Email from Ram: “Sir I am arriving at Death Valley around 4 PM on February 12th. I will be staying until the 21st and am available for canyons etc until 19th and social fun every evening. Wanna?”
Sure, why not, we’re always looking for an excuse to take a trip. Meeting old friends / making new friends / tramping around in the outdoors on adventures – that qualifies as a great reason.
Pictures – on the odd chance that you’re not interested in my ramblings (or, as I’d prefer to think, you just can’t wait to see pictures):
Panorama of Convict Lake. Convict Lake is here, in the Eastern Sierra just southeast of Mammoth Lakes.
02/11 Thursday
Camper and truck groaning with food, liquids of various sorts, hiking and climbing gear, off we went, the usual long drive down I-5 then across through Bakersfield, Lake Isabella, Ridgecrest and sometime in the evening we arrive in Panamint Valley and set up camp out near the Panamint dunes.
02/12 Friday
Up at a leisurely hour (we always sleep so well in the lonely, quiet places), breakfasted, packed, off we go into DV proper. We decide to explore Fall Canyon, which is a nice hike with a little cookie of a slot canyon just past the dryfall that stops most people. We stopped to talk to a nice couple from Hungary (Julia and Tamas) whom we’ve since heard from. After a beer and a sunset, drove off to Slabby Acres (not even as nice as it sounds) to meet up with Ram and the rest of the gang.
Intros around the campfire I remember: Ram, Steve, Ranger Bill, Denali Mike, Flagstaff Mike, Malia, Heather, Dan, SLC Carol, Brendan (aka Bender). More people came and went, but brain overload occurred.
Since we couldn’t detect that a canyon was in the offing on the morrow that didn’t involve an ordeal (by our standards), Carol and I snuck off to bed, Dan’s “9 P.M or Rib Shot” dictum notwithstanding, so that we’d be ready for tomorrow’s activities.
02/13 Saturday
By the time we arose, everyone else was gone (whew). Leisurely breakfast, a little guitar practice, and we headed back into DV late in the morning. We were planning to check out water off the west side road, but it was “closed because of the rain”. Big novelty in DV. We headed on down the road just wandering and would up stopping and walking out into the “Devil’s Golf Course”, which of course has absolutely nothing to do with devils or golf, but whattayagonnado? Everything that the ignorant and superstitious can’t explain or understand winds up being devil’s this or that, thus “Devil’s Postpile”, Devil’s Tower”, “Devil’s Corn Field” (seriously), blah blah blah…
Anyhoo, we had a great walk, checking out the salt crystals everywhere of all shapes and sizes and at one point realized – we were sweating. Great Scott, it’s February 13th, and we’re sweating in the sun. Awesome.
Back at Slabby, around the campfire, sometime during the evening Carol and I agreed to head to the Grotto in the morning with Heather, Malia and SLC Carol. I had sold the trip with stories of fun up and down climbing problems to solve, along with descriptions of features that I later figured out I had mixed up with stuff in upper Mosaic Canyon. Oh well, I don’t think anyone but me noticed.
02/14 Sunday
Up, breakfasted, packed, ready, we all headed off for The Grotto. We left Malia, Heather and Carol’s car in the brand spanking new Sand Dune parking lot (with convenient bathroom facilities 🙂 ), all piled into the Taj and headed up canyon. Yay, get to try out 4 wheeling in the new machine.
Into The Grotto, the fun starts pretty much right away with a little 4th class climb up a slippery dry fall, then the games are on. It was such great fun for me watching the women work together to solve problems and everyone laughing and having fun. High in the canyon, we met up with the rest of the Slabby group, who had decided to see the canyon from the top down. A couple more upclimbs, and we came to a big dry fall that I was kind of determined to get over, but in the end common sense prevailed and we turned around.
If you go, it turns out we found Carol P.’s 40-foot section of rope really helpful in some spots, so you may want to take one as well.
Back at the Taj, we cracked a celebratory bottle of pomegranate wine, which (the wine) may sound gross, but is actually pretty awesome. Down the canyon, back at the car we said our (sad) goodbyes to Malia, Heather and Carol P., then Carol and I set off for The Racetrack. We made it all the way to Teakettle Junction and then turned uphill and found our top secret camping spot for the night.
