at Bill's blog.

Some notes:

This was a great hiking day for me. I felt great the whole day, the scenery was varied and interesting, and we got it all done before lunch. I always feel like hiking in the morning is easier and more enjoyable.

I'm uncomfortable hiking on snow, so the little climb that us guys took was stretching for me. Glissading back down helped me get a little more comfortable with the dynamic of the stuff. It wasn't exactly ice, so it's not difficult, but I still hope I'll feel a little easier on the medium in the future.

The views from the top were really superb. It was wonderful up there.

Fishing around Snow Lake wasn't very productive for fish, but it was great for birds! I think its location at a low point on the crest yielded a sort of migrant trap for latitudinal migrants, because there were more birds than anywhere else on the trip on the outlet side of Snow Lake. While bushwhacking through the area, I found Yellow-rumped Warblers, Orange-crowned Warblers, my first Wilson's Warblers of the trip, first Thick-billed Fox Sparrows of the trip, White-crowned Sparrows, and other birds I can't remember anymore. Unfortunately, I didn't have binoculars because it was a bit like stumbling into a vagrant trap, small birds were flitting all around me and I couldn't ID them all in the brief glimpses I could catch before they would drop into the willows and shrubby pines.

The big snow field, and green meadows watered by it near the lake, appeared ideal for White-tailed Ptarmigan, but we didn't find any. There was, however, a pair of American Pipits using the meadow and defending a territory half-way up the snow field. The Pipits were the first I've seen in the Sierras, though I've always been looking for them. I wonder if they're associated with late season snow pack in the Sierras like Ptarmigans are.

This was the evening I got to see the International Space Station (with the space shuttle attached!). I was sitting on the lake shore under the darkening purple and gold of the late evening sky, pumping water while bats and moths flitted around my head, when I noticed a brilliant star - Venus-like in its intensity - floating by to the north. I hollered for the rest of the family, but nobody heard me, so I just sat in wonder as it slipped behind the mountains' shoulders.

Since we were right near the pass, we all went up to it in the dark to watch the stars. That was fun. There wasn't any moon at the time, so you could see everything really clearly.

I have a cool panorama from the top of the hill I'd like to put up somehow in all of its glory (there's a very small version on Flickr), but I'm not sure how. Any suggestions?

Pictures are up at the normal place: Backpack Day 3.