The 395 and Owens Valley-Eastern Sierra Region

My son is seeing a ton of them down in Rocklin. He had never seen them before and was definitely scratching his head.

 

This is an awesome map! Since I have so much downtime in my job my new hobby is mapping. I started with Google Earth and am slowly learning QGIS. I just mapped this trail a day or 2 ago not know what it was but it looked like something I should check out! If anyone knows the name of this area or the trail conditions I'd love some more info on it.


Also, for those interested, I mapped all the BLM (yellow), National Forest (green), LADWP (purple), state parks (blue), and National Parks (red) land in the area so I could verify my camping spots weren't illegal:

That's funny! I've only seen couple of these in my life but I wanna say 7 or so bonked in to my friends and I while we were around our campfire. According to my grandparents these were everywhere in the 70's-80's until they started mass building homes in my area. It's nice to see them coming back.

 

That's Sand Canyon and Wheeler Ridge. Sand Canyon in mellow but Wheeler's Ridge is one of the harder trails in the area. I did a recovery there in 2019 with @tetten. Here's a link to that thread. It's well worth reading the whole thing.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/recovered-off-the-road-on-wheelers-crest-by-bishop-ca.625972/

 

Crazy read! Looks like a pretty gnarly trail to get stuck on, I'm glad you were able to rescue them without anyone getting hurt. I'll definitely have to check it out one day.

 

Awesome read. Hobbs fixed my truck for me when I lost a caliper bolt in DV the other year!

Been up Wheeler lately -- how is it? Looks pretty beautiful, and I've never been up on that part of the valley. Don't worry I'd never risk off-roading alone though.

Nice. I'm guessing these programs are probably better than MS Paint.

One additional map layer that's really useful to have when driving is wilderness boundaries. Something that can zoom in and show you the cherry stems, which are almost always fun drives amidst the forbidden lands.

I love blundering around on random trails completely lost, and one thing guaranteed to suck the fun out of that is stumbling upon the back side of a wilderness signpost and knowing you've inadvertently put down fresh tire tracks down on an illegal trail. Wilderness areas aren't very well marked, especially in the deserts.

Agree to disagree. It's a six-legged bird! On a completely unrelated note, I sure saw a lot of caterpillars earlier this year.

 

Most definitely better than MS paint but also much more complicated lol.

That's a good idea! For the most part what I have marked out keeps me out of wilderness areas but I won't lie and say I haven't found myself on the wrong side of a sign before. The way I see it is if I didn't purposefully ignore any signs or blatantly go around any gates I doubt the rangers would give any tickets. Though, it probably depends on their day.

 

@Hobbs is a good guy. He stopped using TW AFAIK.

I haven't been up Wheelers since selling my wheeling rig last year. I've done it at least a dozen times and conditions never change too much. It's got 4 rock sections that at least 33's and a locker come in handy. That said, the first time I did it was right after I picked up my 97 4runner. It still had 31's and open diffs. I made it but looking back luck must have played a large role in that. lol

 

Just got back from my east side Sierra trip, was able to see north lake, Sabrina , intake 2, lower owens river and then Crowley lake. We fished at all of them, but only scored one big trout at Crowley. No complaints, I’ll take a lunker over a few small fry any day. My son got to reel it in as well, since he saw the bobber dip under water and not come back up while I was preparing camp.

 

Thanks for all the tips, I’ve marked my gps for those other locations and will be heading back up this fall

 

I hit Patterson the other day from north to south (thanks to this thread) and it did not disappoint. Beyond epic. As MK5 stated, it gets a little sketchy at times on the switchbacks and off camber sections. I'll echo what he said - don't do it if you have a fear of heights or tend to freeze up when your roll indicator maxes out...

Truly otherworldly once you get above the treeline. I found it even more visceral than the CO alpine passes I've done.

Bonus pic of sheep traffic on the way down near Lobdell Lake.

BTW, I came in from Atchison Rd. Only mild pinstriping from that side, but be respectful of the ranch's free range cattle along that route. Oh and close the gate.

 

That was a good write up on the recovery you did up there.

Hobbs is still around, he will pop up as liking something from time to time but he’s not posting like he did.

 

Another shitty day here on the East Side.

 

Isn't this up Onion Valley?

 

Thats actually nicer than Newark airport.
Thanks for keeping it real.

 

Lake Sabrina. That's White Mt across the valley. It's always been one of my favorite "drive too" views.

Just make sure you stay in the airport. It's pretty safe. The rest of Newark? Not so much. lol

 

Totally. International terminal at that.
On our way to Italian food.

 

Nice. I've always wondered how much better real Italian food is compared to what you get in Jersey. Have a good trip man.

 

Right. It’s what I was thinking of but why I called in OV, idk. I’ve started a couple of trips from there. Including fly fishing at Dingleberry.

 

Sabrina, South Lake and North Lake are all super popular trail heads. Rightly so since they are all over 9000'. I've got a few more alpine trips planned this year and I'm just hoping the temps cooperate. There's not many things worse then hiking 9 miles to a frozen lake. Which I've done more then once. lol

 

Even with my 50+ trips to Bishop I have not done nearly enough hiking. I've hiked to Blue Lake once:






And this mine camp on the way to Horton Lakes:



I consider myself a very strong and avid hiker but man, when the hikes start at 9k+ feet it takes a bit to get acclimated.

I've done a lot more hiking further down the 395 near Cottonwood lakes:










I honestly think Mt. Langley beats Mt. Whitney in terms of beauty too: