October 8, 2011 GMR with Fred and Gina on a warm Saturday morning

Matt, Beanz, and GMR just below the shack. Fred and Gina below Newman's Point Some of the Saturday morning traffic on GMR Opening stretch on GMR Fred and Gina at top of GMR with Baldy behind. Started lout by doing something I usually try to avoid, riding Saturday mornings on GMR. There was plenty of traffic of all types, cars, motorcycles, and even lots of bicycles. We started off with another BF member heading up with us, but as he was on a time limit, he took off after a switchback or two. I think his name was Ganero, but I am not sure. The ride was a little on the warm side starting off, and got nicer the higher up the road we went. Fred had a hard time as he was on a different bike than normal, and he was not able to spin like he likes to do on his triple that is no longer among the living. But that is another story, soon to be told, as he has received his new frame from Trek and just needs to build it up. We came across Matt and Annette not far below the shack and stopped to chat and take the obligated pictures all the way around. The weather up there was as close to perfect as it gets. One could see for miles and miles without even really trying. Almost crystal clear out. After hanging out on top for a while, we had the fun part of the ride ahead of us, the long downhill coast. This ride ended up in direct contrast to the one just 2 days earlier, as it was warm all the way from the top to the bottom. Another great ride up GMR.

October 6, 2011 Nice ride up GMR with Beanz, but a cold ride down.

Some of the downhill traffic on GMR Thursday The "rides" at Newman's Point

The view down GMR at Newman's Point.

Got off work and had arraigned to meet Beanz at the bottom of GMR for a ride. Thought he might be just a tad slower on his Cannondale, maybe different gearing and all, but was I wrong. With the CD having a standard crank and all, just thought he would be easier to keep in sight. Wrong. Oh well. The weather looked COLD out when I left the house, and I dressed accordingly, or so I thought. By the time I met Beanz at the bottom of GMR, it was obvious I was WAY over dressed. Took some off and still was breaking a sweat before hitting the horse shoe curve at the bottom. At least it wasn't cold, yet. We took our (my) time getting up the road, stopping oat Newman's Point for a few pictures and just to enjoy the views. After finishing there, we headed up to the wall above the shack. Was nice up there but the clouds were starting to get a little thicker. We sat around shooting the shit, with Fred remembering old times he had back when he was single and all. Not much traffic went by, a good reason for riding midweek with a later morning start. Baldy was all under clouds, as was all the mountain range behind us, which kept me from getting any pictures in that direction. The kicker of the entire ride was once we decided it was time to head back down. The sky had gotten a lot darker and there was for all intents, no direct sunshine at all. We get spoiled with the weather around here, and it is easy to forget the top of GMR is 3,500 in elevation. While not the parking lot at Baldy(6,500) or Onyx Summit (8,400), still high enough to make for cool times once summer is gone,and up there, summer is gone. Not to say daytime temps in the next few weeks will be Arctic, but this time of year it is more often than not cold on the way back down. The first 2 to 3 miles were cold, but not unbearable by any means, and the sun did try to break out of the clouds a few times, which made things nicer for sure. By half way down things were warming nicely and the rest of the ride was fine. Another great day in the mountains.

September 24-25, 2011 Little Jimmy's for a Saturday night

Fire road out to South Mount Hawkins. What may just be the last one. Dawson Saddle from Little Jimmy's. Troop of Scrub Scouts that also spent the night. Is that a bottle of wine in Jim's pack? View looking North from L.J.Campground Mt. Islip from the Windy Gap Trail. Headed up above Crystal Lake on Saturday afternoon for what was supposed to be a night on top of Mt. Hawkins, but alas, it was not to be. After dragging out ass's up to Windy Gap, we decided to head down to the campground at Little Jimmy's and spend the night there. We were not going to be alone, that was for sure. Seems every Boy Scout in SOCal was up there earning a merit badge of some kind or another. They did seem to quiet down some, even before we were done preparing and having our dinner. The night went rather quickly as I was tired before we had even started the trip, and I slept like a babe. Next morning we hung around for a while, taking pics shooting shit as usual. Headed back down sometime before 11AM, getting to the car around 12:30 or so. Another nice trip in the local hills.

