A few weeks ago, when I got the overnight permits for the mid-September trip that Mom and I took, I also got four dayhike permits for October 5th. The original plan was to take Mom, both my kids and myself and wander the mountain for a day. No set goal, just a turn around time so that we could be sure to be off the mountain before dark. Things didn’t work out and Momma couldn’t make it.. so I invited my Sister Rachel with us. She is getting ready to deploy for about 12 months to Kosovo with her National Guard unit, so I thought it would be a great experience to take her with the kids and I… a bonding experience if you will. Just some quality time together. However, after some back and forth Uncle Sam stepped in and said that she had to work. Soooo…. That left the kids and I. I sent out an invite to our favorite Cali Moose and asked if she’d like to tag along… she wasn’t sure what her plans were so I went forth with the idea that it would just be GirlChild, BoyChild and myself.
We left the house at about 8 on Saturday morning. Only an hour later then I had actually planned… but that was because I hit the snooze button and then didn’t hear the alarm again until BoyChild turned the TV on and said “Mom… what time are we leaving”? Thankfully we already had the car packed… (translate in Mom-speak to read “I put everyones everything in the car last night so I didn’t have to deal with it this morning”). … sooo… shower, dress, kids in car.. tires on road. WooHoo!!! Here we go!!!!
The kids keep themselves occupied playing
"guess who" and mancala in the back seat while I drive… and as we get further north (and they get tired of their games) I point out all the really cool stuff that Mom has shown me on the last couple of trips. I have (since becoming a parent myself) enjoyed this part of any trip. All of those roadtrips that the family took when I was a kid… and Moms apparent memorization of “Roadside Geology” and “Afoot and Afield” … have found a place in my heart and my memory and now I embrace them and share them gladly with my children. We talk about the erosion process and the tectonics that have formed the Sierra. We talked about the volcanic activity of the area, the remenant lava flows at the lower end of the 395… and I WISH there was someplace to safely pull over as I see the glass like mirror surface of Little Lake reflecting the columnar basalt formations of the ancient flow behind it. My kids Oohhhh and Aahhhh in all of the appropriate places… ask questions… and we spend most of the rest of the drive talking to each. We arrive at the Hostel and the Lovely Sheridan checks us in and gives us our room key. The kids and I drive up to the Portal to wander around and check stuff out, and then down to the Alabama Hills. Lots of pictures and a short hike out to
THE Arch. I mess with the kids a little bit here… just a bit up the trail to THE Arch is a smaller arch that you see first… the kids looked at it and said “Mom.. is that IT?”… I told them “Of course.. isn’t it COOL?”… they looked at me like I’d lost my head.. or grown a second one. As we came around the trail and the REAL arch came into view all was forgiven. The kids did some scrabbling and then we headed back to the car. Hit the store in town to get lunch supplies for the next day and then a little wandering around town looking in the gift shop type places. DUG67 ‘s plans mesh out favorably and he and his BoyChild cruise into Lone Pine just in time to join us for Pizza Factory. We share a great meal… swaps lies and tall tales… tease our children … It comes time to part ways and DUG heads south while the kids and I stroll across the street to the Hostel. Kids are showered and tucked in… and I find some Wifi to.. um.. borrow for the evening. Check my email and my phone rings… it’s our favorite MOOSIE!!!! Woohooooo…. We arrange to meet at 0630 for breakfast at the Alabama Hills Café.
0620 I drive around the corner from the back of the Hostel thinking I’ve got time to jet down to the Mobile station to grab batteries before breakfast. Nope… parked across the street already is the TOF. So… we head over there instead and OH MY GOODNESS…. One of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had. Moosie says “lets all just go in my car”… so… transfer of stuff from my car to the TOF… drop my car back across the street at the Hostel… and Moosie gets us going in the right direction. Get to the Portal and we go up to the Store to say “Howdy”… of course Moosie gets greeted like the family that she is and we spend a few minutes or so visiting with people. Just shy of 0900 we hit the
trail. I am so excited and the kids are hyped. Moosie makes for a
FANTASTIC hiking partner and the kids take right to her. She answers any and all questions and has a fairly steady running commentary on the plants, wildlife, peaks and passes surrounding us. Between her and the kids the pace leaves me.. whats the phrase Moose used.. oh yeah.. “sucking wind”…. My children are used to hiking with me and know my rules. They stop at the top of switchbacks to wait for me (even if Moosie is pulling ahead)… and occassionally one or the other kiddo decides they want to walk with me and will fall back and wait in the shade of a tree. The kids are THRILLED with the novelty of being able to
drink directly from the flowing streams and Moosie adds more words of wisdom and helps teach them about “smart drinking”…. I think Moosie missed her calling and should have found a career working with kids.
