Masonic Mountain and Potato Peak via Mountain Bike

I've been scheming to do this route for a while now. Summiting peaks on a mountain bike! My buddy Jim and I started from Bridgeport, rolled out Highway 182 for a short spell, then headed up Masonic Road.

After several miles of nice climbing on well graded, moderately pitched road we arrived at the Chemung mine site.

A couple more miles on the steeper upper sections of Masonic Road took us to the turnoff for Masonic Mountain.

The road to the summit included two or three short, tough sections, but generally was fine riding.

The view from the summit looking back towards the Sweetwater Mountains and the final stretch of road to the top.

Looking south towards our next objective, Potato Peak (on right of two peaks center).

Obligatory victory pose.

After a truly fun descent from Masonic Mountain we hopped on the Bodie - Masonic Road and headed south.

We left the main road onto an awesome two track which took us up onto the north shoulder of Potato Peak (above right).

Good stuff.

After reaching the shoulder, a tough grunt took us to the shallow saddle southwest of the peak and from there we scrambled to the top. Jim enjoys summit fever!

 We took a good spell to soak in the views and enjoy the wonderful weather.

Jim scrambles back down to the bikes. 

We proceeded to bomb down the great descent west of  Potato Peak to Aurora Canyon and then back to Bridgeport.

All time!
Thanks Jim.

Big Loop in the Bodie Hills

I started the day off right. Early morning at Lundy Campground outside our Scamp. 

Inside the Scamp.

Scooped up my buddy Jimmy in Mono City and drove to Bodie. Heading up the Geiger Grade out of Bodie.

Into the big open high country near Bodie Peak.

Took a small side road to the historic site of Halfway.

Relaxed and poked around for a bit.

Back on the trail.

Crossing the state line.

Out into open country.

Replenished out water at Fletcher Spring and then headed up into Del Monte Canyon.

and poked around another old homestead.

Arriving back in Bodie.

A long, spectacular ride in wonderfully remote country with a great friend.
Doesn't get much better!

Lost and Found Weekend

For the third year running I headed up to Lake Davis for the Lost and Found gravel grinder race. It felt like coming home to set up the lawn chairs on the bluff at the campground and admire the beauty of the lake.

Light winds and warm temps made for terrific paddle boarding conditions. Mary enjoys the glass!

Since I hadn't the miles in my legs to feel up for the 100 mile race, I entered the 60 miler - which was tough enough. I felt pretty good and ended up 19th out of 185 finishers.

My buddies Chris and Nemo made the journey too, They rode the hundred and had a good old time.

Took a mellow paddle the next morning and was blessed to see this Bald Eagle pair feed young on their nest.

The campground emptied Sunday night. Whipped out the pie irons and cooked some tasty pies.

More lake sublimity.

Monday morning was picture perfect. Mary and I took a relaxing paddle.

The locale terrific with the beautiful lake, lush meadows and wildflowers galore.
The race is well organized, tough, and wonderfully scenic.
So much fun!

Saddlebag Lake

I still felt the need to get up in the mountains on skis, so I joined my friend Ann and we headed up to the Saddlebag Lake area near Tioga Pass.

There's good coverage and snow cup formation is minimal. Here Ann skins up with Mt Conness (left back) and North Peak (right) behind her.

Neither of us were particularly goal oriented, so we ended up cruising back to the crest north of North Peak on the left side of this pic.

Nice views of the couloirs on North Peak on the way up.

Looking back to Saddlebag Lake, just left of center distant.

Shepard's Crest

Good corn run from the crest with only a little punchy snow towards the bottom.

Lots of thawing lakes and tarns with nice turquoise color.

Ann found some knee deep turqouise!

We rallied and skinned up the center bowl in the pic above, then hiked out the ridge and skied the chute just left of the two rocky knobs on the skyline.

On the short dry land hike along the ridge.

The chute skied pretty well although we were later than ideal.

Good fun!
Last ski of the year?
We'll see.

TJ Bowl

Between working a little and the funky weather, it's been over a week since I have been out skiing. Had to scratch the itch, so I headed up to the Mammoth Lakes basin.

The road up Coldwater Creek had not been plowed, so I went with plan B, Lake George.

I endured a little tedious hiking to get to the back of George, where the snow was deeper and I was able to start skinning.

A somewhat more wintery scene at TJ Lake with TJ Bowl behind. The lake was a big old margarita, sans tequila and lime and all that, so I hiked a little more along the shore.

Made a couple of navigational errors on the way up, but nothing serious. Took a run down the treed bowls east of TJ bowl proper to check the snow. It turned out much better than expected - about 2" of damp snow over a soft, but totally supportable base.

The sun made a brief appearance, instantly triggering several small but not insignificant wet slides along the crest. Ambitions for heading up vanished!

TJ bowl skied nicely though.

Good run.

Back to the car around 11am. Glad I got out early 'cause it certainly wasn't getting any better with the sunshine and rising temps.

Kidney Chute & Dana Couloir

We had one nice day forecast this week, the last for quite a while, so I hooked up with Ben for another tour up Tioga Pass way.

We started at Tioga Lake then jumped up onto the Dana Plateau.

The north face of Mt Dana with the Dana Couloir left in the shade and Solstice couloir to the right.

We made fast time to the top of Kidney Chute, dropping in around 10:30.

What a beauty! Timing was good as the snow was soft, but not too soft.

First time for me.

We then donned skins and headed up out of the Kidney Lake drainage.

The sweet view looking east from the head of the canyon. Mono Lake distant and Kidney Lake center.

From there it was easy skinning to the top of the Dana Couloir, notch up right.

We hung out at the top of the couloir for a good long while, maybe not long enough though as the snow in there was still quite firm.  We dropped in a bit before 1pm.

We side slipped the steep throat before summoning the courage to crank turns. Not the most fun skiing, but certainly exciting and quite an amazing locale.

The skiing out Glacier Canyon was a little tedious with several, short hiking sections and a bit of skating. The final slopes down to Tioga Lake were fun though.

Awesome day in the mountains! Looking forward to a few more before I hang 'em up.