July 20, 2010, 8:25 pm It’s hard to beat the beauty of a day hike along Rock Creek with a number of lakes along the way and a backdrop of rocky peaks and snow fields. Starting from the Mosquito Flats trailhead (10,300 ft elevation) at the end of Rock Creek Road (turn off from highway 395 at Tom’s Place), the wide trail gently ascends Rock Creek, passing more than half a dozen picturesque lakes.
 Heart Lake, looking toward Morgan Pass
Karen was feeling better than yesterday, so we hiked fairly steadily up to Gem Lakes, near the start of the last climb up to Morgan Pass (11,120 ft). We had climbed up there last year, and didn’t see any reason to repeat this year. At Gem Lake we found a comfortable rock, tried to ignore the mosquitos, and had lunch. Returning back down the trail, we logged 7 miles. We were both pretty tired out. I don’t think we’ve recovered from the virus that’s been bugging us for a week or so.
On our return and drive back to highway 395 I tried to talk Karen into stopping at Pie in the Sky, but she remains skeptical of cafe pies.
Links
—Rock Creek 2010 photo gallery
July 19, 2010, 9:20 pm Hooray! We’re off to Mammoth Lakes for just a few days of day hiking in the eastern Sierra.
On the way up to Tioga Pass we encountered three different road construction traffic controls which made the trip seem very long. Karen napped, or at least had her eyes closed, for about half the trip. We stopped in Tuolumne Meadows, thinking about a hike in the area. One choice was to do the earthcache on Pothole Dome, but that didn’t seem attractive because of the heat on the bare granite dome. Another choice was hiking out the trail toward Cathedral Lakes. We got geared up to do this, but Karen realized she just had no energy for it. We’ve both had this summer virus cold that has sapped our energy. So, we just drove over the top of Tioga Pass and down to Lee Vining, making a stop at the visitors center there featuring Mono Lake.
We also stopped at Whoa Nellie deli, but it seemed like the wrong time of day for fish tacos. Our loss, I think.
Note to self: think twice about booking another stay at the Econolodge in Mammoth Lakes. It’s not awful, but we enjoy a bit better accommodations.
July 9, 2010, 2:14 pm Shortly after 2 pm on July 9, 1953 (57 years ago), a depressed, unemployed young man tossed a match onto bone dry grass by the side of Alder Springs Road west of Willows, California. Eight hours later, fifteen firefighters were caught by a surprising wind shift and couldn’t outrun the flames in dense chaparral. Today, a stone monument stands beside the road, and across the canyon one can see the white crosses marking where the firefighters fell.
 White crosses on Rattlesnake Ridge Surprisingly, fourteen of those who died that day were missionaries from a nearby New Tribes Mission “boot camp.” In return for use of an old Civilian Conservation Corps facility as a training facility, New Tribes provided custodial services and responded to fire emergencies when called by the Forest Service.
 Rattlesnake Fire Monument I visited the site recently on a geocaching trip and was completely surprised by the involvement of New Tribes missionaries in this fire. A few years ago we knew a couple who volunteered with New Tribes, and supported their efforts in Thailand. The descriptive sign at the monument did a good job of explaining the tragedy, but I wanted to find more background information. A quick search on Amazon found Fire and Ashes: On the Front Lines Battling Wildfires .
I liked the book for two reasons: it explained how small oversights can combine and lead to fatal consequences, and it gave background on the people involved—the human interest side of the story. On the right side of the photograph above, there is a cluster of nine crosses. As John Maclean, the author, describes it, “Whatever the missionaries were thinking, they acted as though they had a message for one another. The nine men found at this place were heaped together… Perhaps they huddled together to take comfort from a human touch and a common faith… They appear in photographs to be straining upward, reaching for the high ground.” And perhaps, in one last act of commitment, they joined in prayer.
The geocache here (GC1TDNW) is one of the most moving caches I’ve found. I stayed for a while, just contemplating the sacrifices clearly displayed on the hillside.
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Consider this:“This is my command: Love each other.” John 15:17 |
