Two Left Feet...
...is what I need on this trip... If I had two left feet I would be able to hike in the two left boots I brought with me.
prologue:
No matter how organized I try to be, there's always some little moment of attention deficit where I f--- something up. This time it was when I reached into the closet to grab my hiking boots. I keep my old boots around because they are still just fine for knocking around Reno in dry weather. So you can see where this is going, I failed to notice that I was not getting the desired set of left and right new boots, rather I got my left new boot and my left old boot. I do this all the time, but since I am actually putting the boots on it is but a momentary fuck-up. But today, I was throwing them on the pile of stuff for the trip - lesson?? wear my boots to start a trip... yeah, that will do the trick! Or perhaps organize my shoes better....
Boy did that not make my day when I stopped in Walker Canyon for a little hike. My good old checkered Vans are going to be pretty weatherbeaten by the time I get home, because they are taking me everywhere. Sean, this is how I end up in the coffee line without my wallet more often than a normal person should.
In case you're wondering, I actually did try to wear them, and a right foot in a left boot just does not get it done.
Tuesday April 25
Breakfast at Josef's on the way out of town - damn that place is good. First destination of the day is Grover Hot Springs. I escape South Reno (oh look, it's the new Dillards), join the parade of giant trucks creeping past the state capitol, and eventually I am on Calif 88 heading up the Carson River Canyon.
The sign tells me that Monitor Pass is still closed, my plan for getting off the mountain and back on 395 ain't gonna happen. If I go to Grover I will be coming back this way also - arrgh. I did go and was glad I did. Grover opens at noon and I got there about 12.35 so I had the pools almost to myself. The only other soaker was a cool old guy (old? he was probably my age) who is a volunteer docent and who was a veritable fountain of information. Did you know that there were never grizzly bears in the Sierras, but they were plentiful in the Central Valley and Coastal Ranges? He predicts that this will be a ragingly good year for spring wildflowers, since it is the second year of plentiful rain. The inevitable large Ukrainian family showed up a little later and it was time to go.
Backtrack down Carson Valley to a right at the burned-out tavern which is the cut-off to 395 south - nasty black storm clouds are hanging around the mountains to the east. When I get back on 395 it's partly cloudy on the right, and a booming thunderstorm on my left. Soon I'm in the middle of it, my second hail storm in three days (I got pounded on that long, open walk along the river coming home from Earth Day on Sunday). The water was running in sheets off the road, and for about three minutes the world was white with hailstones.
Lunch at the Topaz Lodge, great view down the lake - quality ambience with casino food.
The approach to Mono Lake is beautiful in any season. Last time I did it was in the fall, when the aspen trees were crankin yellow. This time the aspens are spectral white naked branches, but the creeks and ditches are flowing and the world is as green as it gets around here. The vastness of the scene at the Conway Summit overlook is always a shock, no matter how many times I see it.
I get a room at a place I've ended up at many times before, the Yosemite Gateway Motel. Got a dowstairs room, cranked up the laptop and started typing. I was on a roll, but tore myself away before sunset to walk the Lee Vining Creek Trail, which is just a perfect little nugget of an evening walk. Great on full-ish moon nights also!
Wednesday Apr 26 -- Lee Vining, CA
Coffee at the little shop across the street, very cozy and with a very well attended bird feeder outside the window - goldfinches are pretty birds.
It's starting to feel like a vacation, and it's about time. The plan today was to end up at Benton Hot Springs, but shows what I know. Benton isn't very far away, so I am taking the long way, therefore...
I took the June Lake loop, because I could. It's a lovely alpine setting, especially beautiful in the fall, but the aspens are even pretty without leaves.
Followed that up by taking the Mammoth Loop. There are still mammoth amounts of snow up there. I had breakfast at the Store(?), and I paid a mammoth $3.45/gallon for my gas before I head off into the interior.
Hot Springs book in hand, I headed off on Benton Crossing Road. ?? Springs is the closest to the road, and it had only one truck in the parking area, so I went for that one. It worked out delightfully well. It's a pretty big pool, it was holding seven hardy outdoors-persons when I left. But when I arrived it held just two Pabst-swilling rock climbers from Utah. Real nice guys, they were alternating rock climbing days with Pabst and soaking days - nice vacation. The pool was a good temp (I would say 101-102-ish), and the scenery was unbeatable - in the middle of Long Valley, the very snow-capped Sierras to the west and the still-snowy White Mountains to the east.
Two trucks worth of skiers showed up after 45 minutes, and I gave 'em a break and relinquished my spot.
Did NOT stay at Benton. It was still early in the day, I had already had a nice long soak, and I just wasn't feeling it. At Benton you rent a private tub, and I could hear the party sounds from the back. Since I've spent this trip wallowing in self-pity about my lonely old bachelorhood, enjoying my private tub by myself in not-so-splendid isolation just didn't sound like the right plan, so on to Tonopah.
Drove past the exit for Fish Lake(?) hot springs, which the Grover docent dude highly recommended. I still have my winter pallor, and the sun at the other spring beat me up pretty bad, so I take a pass on that one also.
Tonopah, what a godforsaken town.
Thursday April 27 -- Tonopah, NV
A less than average breakfast at the Ramada casino, then get the heck out of Tonopah, which place I find quite desolate and depressing.
Any east-west trip here in the basin and range region falls into the same rhythm
- up the mountain pass,
- cross the summit, see the next 20-mile vista with the next pass in the distance.
- Cross the wide empty valley, up the next mountain pass and do it all again.
For some reason this got me to thinking of the signal fires in Lord of the Rings, where Gondor calls on Rohan to ride to battle. You could signal the 170 mile distance from Tonopah to Ely in 7 or 8 fires. I'm picturing the fires light up as I drive, cool.
I took an off-road loop to see the Lunar Craters. It was a fun if dusty adventure. The craters are not impact craters from asteroids, rather they are volcanic craters. There was a little mini-playa out there also. It was a windy day (isn't always out there?) and there were dust devils big and small everywhere. As I was approaching the playa there was a pretty substantial one coming right down the road at me. It rocked my truck to quite a shocking degree, and to my shame I did not get my camera ready in time. I did get one pic (see waaay above), but I tried for a little movie and in my excitement I didn't press the buttons in the right order.
On to Ely, grab a room at the Hotel Nevada, which is the old-school casino downtown. It is chocked full of goofy western memorabilia and is an all around trip.
I am at an internet cafe in Ely (who knew there was such a thing!) and I'm concerned because my truck's "take me to the dealer" light came on 10 miles out of town (my best guess is that the dust and bumps from the Lunar Craters side trip broke something). Car repair in Ely, doesn't have a good ring to it. Hotel lady recommends Precision Auto, so I call them and arrange to come by and get the bad news tomorrow.
The cafe is one of those funky multi-purpose stores you find in small towns. In addition to an espresso machine, it is a gift shop and a florist, and as luck would have it, it is also the place to rent formal wear. Well, the Ely High prom is this weekend! a mere three days from now, so there was a constant parade of high school kids coming in and getting fitted for their tuxes.
Back to the casino. There are lots of cute older couples having their big weekend in the biggest town around. I think lots of them have come over from Utah for a little sinnin'. I wish I was a cute older couple. Wait a minute! What's wrong with me? I have gone completely maudlin.