Respite from Hiking - Independence Day and more at Mammoth Lakes

            July 1 – I spent the day making the journey from Tuolomne Meadows to Lone Pine. Two bus rides, with a day of trolley rides in between to pass the time, gave me plenty of time to process my decision.

This explains what happened in the pics below - too much CO2

            I arrived in Mammoth around 10 a.m., and my bus to Lone Pine didn’t leave until 5:20, so I had a day, with my 40-pound pack, to spend at Mammoth Lakes. I spent the first part of it at McDonalds (the help there recognized me by now), charging my phone and making friends with an older couple who had lots of suggestions and ideas of things to do in Mammoth. After a while, I decided to ride the free trolley around town to waste some time and get out of McDonalds. The first trolley driver, a cranky but helpful woman, suggested I take a different line that ran up in the Lakes Basin. It was a much prettier ride, she told me. She also informed me that the plaza where I was to wait for that trolley had a Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Store. Oh yeah, baby – she knew how to get me off that trolley.

A cautionary tale seen from the trolley

            I indulged and waited for the Lakes Basin Trolley, and when it arrived, I settled in for a nice ride. And it was beautiful. I was able to spot where the campsites were and the driver had all sorts of information about the area. I rode it twice, burning a few hours, before catching the town trolley back to McDonalds. A plan was beginning to form.

The trolly hauls people and their bikes up the mountain to the Lakes Basin

            I finally made it to Lone Pine about 7:30 p.m., picked up my computer and my car, and checked into the hotel. The only room available was one with a whirlpool tub, so I took about a 45-minute shower followed by a long soak in the tub. Getting clean never felt better as the dirt streamed off my aching body. And the clean, cool sheets felt pretty good too. I was able to set the alarm for late morning, and that’s just what I did.

            July 2 – I wanted to get to Mammoth fairly early with the impending holiday. I knew campsites would be at a premium, so I wanted to get one through the weekend to avoid being stranded with nowhere to set up. I wasn’t sure I was ready to be back in the tent, but once I got to Mammoth and found my campsite, I was happy to be there.

I had to repeatedly run off this little visitor

            I first found a site at Lake George, but it wasn’t right on the lake. I wanted to ask the Camp Host some questions about length of stay, and a sign directed me to visit Lake Mary Campground to find the host. There, the host, LaDonna, was thrilled to hear I was from Sioux City. Her husband was from Iowa originally. It seems everyone knows someone from Iowa or is from Iowa him or herself out here. She told me a prime spot on the lake would be vacated the next day, and let me pay for it ahead of time, ensuring no one would beat me to it. I love how many people are willing to go out of their way to help a person out. The kindness of strangers . . .

            So I was set. I set up camp and spent some time picking up a few groceries in Mammoth. Everything is very expensive here with it being a resort town, but my camp fees for five nights only came to $120. That’s high for what I usually spend, but with the holiday and the location, I was still very pleased. And that’s about what it costs to stay one night in a mediocre hotel here, not during a holiday weekend.

Lake George

            Mammoth is a beautiful town, and the hiking here is plentiful. I’ll be able to access parts of the JMT here, and I can add some other hikes I wouldn’t have been able to do. I also decided I’ll explore the area a bit – revisiting the ghost town of Bodie, and exploring other area trails. And every time I look up, I see the beautiful Sierra Nevada.

View at my campsite on Lake Mary

            July 3 – I moved my camp to the new site, and I spent more time investigating the area. The campground filled up by the afternoon, and there are people everywhere. I’ll be glad when the holiday weekend is over, but there is something appealing about the festive air of the crowd.

            My next door neighbor at the campground is a couple from southern California – she’s 50 and he’s 62. They’re considerate of my space, even if they do drive a big RV and have lots of stuff set up and around, and they’re nice people. She, a self-described pot head, invited me to smoke with them (I declined) and she gave me a great affirmation for writing. She said, as I’m hiking along, if I have an idea to stop and jot it down and then say to myself: “I receive, I will remember, I will write.” I’m going to try this out.

