Archive for October 2006
You are browsing the archives of 2006 October.
Road Trip — Mammoth Lakes
(Click photo for all 54 photos)
I landed in the town of Mammoth Lakes last night and this morning over breakfast, I checked out the brochure and decided on my path of exploration for the day. I start off with a trip up to the top of Lookout Mountain to see what there is to see. I turned off the road and followed the dirt road up to the top and enjoyed a beautiful view of the valley in all directions. I explored some of the other dirt roads and sat very still for a while to get a picture of a chipmunk–they are fast little guys! I continued 4×4′ing it for a bit and went and found the geocache called “Joyride in the Forest”, which reminded me of the flying car in the Harry Potter movie coming out of the woods, all beat up and battered, to rescue the boys. Next on the agenda was a visit to the Inyo Craters, volcanic craters from an eruption years ago. After turned around a bit on the unmarked dirt roads, I found my way back to the main road and then went to check out the Earthquake Fault; it’s kinda cool how the earth just opened up like a zipper. On the way to my last stop for the day, I passed the empty Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort and saw the big woolly mammoth. The Minaret Vista view point was my last stop for the day. At 9,265 feet high, it provides an expansive view in all directions–a nice place to enjoy the sunset.
“This is the sense of the desert hills, that there is room enough and time enough.” –Mary Austin, 1903
Road Trip — Monitor Pass
(Click photo for all 17 photos)
So, I’m taking a long four day weekend and heading over to the Eastern Sierra to explore and enjoy the fall colors. It’s a long drive over the mountains and one of the pitstops I decided to make was at Burnside Lake to grab a bite to eat and a geocache. It’s a really pretty lake, one I’d not paid attention to the last time I saw it. Two years ago I passed Burnside Lake while on a 17 mile dayhike up Hawkins Peak, which is nearby. This time I did the 4×4 thing to get to the lake, it’s a much easier way to see the lake.. LOL! Continuing on, Monitor Pass is the name of one of the stretches of highway that crosses you over the Sierra Mountains. It’s beautiful up there, you can normally see views for hundreds of miles. However, today as I hit the summit, I’m greeted by snow coming at me horizontally, so the views weren’t that great. But after the snow and rain stopped, a pretty little rainbow came out to greet me. Even though this area is still recovering from a severe wildfire a few years back, it’s still very pretty in my opinion.
Geocaching to Quintette’s Vexation
(Click for all 23 photos)
For those that don’t know, geocaching is a high-tech kind of treasure hunting game. All around you are hidden little caches that contain a log book and possibly some trinket treasures. To give you an idea of the size of the game, the webpage keeps a running tally and here’s today’s count:
“There are 319,764 active caches in 222 countries. In the last 7 days, there have been 202,282 new logs written by 32,691 account holders.”
That’s a lot of caches and a lot of people playing a geeky game! You don’t really see most of the caches because they have been hidden so that you won’t see them and if you’re not part of the game, you are referred to as a “muggle” (yes, from Harry Potter). To find them, you use your GPS (Global Positioning System) to find them. A GPS uses satellites to tell you the latitude and longitude coordinates of where in the world you are. The person who hid the cache, makes note of the coordinates and then creates an entry on the website to tell the rest of use that a new cache has been hidden and here’s were we can find it. You use your GPS to find almost exactly where it is hidden… looking silly, holding your GPS gizmo in front of you, you get all excited that it says 452 feet northwest–it knows where you are in relationship to the hidden cache! In the geocaching game, it’s also something of a coup to be the first one to find a newly hidden cache; and you get to sign the log as First To Find–FTF. Well, there has a cache hidden a couple of weeks ago called “Quintette’s Vexation” and since it had still be unfound as of this morning, I just had to go for it and see if I couldn’t log my first FTF. So I downloaded the information and set off in the car towards Georgetown, up in the foothills. A couple of stops along Highway 193 and I was in the caching mood. In Georgetown, I took a walk through the Georgetown Nature Area, behind the elementary school, and found several more that had been hidden then. That’s mostly what this game is about, to take you to places that you wouldn’t necessarily know is there. If you aren’t associated with this school, I doubt you would know this wonderful nature is back there and open to the public. And next on my list was to go and see if I get my FTF… I arrive in the area, hike into the forest for a little bit, find the cache and am thrilled to death that I am the very first person to find this cache and sign the log… my very first FTF!! Ahhhh, found a few caches more on the way back home and so ends a very relaxing and successful day of geocaching.
