The lone camper near us, in site 17, left either late at night or early in the morning.
When we got up, he was gone, leaving us as the only campers in the area; the entire campground
itself
was probably about 2/3 full.
One of the problems with day hiking in the eastern Sierra is that there aren't many hikes
close together. Trailheads are often at the end of long mountain roads that snake up into
the Sierra from Highway 395. I briefly pondered doing a hike in the Alabama Hills, but figured
it'd be too hot there today (since it's at lower elevation). I then had to decide between
Convict Lake and Heart Lake, both relatively long drives (over an hour away). Eventually I
decided I'd take my chances with possible snow at Heart Lake (given its high elevation) since
it looked like the nicer hike.
We started driving down Glacier Lodge Road, but after less than 5 minutes I decided to turn
around. The sky was no longer completely clear and there looked to be a chance of rain. I
went back and we tossed the rain fly over our tent, just in case. Then we made the drive down
to Big Pine, north on Highway 395, then up Rock Creek Road to Mosquito Flat, the trailhead
for the hike to
Heart Lake.
After the hike, we drove down to Bishop, where we found a laundromat. We did our laundry
and had dinner in town. Afterwards we stopped at the local supermarket to pick up some
supplies. As we did so, we saw a rainbow up in the mountains on the east side of Highway 395.
On the drive back to camp, we saw another rainbow. As I drove up Glacier Lodge Road to head
back to camp, we witnessed a jaw-dropping sunset. Unfortunately I was driving on a winding
mountain road with no decent place to stop. So, sorry, no pictures. I get the sense that
such sunsets are common in this area, and it's no wonder why Galen Rowell decided to move to
Bishop. It always makes me sad when I think about what more he could have done if it weren't
for the plane crash.
We returned to camp and were happy that we'd put the rain fly on. It had definitely
rained here while we were gone. Streaks of yellow pollen lined the roadway. We had a final
campfire here before turning in.
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