Left Friday early from the central coast and stopped at the Black Planets, a bouldering area just south of Little Lake. Put in an hour there and then on to Tom's Place. Took a break there and then headed up to hike into Mono Pass...no snow anywhere to be found but the gate on the road was closed. Why? I have no idea. Instead, we(brother-in-law Tom) drove up to Convict Lake and hiked around the lake and up towards the base of Laurel Mtn. We then drove across Benton Crossing rd. to the Benton Crags for some more bouldering/photography and spent the night there. About 10-15 degrees that night.
Saturday we drove down through Benton and to the end of the Jeffrey Mine Rd.(about 5500' on the side of White Mountain Peak.) Hiked up to Black Eagle Camp at the Spark Plug Mine(7500') and kicked back for a while there. The trail is basically non-existent on the steep parts. In some spots one moment of inattention and you might go for the permament ride into the wild blue yonder(or the other place). We then hiked on up to the Upper Camp at 9000'(once again, route-finding is tricky due to non-existent trail) and explored the shafts and buildings there. Got back down to the car at dusk and drove into Bishop for a steak. Camped in the Buttermilks that night(about 18-20 degrees).
Sunday morning Tom left for home and I drove up to the Bristlecone Wilderness and hiked around. Drove back down to Big Pine and started out the Saline Valley rd. and then turned around after about 15 miles and drove to Panamint Springs via Lone Pine. Left Panamint Springs and drove to the Wild Rose area and looked around a bit. Then drove back down to the valley and around the east edge of the saline lake there, hoping to get a sunset shot but the storm clouds to the west covered up the sun. Continued on down through Trona and Ridgecrest and then to Red Rock Canyon state park on Hwy 14 to spend the night. Drove across 58 this morning to the Carrizo Plain NM and spent some time there with the camera. Absolutely spectacular! The raptors were all over the place. Continued on home after that.
Nearly 1100 miles.
Sorry for boring you to death.
