This July 4th Google Geoff and I roadtripped I-395. We kicked off the weekend with a Friday night dinner with Sam and Rachel, who are sharing the home of a well-known mathematical magician. It was a full house: with host, extended family and guests, there were 14 of us lounging around the grounds. If I ever have 6 kids, I would like to have five pre-adolescent girls and a boy. This is a delightful combination–and maybe this explains a lot about how the world works. After hamburgers and s’mores, we craned our necks for a few minutes in the direction of fireworks over the Seven Sisters Claremont Colleges complex and headed for bed.
Up and out the next morning to Bishop along 395, and onto the trail–which we shared with some enthusiastic hikers…and a large search and rescue team looking for ‘Rick’, who had been dropped off on the trail and had not been seen for several days. We hiked from South Lake to Saddlerock Lake, at 10 to 11 thousand feet. We thought we understood how Rick could have succumbed: the altitude was loopifying for two who had started at sea level that morning. The mosquitoes, too, we found to be, uh, *ambitious*. A Bosnian we met, hiking in a group of four, proclaimed, ‘These are not regular mosquitoes’. He parted with the remainder of his bug juice and jetted down the trail, kharma secure.
We camped at dusk, made some frightening non-hamburger dinner, and collapsed. Next morning, nice gradual illumination of Bishop Creek made for some nice pictures. We hiked up to the pass, and encountered some people doing something hard: portaging their kayaks up from below 10,000 feet to over 12,000 feet, with 5 days of supplies to boot. I didn’t approve of their footwear. Have a look at the terrain.
Next night, we pitched tents at a horse camp by the Stanislaus River in Sonora Pass, which is bracing but effective for getting the dust off. Pretty good dinner too–it cost us the fuel that would have given us breakfast the following morning. I’ve driven through this area twice before, wanting to camp out there. 108 is a great alternative to Tioga Pass road: Sonora Pass has none of the tour buses and restrictive regulations of Yosemite. I love the coastline, but the Sierra Nevada is the crown jewel of California I think.
When I got home, I was greeted by just one cat at the door: and I heard Dipsea meowing distantly from the bathroom. Judging from the only partially-eaten rations in the cat feeder, she was locked in for about 48 hours–enough time to thoroughly shred a roll of toilet paper. And I take a look at the news: you would think that the entire state of California was on fire. But I think they’re making it up to distract us from the failed budget sessions in the state assembly: we drove 1000 miles through national forests and parks in Central California and didn’t see a single wildfire.
