Alicia decided about a week ago that now is the time that she wants to try a camping trip. I ran through my options. Something local like the Angeles forest would be boring to me. Big Sur would be awesome, but $80 to sleep on the ground with the possibility of her hating it didn't sit well with me. I realized I still hadn't been to the Eastern Sierras, so I started honing in. I almost settled on Tuttle Creek Campground near the Mt. Whitney Portal, but the roads into the mountains were closed for the season which would limit our ability to do anything but check out the small creek there, and the Owens access in that area is limited.
So I decided to go a little further north of that to Goodale Creek Campground, 30 miles south of Bishop, then book it to the Upper Owens the next day in the morning.
First time driving up the 395 was great. A few slow trucks bogged us down but we made good time. I'm in an online Geology class right now which has freshened up my enthusiasm for all the geological varieties and wonders along the way.
We got to the campground at about 1400. Amazing skyline, Mt. Whitney a little south of us...
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uhhhhh basalt!!!
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Unfortunately, Goodale Creek which flowed just steps from the campground was completely shrouded in trees and shrubs. Basically no access to fish, and the host claimed there were definitely no fish in it. Google has much to say on the contrary, but I had absolutely nothing to work with from the campground. Here was the only fishable spot and it was barren.
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Weather was supposed to be 70º/50º, but it felt a lot more like 90º at the afternoon peak and 50º in the morning. Quite a bit of warm wind came off the mountains from sunset until about 0300, which actually made me quite hot through the night until it died off, then I quickly became miserably cold. Relatively miserable sleep despite a healthy dose of ZzzQuil.
About 0700, we packed up camp and headed north. Not before being intercepted by Koga for a toll on the way out of the campground.
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We got breakfast at 0800 at Jack's Restaurant, diner with trophy trout mounts and good breakfast.
Next we headed to Convict Lake for a little walk, as Jared made it clear he would not respect a decision on my part to forego visiting it. He was absolutely right to insist.
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Bunch of perv trout trying to interrupt two otherwise consenting trouts.
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The water was gin clear and the trout were very aware that it's still a month til Fishmas.
I spy:
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On to the Owens...I didn't have a ton of time, what with these explorational activities. I put in about an hour and I did not see any fish whatsoever. Quite a few guys fishing and not catching. Beautiful country, but I didn't get sniffed on nymph nor micro spoon.
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Alicia insisted we visit a hot spring nearby. It turned out to be 15 minutes down a dirt road. I was hoping it would just be right on the side of the road since we had essentially just done 2 other hikes, but it was down a little canyon and Alicia wanted the closer look.
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Thankfully, my whole day, and maybe trip, was made by seeing that the Owens community has rigorous safety standards in their vault toilets, see on the lid:
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It turns out that the hot spring is part of broader volcanic activity. This area is known as the Long Valley Caldera, a massive 8x15 mile volcano that is still active and monitored. Further evidence of recent volcanic activity can be seen upon the walls of the vault toilet.
Traffic on the way down was fantastic, took the 14 to the 5 instead of the 15 and only got the backside of 7pm LA traffic. Plus, got gas in Bishop at 5.09, which felt like an absolute steal in this particular moment, and got excellent fuel economy rolling downhill back to SoCal.
Alicia seems to like camping. I'm reminded that it leaves me with much less than 100% in my battery for the day, between the miserable sleep and extra physicality. Gotta love BLM campground pricing though, along with the views. Next time I will probably stay somewhere between the Upper Owens and Bishop and focus all my efforts there, although there are some golden trout opportunities in that Whitney Portal area that I would like to try eventually. Overall beautiful part of the state that I regret not visiting sooner. Maybe one day my salmonid curse will lift and I will have some great fishing days up there as well.