The 395 and Owens Valley-Eastern Sierra Region

Convict Lake Resort.

 

I love that place, their ribeye is awesome too. And then there's the breakfast burritos from the trailer...

 

It's the best "high end" place on the east side. Food is always on point and the chef still comes out to shake hands if you compliment the meal. Which I always do because I have always had a great dinner there. Sounds like I just figured out tomorrow nights dinner plans. lol

 

I totally forgot about that place. I've always wanted to try it out.

 

I’ll have to give that a try sometime. I grew up fishing the Sierras and having our own trout fry dinners. I’ve always felt spoiled and never been interested when I’ve seen trout on a menu. And don’t get me started on the trout you’ll see at grocery stores - yikes!

Been a long time though since we’ve done our own trout dinners, it’s all catch and release these days. That said, last Oct my brother took a friend to U-Catch-Em (we used to go there as kids) so his kid could catch a fish and so they could make a trout dinner. Maybe it’s just been too long but he was surprised how good the fish was despite being a very large, farmed trout.

 

One of my friends is Michael Passmore, he's the owner of Passmore Ranch. I think there's some misunderstanding about farmed fish. His fish and Caviar are big in the Sacramento restaurant scene. His caviar is phenomenal. He's even been on Man Fire Food Not bad for a retired Marine

I do think early farmed fish weren't that great but as we've learned more about the how, the quality has changed. I'd love to chat with one of my old CEO's, he went from tech to fisheries.

Back to Convict. They've got cabins and dogs are welcome. Be a nice spot for a late fall stay.

 

Speaking of weather, did anyone catch any this week? Clouds and weather report kept threatening more monsoon events which I was kind of looking forward to. We only caught a few drops though.

Took the family to Whitney Portal, which we might start doing more often as a pit stop going north. It's a beautiful campsite that feels very removed, while still being super accessible (I'm not quite comfortable getting far off-grid with the kids yet). Plus the pancakes at the Portal store are huge and delicious. I didn't get a chance to try them the last time I was there to hike Whitney, about 5 years ago when my wife was pregnant with our oldest.






Then we stayed in Mammoth for a few days and checked out Devil's Postpile and a few other spots. Part of our family that stayed with us unfortunately tested positive for COVID the morning after their arrival, and decided to return home to weather their fevers and aches. Between that and the threatening clouds, we didn't get to do as much as we planned but still had a great and relaxing few days.



Little one napped through the whole loop







Then we set out for home, taking plenty of time for stops (potty and otherwise). Jerky and bacon from Mahogany, Sierra mud cookies from Great Basin Bakery (whoever's tip that was in this thread, thank you!). We let our youngest take a break from his car seat by doing the auto tour at Manzanar (we didn't want to leave the dogs in the car to go inside the visitor center). We did our best to explain its history to our 4 year-old, which is a bit tough as he tends to group people into "good guys and bad guys", while the situation obviously included many shades of gray. He's also part Japanese, and I had to swallow a few knots thinking about the idea of my own wife and sons being parted from me in a similar fashion. Similarly for anyone else that is "different".



"May the injustices and humiliation suffered here as a result of hysteria of racism and economic exploitation never emerge again.”

On a lighter note, we visited Indian Wells to pick up some beers and watched them do a bottling run. My oldest was mostly concerned with a Batmobile that was missing a driver.



Then we stopped at my parents house for dinner and time with their grandkids before making the last leg home. Despite a few hiccups, another great trip and I can't wait until the boys are ready for more.

 

Thank you for the perspective. Might be difficult for a 4yo to grock the shades of gray but fundamentally, they "get it" in their own way.

Your trip sounds very relaxing. I haven't been to the Post Pile for a while and the last time, I drove past it to the lakes during the fall. The color was intense!

 

The Sierra Mud cookies are decadent.

 

They truly may be the best cookie ever.

 

Gluten Free!

My aunt used to make something similar but more coconut. Worth a stop every time.Even if you're late for your own funeral!

 

This propaganda film is not quite consistent with what I’ve learned.

 

And I think if you looked at those who spied on the US during WWII, most were not Japanese.

 

Hiked to Green Lake yesterday.

 

The last time an ARkStorm hit California was 1862 (Great Flood of 1862). It was said the storm came after a 20-year drought and wiped out 1% of the state population.

I wonder if such a storm would fill Lake Owens?

IMG Source​

Here is one projection from the USGS on what the storm would do


After reading about 1862 storm, I am going to revisit my emergency plans, and make some adjustments.

 

I'm not even remotely worried about it. Best part about Bishop is I have two ranges over 13000' within 10 miles of me east or west. I'll stay dry and the house is insured. lol

 

Finally discovered the Owens Valley this past weekend for my birthday to hike Mt. Whitney. Friend and I headed out to Lone Pine Thursday, camped at Whitney Portal that night and summited the mountain on Friday. Sadly my plans didn’t leave any room for further exploration and we left the valley Saturday morning. What a beautiful place to be. Between the Eastern Sierras and the Inyo Mountains, I was never not day-dreaming the entire time. Time to plan another trip! Maybe something involving the truck this time too.

I’d been stalking this thread for quite some time and had grown an itch to discover this area, especially with some of the trip reports/photos some members are sharing.

 

Congrats on the summit! Did you take the switchback trail (vs mountaineer's route)? What time did you start? When did you get off the mountain?

 

I hiked Whitney about 5 years ago now, and I remember feeling like a badass for making the hike up the trail to the summit (we day-hiked from the portal and back). We snapped our victory beers and looked out over the view, and then I saw an arm placing a bag of climbing rope next to me as two guys climbed up and over the east face to the top. I deflated my ego a bit after that

 

Almost 21 years ago a group of us did the hike to the top of Half Dome. Nothing technical of course, the cables are a little disconcerting if you’ve never done anything like that before, but it is just a real slog of a hike (16 miles round trip and 4800 feet elevation gain). Especially if you’ve not done any long hikes recently and my friend and myself hadn’t.

The next day with our muscles aching my friend characterized the experience perfectly:

“That was the worst hike I’ve done in my entire life, but my sense of accomplishment is diminished by the fact that like four thousand other people did it at the same time.”