The 395 and Owens Valley-Eastern Sierra Region

Denali is open to a lottery system at the beginning of the season. Otherwise, there are the FDE and Green Schoolies, green is the camper's bus and will pretty much stop when hailed. The others are tour buses and only go about 1/2 way down the road. Best tour in a park. Postpile does the bus thing only during the high season.

I like the buses. Very convenient. Not a huge fan of the Postpile only cause twisty road is more fun when I'm driving

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ksMzUUP2jc

 

Jesus, it sounds like all of us hung out at the same places. First place I had a drink with a fake ID in 1992 was at the Nut House. When i moved back to the bay area for work that was our local hangout after work. I miss getting an Oldtimer at the Boardwalk as well.

 

Eastern Sierra showing off her fall color. (about a month ago)

 

Or if you live in one of these zip codes, it's no biggie

 

Interesting. I didn't know Bishop locals could get around the reservations. Or I would have. lol

 

It saves a few minutes when hopping over the Sierra
It's amazing that Wawona to Mammoth Lakes is like 30 miles straight-shot, but over 340 miles if Tioga Pass is closed.

 

Word on the street is that they're moving towards permits at Mojave Preserve as well. Too much traffic on Mojave Road, to much problematic camping, too much speeding, etc.

And I wonder how much of DV will be converted to permit-only dispersed camping once the place finally re-opens... Maybe permits are the only solution in the long run, but it sucks that you can't book them online or over the phone.

I plan trips around permits, and generally do enjoy the seclusion they provide. What I can't do is begin a trip with a four-hour drive to a visitor center that closes at 5PM, just to find out where or even if I can camp.

 

Permits just make the problems worse elsewhere. Which is unfortunate because that leads to forest service closures.

 

The first time I drove the Mojave Road was 86 and I never saw another human -- this lasted until around 2010. Today the Road is torn-up, whooped-out (thanks SXSs) with lumbering herds of trendy overlanders. Why I don't want or need a "trails" app -- I'll let the tourists visit those places while I go elsewhere. Time for me to go farther out, away from social media's eyes.

</ rant>

 

Do it now and guard the locations with your life. I've got a few spots still that are under the radar. How long they remain that way I don't know but I do plan on enjoying the shit out of them in the meantime.

 

When I was in DV a few weeks ago, I wanted to pick up some “local” beer. All I could find at the store in Stovepipe Wells was from Mammoth. The Mammoth Brewing ale was OK, but this Shelter Distilling Lakeside Lager was really excellent. And I’m normally an IPA guy. I hadn’t heard of them so checked out their website. As you can tell from the name, they’re mostly spirits but brew a few beers. Worth checking out.

 

Exactly.

Permits can be done right... for example, I think Canyonlands nailed it, and even the surrounding BLM and USFS lands aren't nearly as abused as those in SoCal, despite being in free-for-all Utah.

But unlike the Sierra/DV/Mojave, that place isn't within daytrip radius of like 20 million people.

At a fundamental level, the land management needs to strike at least some degree of balance with public needs. I really hope they get it right in these closer-to-home places too.


The worst is Coyote Buttes. I've lost count of how much money I've wasted on that bullshit permit lottery. But if it were run like a hunting lottery I could have drawn a polar bear tag by now.

I'm honestly afraid I might not live long enough to ever see the place, so if I don't, I'm leaving clear instructions to have my remains scattered there. And I'm not talking about sentimental wisps of ashes. Fuck that: Embalm me with glitter, tape the world's loudest bluetooth speaker to my ass, crank up the Nickleback, and punt my naked carcass from a helicopter at 500 feet AGL on a holiday weekend. Live-stream it from sixteen angles on sixteen social platforms, then I too can finally be hashtag blessed enough to visit that overhyped rock in the middle of nowhere.

(That's a joke of course, among other things, there's simply no way my estate could afford to bribe the helicopter.)

 

I might know a guy.

 

I forget who asked but someone recently asked for a Laurel Lakes report. It's a month old now so I'm assuming snow is now an issue but when we went up at the very end of Oct it was beautiful. It was all but completely empty. We started around 10 or 11am and ran into one guy in a Tacoma coming down almost immediately and then not another soul for the duration.










The trip was primarily a fishing trip but after the snow I also wanted to go romp a little so we hit some trails just north of Alpers/Arcularius. Didn't really get any interesting pics. We got stuck at one point on a narrow section with some cross slope. The snow on the upper side was just too deep and both my Tacoma and friend's Chevy would just plow and get high centered. We dug out a couple times then just decided to head back before it got dark.





Fishing wasn't great, but wasn't terrible, mainly I was a bit too lazy to get out there and fish too hard with the weather we had. Luckily, the last day on the ranch it cleared up and fishing improved. Regardless, it was another great trip - but then again, our annual closing trip is always great, hard to go wrong when you're in the Eastern Sierra's with great people.

 

For the kids following along, this is how to pen a quality rant. Kudos.

 

Is it a rant if it is the truth? What if this so called “rant” is actually a deep seeded, burning passion project that @mk5 has been quietly cultivating for his entire life?

GoFundMe time.

 

Diesel Brothers? Heavy D has a Black Hawk...I mean if you're gonna do it, might as well do it right

 

No. WhistlinDiesel. Gotta go out in style.