            So I’m bedded down for at least the next four or five days here in Mammoth, and will very likely extend that. The next two days will be filled with Independence Day festivities including a parade, Chihuahua races, jugglers, and fireworks. What a fun place to spend the holiday.

            July 4 – Waking up early, I headed to town to find a good parking place for the parade and the day’s festivities. I found one right away, and with hours to spare before the parade began, I wandered to the local famous bakery, Shatts, to get some breakfast.

A little taste of heaven

           

            I wasn’t the only person with this idea, and the line wound around the store, each person salivating over the wide selection of delectables in the glass cases. After some agonizing decision-making, I settled on a fruit-piled tart of some sorts and a chocolate-covered Bavarian Crème pastry. I don’t know if I’ve ever had better pastries in my life. The crust on the tart melted in my mouth, and the Bavarian Crème pastry was sliced in half and loaded with the sweet crème. It too was melt-in-your-mouth light and scrumptious. Sitting outside, enjoying my pastries and messaging a friend, the morning was ideal.

Lots of horses and mules - not relegated to the rear

Those are water drops saying "save me"

Promoting water preservation in a drought-filled area

Search and rescue

Search and rescue

Lots of firetrucks

            After I finally finished my meal, I wandered back down near my car, and found a place I could sit on the grass and watch the parade go by. As luck would have it, I had stumbled on prime parade real estate and was directly across from the announcer. I had a great view of the parade and enjoyed watching not only the floats and such, but also the kids experiencing it. The day was perfect and the parade lot of fun – if rather long at more than an hour – and I visited with a hiker from Canada and a few families from the area. 

Accommodations for all types of athletes

            

 

A baby pool set out for hot dogs

             I spent the rest of the afternoon shopping at the arts festival before I’d exhausted my enjoyment of people and activity. I then headed to Convict Lake to check it out, and drove out to Crowley Lake, a few miles down the road, to see if I wanted to return there to watch the fireworks that night.

Convict Lake

How the lake got its name

            Convict Lake was beautiful and if it hadn’t been so crowded I would have spent more time there. But I grabbed a few quiet moments between tourists, and then moved on. It was great to find out later from my friend Pat that parts of Star Trek Insurrection had been filmed there. Who knew?

            Crowley Lake was a bust – it cost $25 to stay and watch the show, so I decided to skip it. I returned to my campsite and enjoyed a quiet evening of cooking over the campfire and reading. Not a bad Independence Day at all.

            July 5 – This is the day Mammoth Lakes proper designated as its party day for the holiday. Festivities began in early afternoon and would run until late in the evening, culminating in a fireworks display of course.

Cooked my own breakfast this time

            After a leisurely morning in the campground, I drove into town to check out the festivities. I people-watched more than anything – there are a lot of wealthy people who hang out in Mammoth, and all of them are fit. It is such an active town, with bicyclists and hikers making up the majority of the population in the summer and skiers dominating in the winter. It was fun to see all the families who enjoy the outdoor activities together.

            By the end of the afternoon, I had to get away from all the people for a while before returning for the evening’s live music. I find myself less and less interested in crowds and people as time goes on.

            I was glad I returned for the LB Soul Society, a blues/pop band from the coast. They were great, and the crowd was a little sparser, at least at the beginning. But by the time the band finished, I could barely walk through the plaza. After asking a fire fighter about the fireworks, I realized the show wouldn’t be such an extravaganza as I’d hoped. He said it’d be a small show, and I would have to be fairly close to see it.

 

            Deciding to beat the traffic, I left, confident that I’d see another fireworks display another time. And maybe because of the crowd, I was beginning to get one of those bouts of loneliness I occasionally get on these trips. I’ve had some great experiences watching fireworks with people I love, some of them romantic, and I ached just a little for the shared experience. But all in all, it was a very nice holiday weekend.