Weekend Return to Bishop

Spent a weekend with my high school friend, David, to visit and stay with his mom, Grace (and her llamas) back in Bishop, CA.  We went out four-wheeling a bit, explored some caves, disturbed some bats, checked out some views of Owens Valley, and Dave broke out his rifle for some target practice.  No llamas or bats were harmed in our endeavours.

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Backpacking Up Pine Creek/Italy Pass

Labor Day Weekend with Mike, Jeanie, Troy… and Chloe!  We camped out in the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine with the intention of getting a trail permit to climb Mt. Langley (near Mt. Whitney) but given how quickly all the trailheads filled up that weekend, we were lucky to have any entry within a few hours drive.  So, Pine Creek it was.  This is the pass just north of Mt. Tom, near Bishop, CA.  We were out for two nights and did a bit of peak climbing/scrambling on the middle day and snagged some awesome views. After coming back out of the backcountry, we enjoyed a hot dip at Mammoth Hot Springs before heading home back over the Sierra Nevada.

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Backpacking into Desolation Wilderness

Melissa came out from Minnesota to join me and some friends (Jeanie, Mike, Llana, Nora and Chloe!) on a weekend-long backpacking trip into the Desolation Wilderness (near Lake Tahoe).  We worked our way from Loon Lake to Buck Island Lake, Rockbound Lake, and eventually Rubicon Reservoir.

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Mountain Biking around Tahoe

I went up to Lake Tahoe with Jeanie for the extended, Fourth of July weekend.  After enjoying the fireworks at June Lake with her mom, we spent the rest of the weekend mountain biking on various trails around Tahoe.  We started high up on the north side, wandering around looking for some suspected trails on the first day.  On the second day, we did the full loop of the awesome Flume Trail.

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Backpacking to Evolution Valley

 

This is a video montage from a backpacking trip over the 4th of July weekend to Evolution Valley in Kings Canyon National Park, starting from Florence Lake – with Corey, Hoan, Huy, Jason and Brendon.

(re-edited down to 13+ minutes in August of 2020, 205 MB download)

Trail Map between Florence Lake and Evolution Valley (Kings Canyon NP)

 

To the Summit of Mt. Whitney

Kamay invited me to join her with Patty and Billy on a backpacking trip to summit Mt. Whitney.  And here it is, from Mt. Whitney looking down into Owens Valley and the town of Lone Pine from 14,495 feet:

That’s the highest point in the lower forty-eight states, thank you very much!
Hey, plus six feet to my eye-level…

 

And that’s a marmot, of course!