Sierra Hiking

 

After a day or so of sitting around the campground sucking up the natural beauty of the Sierras from afar we decided it was time to get up close and personal. 

 

Our first adveture was to Sabrina Lake (pronounced  - sa brine′ ah) for a hike along the lake shore.  Sabrina Lake is at about 10,000 feet and was just starting to open up.  The lake level was very low in anticipation of the spring snow melt.

Having used up all that energy we refreshed ourselves with some of the Sabrina Cafe's coffee and their famous Chocolate Brownie Pie.

Red Headed Woodpecker on Aspen

The next morning we were up with the birds for a trip  to another 10,000 foot lake, but this time we would have to hike to it.  The hike to Grassy Lake would be difficult because the snow pack was still significant above around 8,500 feet but we were well prepared and decided to give it a shot.

 

Mountain Bluebird

  The lower section of the trail was more or less flat and clear of snow.  The aspens were on the verge of budding and a general feel of spring was in the air.

Looking into the John Muir Wilderness area

 As expected we hit snow as soon as we started to ascend, but along with the snow came spectacular views of the Eastern Sierras and The John Muir Wilderness.  John Muir is a federally protected wilderness area, free of roads, verhicles, and construction of any type.

 

 

 We donned our gaiters, crampons, and trekking poles and pushed on, finally making it to the lake after about 3½ hours.

It was well worth it.

Honeycomb Rocks - Dixie National Forest, Utah

Our plan was to camp for a night or two at Honeycomb Rocks, but like all plans, this one went awry, but in a very pleasant way. The campground was closed. Like many National

Forest areas there is dispersed camping allowed throughout the forest away from the campgrounds. The forest service road continued on by the campground, and so did we. About a quarter mile away the road climbed up a ridge to overlook the Upper Enterprise Reservoir.

It was Saturday and there was a full complement of rigs along the ridge getting ready to party so we continued along the road until it forded the inlet to the reservoir (we're so glad at times like this that we have a 4 wheel drive truck camper) and crossed to the other side of the lake and set up camp. It was early afternoon and shortly the shootin', hollerin' and rap music started up across the lake...and you know how well sound can carry across a lake. We did a little exploring and found that the lake was horseshoe shaped and the prettiest part of the lake lay behind another ridge that only a vehicle like ours could access.

Pack up the TC, raise the jacks, lock in the 4 wheel drive, up and over the ridge to the nicest little, serene, quiet, spot, right on the lake shore.

We set up camp and were met by the local greeters. We think these are dowitchers.

We had escaped the Saturday night yahoos on the other side of the lake, but had no shortage of visitors for the rest of our stay here.

A small group of 7 mule deer visited us most evenings and every morning.

There had been a very recent hatching of some kind of insect, (non-biting) that had the local cliff swallows in a feeding frenzy. The picture above illustrates how hard it is to capture a cliff swallow in full dive, but you get the picture.

Cheryl also caught (with her camera of course) an American Avocet fishing in the lake.

The first night we took a walk to find out what these honeycomb rocks were all about. It turns out that the rocks in the area are volcanic tuff, which is a light porous rock created by compression of volcanic ash over millions of years. They are scattered about the area in bits and pieces and also make up the canyons, ledges and plateaus that surround the lake.

 

Here's a picture of the namesake honeycomb.

It was beautiful on the lake, but we were exposed to the wind out there and the prediction was for more and greater winds over the next few days.

We elected to move a few hundred feet to a more sheltered spot.  The new spot provided us with a good place to do a load of laundry.

Traveling as we do for months at a time, laundry becomes an issue. We can, and do, go to laundromats, but it is often easier to just do a small wash in a 5 gallon bucket and hang it out to dry. We have our “Emergency Essentials” Bucket Washer (I'll post a picture sometime), our patented 4 hands wringer, and here in the west, between the dry air and the almost constant wind, the clothes are ready in a very short time.

It was still a peaceful scene, near the small inlet on the edge of the lake, and we were much less bothered by the wind, and we still had our visitors every morning.

 

We had the usual visits from Vultures. Cheryl calls it the beautiful flight of the ugly bird.

The desert is starting to come alive with flowers and we hope to be seeing many more in the coming weeks as we head east, through Kanab, and into the Paria river area, just west of Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam.

The Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains - California

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Our approach to the Sierras was from the East. We crossed the White Mountains at Mongomery Pass and descended into the Owens Valley north of Bishop California.

Mural in downtown Bishop.

After a quick stop by the "Produce Police" in Benton, forcing us to eat or discard our citrus before proceeding, we made our way south to Bishop. Bishop California is a great little mountain town reminiscent of places like Whitefish Montana, North Conway New Hampshire, and Jackson Hole Wyoming before the great migration. Sure, it's busy and it has a "strip" , but it also has that feel that the people who live and visit here come for the mountains. Main Street has lots of coffee shops, a few bars, and plenty of outfitters.

The Inyo National Forest, in the Eastern Sierra mountain range, lies immediately to the west of Bishop. Many of the Forest Service campgrounds were still closed but Bishop Park, at 8,000 feet, and right up there in the high peaks, was open. You have to love a campsite with mountain sunrises and sunsets, deer wandering through the campground, easy access to hiking and a 15 minute drive from Bishop.

For sheer rugged beauty it's hard to beat the Sierras. Weather at this time of year varies from 80℉ daytime temperatures to 20℉ at night, bright sun to snow. that's just about perfect weather for us.

Red Cedar at Rock Creek

Convict Lake, one of the few that were free of ice at this time of year.

