June Lake Loop

First thing this morning I took Dan and Janet out to the Hardcore caches for a view of Banner and Ritter.

Banner and Ritter

Here’s the money shot of my Ridgeline on a ridgeline with a fantastic (the Minarets) ridgeline in the background.

The Ridgeline and the Minarets

On the way back, we stopped at the Mammoth Earthquake Fault area so I could get the two quick caches there. That was an interesting fault because the crack isn’t from slipping (like the San Andreas is at Point Reyes), but has just pulled apart.

We also made a stop for a webcam cache that took far too long to update.

Back at the house we all packed up for another day trip and headed off to Black Point to explore the cracks. In the interest of time, I didn’t try to climb the steep, cinder moguls, but Mark made in just fine, with hardly any wheel spin. I think if I followed his line the Ridgeline would make it up OK.

Black Point was an underwater volcanic eruption. These deep cracks formed and then mineral deposits from the salty water precipitated out on the walls.

Volcanic crack

Even though I had been here a couple of days before with the GBA 4×4 group, I didn’t know exactly where the replacement cache was hidden, so we had to hunt a while. I think finding this cache is nearly impossible if you don’t read the description, the past logs, and look at the log photos. I logged it today with Dan instead of with the GBA 4×4 group. While we were hunting the cache, Cortnie climbed down with Mark into the lower reaches and then surprised us by climbing up and popping out of a hole that was only large enough for her.

We closed the day by driving around the June Lake Loop, picking up several caches. Mark and Cortnie tried fishing along Rush Creek and Silver Lake, but had no luck.