We get to
Lone Pine Lake a few minutes before 1100 and I am amazed at the land speed record. This is the quickest I’ve ever made it up there in… of course.. I practically had to run to keep up with the three of them at times because I think they sprouted wings on their shoes and flew most of the way.
So.. the sun hasn’t crested yet and Lone Pine Lake is still in the shadow of morning. The air is still briskly cool and most of us shrug back into the sweaters that we’d removed earlier. There is no circulation in the air and the surface of the lake is mirror smooth. The reflections of the surrounding peaks just beg for their picture to be taken, so as Moosie and the kids bust out her fishing equipment I wander around to the backside of the lake. I know what picture I want, but just can’t find the right angle to take it so settle for
Wotans Throne, with Trail Crest behind it and a tiny hint of the Needles. My plan had been to try to get the kids to Outpost Camp or Mirror Lake… but as we sat at LPL and ate lunch I presented the option to them. Did they want to stay and fish and wander around the lake (with set peramiters) or did they want to push on up the trail. They talked with each other for a minute and decided to stay at the lake. GirlChild had pretty much glued herself to
“Aunt Laura’s” side and BoyChild was wandering around. I had told him he had to stay where I could see him… I only to remind him once when he disappeared behind a tree on the opposite shoreline.
We spent a couple of hours at the lake and then (when Moose ran out of bait) we packed up and headed down. Moose and BoyChild got a few switchbacks ahead (GirlChilds shoe was shredding and kept coming untied and I was, as always, SLOW)… so Moosie hollars up that her and BoyChild will meet us at the
John Muir Wilderness sign. Almost anyone else I would have said no… but Moose and BoyChild were working well together and he was holding her pace… I trusted her with BoyChild (with either of them actually) and gave my go-ahead for them to jet down. I’m pretty sure they reached the sign a good 10 minutes ahead of GirlChild and I. They were kicked back on some rocks chatting when we showed up. Moosie took us down the
“old” trail (I swear it cut like 4 hours and 10 miles off the trail) and we were at the Store by about 1600. GirlChild and Moosie cleaned and cooked the
fish and OH MY GOODNESS… YYYUUUMMMYYYYY!!!! We hung out at the store eating and Bsing until DougSR and Erleane were pretty much ready to kick us out (I think) and then we headed down the hill. Moosie dropped us off at the Hostel and after hugs and promises of more visits soon we parted ways.
This morning, Monday, dawned with the prospect of leaving the Sierra behind yet again and heading home. First though,
Mt. Pancake. My kids had both expressed the interest in attempting this special summit so we drove up to The Store for breakfast. Each kid got their own pancake and I had one of the much smaller eggs and bacon kind of plates. Although the efforts were valiant.. the hollow legs didn’t quite come through and both children were denied the much coveted summit of Mt. Pancake. They both vowed another attempt at a later time and we headed southwards towards home.
Now…. Each year as children when my Momma took us on Spring Break family vacations, she always asked us to keep a journal. Nothing big.. just our own thoughts and reflections on what the trip had brought to us on a daily basis.. what did we see… what stuck with us… what did we think. I have, in the past, asked the kids to keep the same kind of journal. When we got home this afternoon I asked each of them to write a small summary of what they thought about the trip. So…. Here are their unaltered words:
BoyChild:
When Me, My Mom, My Sister and My Moms friend went to Mt. Whitney it was a blast. We had so much fun we hiked, wandered and I ate some of the Portal Stores Pancake.
GirlChild:
When I first heard I was going to hike some of Mount Whitney over my school break, my heart fell. I so didn’t want to go because it seemed so far from home and boring. I was wrong, completely, horribly, wrong. We met Laura (Moose :)) and drove up to the Whitney Portal after having a tasty breakfast at the Alabama Hills Café. We were going to hike to Mirror Lake, but when we got to Lone Pine Lake and Laura brought out her fishing pole, we just hung out there. It was lots of fun meeting her and catching dinner with her. We decided (after catching about 22 fish, releasing all but 6 of them) we were just gonna go back down. We took the old Whitney trail down and went to “The Store” (as Laura and Mommy call it). I got to help Laura gut the fish! I gutted two on my own! After we gutted them Laura cooked them and gosh were they good. After we at fish, burgers and for me a salad, we hung at The Store for awhile and met new people. When we left saying see ya. We went back to the Hostel, our hotel place and said by to Laura and got a hug (I’m so short even when she bent over to hug me I had to stand on tip toes
). In the morning we packed our stuff and said bye to The Hostel for now! We (Mommy, Bubba and I) drove back up to the Portal Store and had breakfast. Damien and I tried to summit Mount Pancake… we lost severely, so bad that the pancake at us…
hehe! We said goodby to the very nice Doug and Earlene and told them we’d be back soon. We said goodbye to Mount Whitney and took out last pics and off we were.
MY moment of bliss:
And a couple more from this weekend:
A tree with Character:
The rest of the pics
are here