Dolores and Telluride, Colorado

Since viewing the ski movie "The Blizzard of Ahhhs" many years ago Cheryl has had an overwhelming desire to see Telluride, Colorado. So, we left Bandelier NM,passed through the Jemez Springs area and headed north. Our first stop was a campground in the San Juan National Forest, right on the Dolores River. We like the National Forest Campgrounds for several reasons. They're inexpensive, they're generally quiet, many campers avoid them due to the limited resources (not a problem for a solar powered, self-contained, truck camper like ours) and most of all, they are in some of the most beautiful forest and mountain terrain in America.As a case in point, this is the view from our camper at the Mavreeso Campground. Not too shabby, eh? Several deer crossed the river a few feet from our camper as we were eating our evening meal. Very cool.The next morning we left early and enjoyed the ride through a long valleyand across Ophir Pass on the way to Telluride.Telluride is at the head of a box canyon and while there is some development outside the canyon (due of course to the rather large ski area in the canyon) the town itself is much as it has been for many years. There's not much room to expand surrounded as it is on three sides by steep canyon walls.It's a great town of funky shops and restaurants interspersed with the expected bike and outdoor shops and the usual real estate offices. It's a fun town and we're thinking it would be a fun place to spend a winter. Could happen!I made an essential stop and we spend most of a morning strolling through town chatting with the locals and viewing the sights.At the head of the canyon is Bridal Veil Falls. Click on this picture to get a larger version so you can really appreciate this natural wonder. The people and places of Telluride are wonderful. I imagine the skiing is too.We drove out of Telluride and headed up along the Colorado / Utah border for Dinosaur National Monument.

Uwharrie NF and Asheville NC

As you can see I've been hard at work on the BLOG, but 3 or 4 days without internet access have put us a bit behind.We're in the Uwharrie National Forest. Another of North Carolina's beautiful National Forests, this one is situated in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains on Lake Badin. Unfortunately we arrived about 2 weeks too early to fully appreciate the flora of the area. Most of the trees are just starting to bud. Being the intrepid hikers that we are we did a 5.5 mile loop hike along the shore of the lake. This would be our last non-rainy day in this area.

Cardinal in Uwharrie NF
Our Campsite. As you can see the trees are still pretty bare.

One of the unique things in this area is the prevalence of quartz. Chunks of it are just laying around. Not sure where they came from, probably some glacier.
We also found a strange tree here. We later found that it is called a "Winged Elm". As you can see, strange growths form along the branches. The growth is actually part of the bark of the tree. Very weird.

Penland School of Crafts
We left the forest for a visit with friends just north of Asheville and spent a day touring the Penland School of Crafts. Penland is a nationally recognized school for fine artisans in many media. Started in 1923 by "Miss Lucy" Morgan, the school provides studio space and advanced instruction in woodworking, metal, pottery, jewelry, glass blowing, and many other crafts. There are several resident instructors, on 3 year residencies, who have studio and exhibit space as well as living quarters on the premises. We visited several artisans in their studios and one class and were warmly welcomed to watch and have our many questions answered thoughtfully and thoroughly.

Penland is located deep in a hollow forged out of this ancient land by the North Toe River. The canyon walls are covered with wild rhododendrons and I'm sure June will bring a spectacular bloom.

The campus is an exquisite showcase of work usually seen only in the finest galleries in major cities.

There is more information on Penland School here. Penland School



Biltmore Mansion

George Vanderbilt must have had a lot of money, because he spent a ton of it building his mansion "Biltmore" in Asheville. This is opulence at it's acme, but it is the supreme attention to detail and the wonderful craftsmanship of the house and gardens that brings many thousands of people to see this magnificent estate. The 175,000 square foot, 250 room, palatial home is nestled comfortably in 8,000 acres (Originally 125,000) of gorgeous forests and fields in the North Carolina foothills. Among the features we found especially interesting are the Main Dining Hall blessed with a 1916 Skinner Pipe Organ which is played frequently throughout the day; The beautiful craftsmanship of the mouldings, mantels, and cornices in every room, but especially in the first floor public rooms.; The winter garden with it's glass roof; and the kitchen and food preparation areas which, though large and "state of the art" for it's day, are primitive compared to the well appointed home kitchen of today. It takes about 2-3 hours to complete the self-guided tour and personal audio devices are available to give visitors more detailed information about the house.
They do not allow photography inside the house, but you can see more on the link below.

The persistent spring rains prevented us from enjoying the acres of gardens but we will come back on some blue sky spring day in the future.

More info at "Biltmore"


We also had the extreme privilege of attending a concert at the Madison County Arts Council. North Carolina is known for it's music and we received a rousing dose of it. The Harris Brothers, 2 local brothers who play blues, bluegrass and old timey country were the headliners, but they were joined by Bobby Hicks, a local Grammy award winning fiddler, Laura Boosinger a Grammy award winning singer and banjo player, and Steve Davidowski a Charlotte based Soprano Saxophone player. Davidowski showed a remarkable ability to keep up with the key changes of the string players and his soaring solos thrilled us all. Hicks "lit it up" a couple of times but mostly played a soft fill in voice to the featured performers. Boosinger's marvelous country voice filled the small venue. The concert featured Blues, Bluegrass, a soupcon of Jazz, a little country and some wonderful upbeat Western Swing that had every toe in the place tapping. When was the last time you went to a concert that started at 7:30 and went on until after 11:00. When you get to North Carolina, find some music...You will be glad you did.

NEXT: We leave North Carolina for "Cedars of Lebanon" State Park in Tennesee.