September 17, 2011 Saturday evening up GMR with Fred, Gina, Herb, and Alyce

Fred, Gina, Alyce, and Herb at the shack. Herb and Alyce on the way up. Fred and Gina Horse shoe curve at bottom of GMR At the shack before ride down, racing the darkness Hadn't been up GMR in a while, so I tried talking Fred and Gina into a Saturday night ride up to try and beat the sunset. Well, we made it up in time, but were a little slow in getting down . Friends of Fred's came along, Herb and Alyce. They had been up GMR a few times with Fred and Gina in the last few months, but never for an evening ride. Everyone had lights on the way back down except Gina. I should have seen that and ridden behind her, but seeing how I had the brightest light, I brought up the rear of the procession. All in all a good ride, but next time I will bring an extra light just to make sure everyone is taken care of.

September 9-12, 2011 Pine Creek Canyon

View South of our camp at Horton Creek. Chuck enjoying an early Monday morning refreshment. Another look down Owen's Valley. Spot we stopped and had dinner on way out. Yet another Horton Creek view. Sunday morning weather up in Granite Park. Our Granite Park campsite. Perfect. Sunday morning weather in Granite Park. More of the same. Honeymoon Lake cutoff. Well, Chuck said it rained off and on for over an hour during the night (Sat.), and I do remember waking up 3 or 4 different times and hearing rain on the tent through the night. That being said, when getting out of the tent Sunday morning we were faced with the worse weather of the entire trip. Cloudy, wet, a system moving in on us, and the threat of snow a real possibility. After we all had some breakfast, we decided to head up towards, Italy Pass, if for no other reason than to just get out and do some hiking. Carne came with us. but turned around after a little while. He needed to make it home on Sunday, as he had to be to work Monday morning. After he left us, Chuck, Warren, and I continued up towards the pass, but the weather was getting worse all the time. We saw a couple of groups of guys, some heading up and some down, and got to maybe a mile or less from the pass before we said the heck with it and turned back. General feeling was the place will always be there for another trip, no need to go higher and risk getting caught in really bad weather. On the return, Chuck slipped on some wet granite and went down really hard, bending his hiking pole past the point of no return. Lucky for him he was using it, as it saved him from hitting harder than he already did. Upon getting back to the tents, we took our time packing up and headed off down the trail about 3 PM. I really am not sure when the decision to go all the way back to the car instead of staying Sunday night at Pine Creek Lake was made, but made it was. We stopped about 6PM just below the lake to have something to eat,before hitting the last LONG stretch of trail. We hiked as long as we could before breaking out the headlamps, as the last almost 2 hours were hiked in the dark. Man, id those last miles seem to take for ever. Straights. switchbacks, stream crossings, all knowing that the car with beer was somewhere not too far below us in the dark. Chuck got so tired the last few miles I noticed he was walking through the streams instead of hopping on rocks to try and keep his feet dry. When I later asked him about it, he said he was unaware he was doing that, even though at times he walked in water that was over the tops of his boots. We were all pretty beat by that point. Once the parking lot finally came into view, it was time to rejoice. This trip covered not that many miles, but the elevation gain and loss was of epic proportions. We drove into Bishop and found burgers and beer, even at the late hour we got there. We then did a round about trek and finally found Horton Creek campground. As it was dark when we arrived, we did not see the signs saying the campground was closed, and we proceeded to find a spot for the night. We ate and drank our just rewards of the death march we had just finished , and then it was sneakers up. Warren, in his never ending quest to get home at a reasonable hour, took off sometime around 3 AM I am guessing, leaving Chuck and myself to finish off the beers Monday morning and to enjoy the extremely nice views from Horton Creek. When they finish the construction there, it will be an even nicer place than it already is. After leaving H.C. C. G., we headed down to Whitney Portal for lunch. Hard to be up there and not have a burger at the Portal Store. All in all, a trip into an area I hadn't visited in over 25 years I would guess. Got the lay of the land and am going back for sure to get, Royce, Merriam, and Feather Peaks. Granite Park was really cool.