02/15 Monday
We got up on our own clocks and headed out to The Racetrack. There was lots of water at the southern end, which made for some good photo opportunities. We decided to head north through the section of DV we’d never seen before, that being the road between Ubehebe Crater and the turnoff to the Eureka Dunes. It was OK, but we wouldn’t make the trip again without some really good reason. Eschewing another tour of the Eureka sand dunes, we kept on going to Big Pine and eventually landed north of Bishop at the Pleasant Valley CG for the night.
02/16 Tuesday
Up at a leisurely hour (as usual), we decided to breakfast in town at a Mexican restaurant; I think it’s the one next door to Amigo’s; can’t find it on the Interwebs. I’m quite fond of their pork Chile Verde omelet, with a side of whole beans and warm corn tortillas. If you decide to partake, be aware that it’s a LOT LOT LOT of calories – I estimate that if one were to eat the whole meal it would come to >1,600 calories. ¡Ay, caramba!
Breakfasted, we headed off for the Owens Gorge to do some climbing. I have a little case of climber’s elbow I’m managing through, so the theme of the day was “fun, not hard”. We had a great time at the Upper Elbow Room area revisiting some climbs we’d done last year.
02/17 Wednesday
We decided to go on a snow tour and headed north on 395 into the Mono basin area. The biggest find of the day was snowy Convict Lake. We parked; I got out to wander around a bit and found what I thought was a little bit of magic. Back to the truck for the tripod, several groups of snapshots, and then back home I was able to produce this panorama, which I’m pretty proud of. A good point-and-shoot camera and some awesome software and…
Mono lake was pretty but mostly birdless; we tried to get a look at Mt Dana in Tioga pass but the road was closed; we stopped in Mammoth Lakes at the “150 beers” store and carried away an assortment of same. Back to Pleasant Valley CG for the night.
02/18 Thursday
We wound up back in the Owens Gorge for some more climbing; this time we headed into the Central gorge; I had my eye on “Imprisoned Behind Lies” which we had seen beginners on during our last trip. I lead it and it was pretty sane with good spots to stop and clip; back on the ground after some discussion, Carol decided to lead it using the quickdraws I had placed. Big stuff, Carol’s first lead on a face climb; she aced it. I climbed and cleaned, then Carol lead it again, clipping her own pro. Awesome; I was so happy for her.
We then headed over to the Warm Up Wall where I got on High Seas, a climb I had punted on last season. Not bad this time, a little pumpy but that could have been adrenaline. Carol climbed it on TR, I climbed it on TR; we called it a day.
Back on top, we had a little sun, then the cloud cover blew in. Oh-oh. We knew the weather was deteriorating as the week went on, so – not unexpected.
02/19 Friday
Woke up to dreary skies with not much prospect for clearing. We headed for Lone Pine, found the sun again, and spent the afternoon relearning slab climbing on AH “loose granite”. The pebbles rain down on the belayer. The handholds come off in your hands. Awesome stuff – learn to climb with no hands.
We decided to try this 2-pitch wonder that the guidebook described as “35 meters on the second pitch” – yay, a chance to try out our virgin twin ropes. All goes well, Carol is at the second belay and I’m climbing; almost to the top and I look up and see a bolt with a bail biner – oh, oh, this can’t be good. Long story short, there were no anchors on top and I wound up having to set the twins and rap off the bail biner on a single bolt, not my favorite thing to do. The good news is the twins went all the way to the ground, so much for guide book beta.
Meanwhile, the clouds (and wind) had caught up with us so we decided to call it a trip and headed toward home.
We stopped in Kernville at the Kern River Brewery for dinner and a couple of their awesome draft Outstanding IPA’s. If you get the chance, don’t miss.
Camped at a generic Lake Isabella CG.
02/20 Saturday
Woke to the sonorous strains several kinds of birdies singing and of someone’s 2-cycle motorcycle bombing around on the OHV trails, packed up and headed on down the Kern River canyon. Rain clouds, wildflowers, pretty, then we’re in Bakersfield and headed home. Awesome display of blossomry in the San Joaquin; almond and pistachio trees in full bloom. Hard to comprehend where all those nuts go.
Home, unpacked, laundered, showered, collapsed – another great outing.
In case you missed them: all the pictures.
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