Bishop to Oaktown

We drove back to Oakland today, stopping at the hot springs near the green church on 395. I managed to get the subie mildly stuck in the snow, but after a relaxing dip in the springs, I rocked it out of the snow. I need a Unimog, I guess.

Walking to the springs


Ice crystals along the way




the Hot Springs




Zubietas in the Mist


Checking out the hot stream




Back at the car



The springs were nice, but the arrival of some mouth breathers encouraged Chloe and I to get started freeing the car, so we hastily toweled off and got down to business. Five minutes, and a few millimeters of clutch later, the car was free and on the pavement. We loaded up, re-duct taped the annoying crash pad bits that had come loose, and headed North.

395 was beautiful as always, and we made a small detour to have lunch at the JT bar. The last time we had tried to eat here we had shown up too early and ended up at some horrible place like a Subway. This time, we arrived well within the two hour lunch window and hungry for some Basque food. The decor inside is saloon-ish, but not in an oppressive tourist-bait way. The food was quite good; I had the excellent steak sandwich, which included a gigantic salad and fries.






It was another fun trip to Bishop, but I have to say that the mega-crews and trustafarian posses roaming the tablelands and Buttermilks really sucks. Next time we go, I'm going to lobby for staying waaaay off the beaten track, snow permitting.

oh so sad boulders

We bouldered at the Sads today -- lots of attempts but no glory on 'Molly', but good efforts and climbing by all. Even Zoe took the cue and crawled up some slabs. She also used some of the excellent tuff pockets to stand up. She's climbing before walking!





Thanks to Aunt Christa for spotting!

awesomeness of the day

hotel wifi+netflix movies on demand

Eureka Dunes

We drove to the Eureka Dunes in Death Valley. Death Valley Road was a bit snowy, but not too bad and we made the trip to the foot of the dunes fairly quickly. The road, despite being dirt for the final part, is very flat and once you get to the base of the dunes there's even an outhouse and picnic tables -- deluxe! As soon as we got there an F-18 buzzed the dunes


With Christa as Zoe-Sherpa, we all headed to what looked like the highest dune peak and hung out for a while.








We jumped off the top





and discovered that Zoe loves to scoot herself down the dunes.

Carrying her back up can be a bit tiring though. As Chloe slid down the dunes next to her, she triggered some of the famous "Booming" noises in the dunes.

From the top, we found a better place to jump and all took turns getting sandy






I landed badly and ended up with an ear full of sand



After a little more Zoe sand scooting, we headed back to the car




On the drive back, the CHP were dealing with a truck that had flipped over in the narrows. The truck was upside down in the ditch. There was snow on the road, so they probably just took the turn too fast.

Back at the Trees Motel, we split up and I headed up to the Buttermilks for a quick session in which I got shut down on Saigon AGAIN.

happy boulders

We dragged ZZN up to the Happy Boulders today, where Christa and Christine got a taste of bouldering and the lovely scene in the tablelands. Zoe enjoyed crawling along the rocks, playing with mini snowballs (and eating them) and picking up rocks.



I got flummoxed by Serengheti, despite doing it easily four years ago, and then we headed up the hill to get bewildered by 'Cueball' and finally ended up on Rio's Arete -- one of my favorites in the happys. Chloe was less enamored of it because she favors less technical thuggish climbs than I do, but she put in a good effort


After bouldering, we looked for the tablelands petroglyphs but gave up when we discovered that the road was covered in snow.

We had dinner and a pitcher of beer from Mammoth Mountain Brewing at a pizza joint in town. Bishop isn't exactly an epicurean wonderland, but pizza and beer are a pretty good cap to a day of bouldering.