September 9-12, 2011 Pine Creek Canyon

Late Saturday evening above our camp. View of weather coming our way. Royce Pass is just below mountain in center of the picture. Fantastic area. Saturday nights camp. Area was found by Carne wandering all over the place looking for the best site, and he found this. Perfect spot. View from a little higher up. I think this was where we stopped for lunch, but not sure. Nice cascade either way. Chuck'a shot of myself, Carne, and Warren heading back to camp after a short hike up towards Royce Pass. Weather coming our way. Sunday mornings breakfast. Carne's shot of Chuck and myself on hike up towards Royce Pass. Not sure of the name, but nice peak. Saturday started out weird. as I was up WAY before anyone else, before 6AM., and never went back to sleep. And I mean out of the sleeping bag and tent up. Was beginning to think something was wrong with me or something. LOL. You could see that it had snowed the night before, as the last 3 to 4 hundred feet of Mt. Tom had a light dusting of snow on it. I sat and watched the weather rolling in over us from Owens Valley, and it did not look promising. As it turned out though, Saturday had probably the best all around weather of the trip. By the time we started hiking, ( and I would be remiss here if I didn't mention I was the first one packed and ready to go this morning. Might possibly be an all time first.), the weather was starting to be a lot nicer. The threat of rain was still there, just not as bad as when I had woke up at 6 AM. We took off and hiked around Pine Lake and got up to Upper Pine Lake, which was nice in its own way, but different from the lower one. Once we got above the upper lake, we found the trail off to Honeymoon Lake, which was the cutoff we were going to take. Another nice lake, one that may require going back to with no more intention of then spending a few days at it to check out the fishing. Once above Honeymoon, things started to thin out a bit as far as the trees and vegetation were concerned. We were about 11,000 feet or so, and timberline was coming up fast. It had started to cloud up again, so we took to looking for a camp site earlier than the day before. Warren and Carne had dropped their packs and were covering quite a bit of territory looking for a suitable spot. At one time I looked way up the bench we were on and saw Carne quite a ways up, and thought he had found a spot behind some trees, but it turned out not to be such a good spot. He came back to where the packs were and did a little more scouting around and found the place we ended up choosing. and a great site it was, with sandy ground making for comfortable sleeping . It was next to the stream also, so that problem was solved too. After getting the tents up. we headed out for a quick recon of the area towards Royce Pass. We were able to get up high enough to get some really great views. Went to bed early again for me, as the weather again was starting to get a little wet. Nice if not short day.

September 9-12, 2011 Pine Creek Canyon

First nights view at Pine Lake camp Carne's Sierra Design tent, Nice. Chuck putting it into 4 wheel drive on the first couple of miles of the hike. Carne and Warren taking a break. They did a lot of this waiting on Chuck and myself. The view that greeted us on Friday morning when we woke up in the parking lot.(By the way, I think this was the best shot of the entire trip, and it is Chuck's. Carne at Friday nights camp at Pine Lake. If you look real close, you can see two guys doing some fifth class up there. Well, we were going to leave SoCal by about 3 PM on Thursday, but as seems to be the case of late, we didn't get out of town until 10PM. As things turned out, it was a good thing in that we made Bishop in 4 hours. Not a bad time at all. 395 was empty compared to an afternoon drive up it, and the only incident we had was a run in with what Chuck and I thought might have been an owl. It took off from the side of the road just as we passed it and it ended up flying right into my windshield. Dead owl. Left an ugly smear on the windshield. We got up to the parking lot at the Pine Creek Trail head somewhere around 2;30 AM or so. Woke Warren up and finished off what little beer he had left. LOL At least it was still cold. So Friday morning we take off from the parking lot and keep our heads bent down. Bottom part of the trail is through some heavily wooded area, nice and humid. Weather forecast for the weekend left a lot to be desired. Wind, rain, snow, and things like that. Not the usual September weather in the Sierra's. The trail wasn't super steep or anything, just consistent. Uphill all the way to the lakes was the route description, and it wasn't wrong. After taking WAY longer than we should have to hike the mileage to Pine Lake, we finally get there and find a quite nice site right on the shore of the lake. By the time we finish eating dinner and such, it was all I could do to TRY and stay awake while the others sat around shooting the shit. About 9 PM , I could take no more and went to sleep . Man was I tired.