The 395 and Owens Valley-Eastern Sierra Region

I love it up there. Sad to here what’s going on in the area. I try to make a trip to the Sierras at least once a year. One of my favorite spots is obove Rock Creek Lake. There are a lot of great spots up there.

 

Ditto here. But I had a "ah ha" moment similar to this a couple years ago. I was in a bar in Escalante, UT talking to the bar owner about decommissioning big chunks of Bears Ears NM. I was (and still am) against the idea, but it was interesting to hear his perspective as a business owner (of the bar), and rancher with cattle. He explained the different categories of land and how he is impacted by those changes (grazing, water usage, fences, etc).

Mining in Owens Valley will improve the quality of life for many, but it will also permanently change the landscape. Are we prepared for that?

 

I'd venture to say that open pit mining with cyanide ponds is a lot more impactful than tunnel mining. Admittedly I don't know much about the economics of mining but 7 grams per ton of ore means that they will be processing a LOT of earth in order to make their business viable. And so far they seem unprepared to address the environmental and economic impacts other than short term. Sure, mining would create jobs, but I'd bet that they'd last less than a decade before pulling out and dissolving, leaving behind a giant mess with no one to foot the cleanup bill except taxpayers. This K2 company already seems pretty weasely.

 

This has come up in the past near Bodie SHP. Some were afraid the use of dynamite would disturb the buildings. I don't recall the outcome. As for mining near DVNP (really, on public land), I feel like the idea anyone could set up shop and just rape the land for a resource without compensating owners of the land (the people) for what they're taking or having some discussion with the principle stakeholders unacceptable. Especially when the impact will be greater than just mining gold (like spoils, water, impact on the locals, etc.).

Tough call for sure.

 

From the article, "K2 Gold was caught siphoning water out of a water hazard at Lone Pine’s Mount Whitney Golf Course into four 55-gallon tanks for use at its drilling sites up on the mesa."

In my old line of work we called that a clue. My concern is that this sort of corporate behavior/ethos will only be magnified if they grow into a fully fledged operation...

 

They will have serious issues if they steal from their neighbors.

 

But according to their corporate website “We recognize that the long-term success of our operations depends on building and maintaining constructive relationships with our host communities”. And this is a publicly traded company (Toronto Stock Exchange).

 

Maybe. But I bet their lawyer bench is a whole lot deeper and well paid than any of their would-be neighbors.

Without having some better info or safeguards I'd say 100% no to this mining. IMO the need to protect nature well outweighs our need for additional gold supply.

 

See, that was my initial feeling as well. But then I found myself wondering... how long could the world get by on its existing gold mine supply (not existing gold supply, which would likely run out in less than a year, but by only mining existing locations).

My guess is that even that wouldn't be very long. Which raises a bunch of questions:

• Are we all willing to not have new vehicles, phones, high-speed internet, space travel, etc. when that existing mines are exhausted? Or only let the 1% - who can afford much higher prices - have those things?
• Or are we really just saying, "we love the Owens/DV area, so don't mine here. Keep doing it in the Yukon or South America or ..." So then, is this just an example of "out of sight, out of mind?" Because aren't there people in other gold mining regions - the Yukon, South America, etc. - who feel the same way about "protecting their nature" that we do about ours?

It is an interesting web in which we live. A perplexing balance we must find. It will only become more difficult, I'm sure.

 

Yeah, very much an issue but the binary nature of the solutions I think is the bigger issue here. We need to think outside those options. Like finding better ways to recycle/reuse and develop ways to utilize other materials. This stuff takes time but we need to put more focus on it because it's the only way to have our cake and eat it too. If we'd been thinking that way decades back we'd be in a better spot right now.

It's a quagmire for sure and the smartest way forward is likely to decide what that ideal scenario is for our future then find a compromise we can deal with now and taper that compromise towards the ideal future scenario over a long enough period of time where we're able to create change while also not too much disruption at any one time.

 

Glad to have found this thread, I travel up Owen's Valley/395 regularly, about once a month, and have been going up there since I was in college, mostly to get to Mammoth and Lake Tahoe.

Love the drive, love the area. I definitely need to get off the highway and explore and discover some of the less traveled areas though.

 

I used to always just go to the same places we stayed for fishing and then also into town in the winter for snowboarding. Over the past ~5yrs or so I've been trying to explore more - there is SOOOOO much. Even tons to check out just on the drive up there, I used to always just go as fast as I could to get up to Mammoth quickly and never realized how much there was to see all along 395.

 

There's still a few less traveled areas left. Look online for trip reports then look on a topo for areas that aren't mentioned in those trip reports. lol

 

yea I often wish I could make a few stops on my drive, but I'm usually pressed for time. I leave for mammoth after work on friday afternoon, and drive home after two days of skiing sunday evening. I should make more summer trips, and set aside drive time to make some side trips. I've gone a few places, off the 395, and have loved it every time. just don't get to do it often enough.

haha, good tip!

 

Yeah, winter is a bit different for sure. We used to do some weekend missions like that, often leaving early Sat morning. If I wasn't so busy these days I may be up for that again but mainly I just feel too old for those burnout weekend ski trips.

 

One Friday night a buddy and I got off work around 2AM, had beers and grilled tacos in the parking lot to celebrate a coworker's last day, left LA at 3AM, drove to Mammoth through the night, dragged up and down the mountain all day, and then drove back Saturday night. The only thing that kept me awake was 5 hour energy drinks. Got kids now, won't be doing that anymore. Somehow the kids are more tiring though.

 

when I was in college, Mammoth College Student Season Passes were ~$300. (this was before the ikon pass, when a regular Mammoth Season Pass was north of $1k). Two of my friends from ski club had tuesdays without class, so we bought passes, and every other week or so, we would do that same thing. Leave Riverside at about 2:30am, arrive at the lifts around 8, ski all day, leave Mammoth around 4:30-5, and be back at school/home around 9:30pm. Long ass day, and we'd be burned by the end of it and sleep really well that night lol. man that was fun, probably couldn't pull it off again now, though I'm not opposed to trying haha

 

From our trip to the Inyo mountains.





Driving up the 14 through Red Rocks


On really good snow season years, Mammoth mountain will occasionally shoot fireworks off chair 23, and you can watch from the summit. If you have the opportunity to go, I really recommend it. Most spectacular 4th of July show I've ever seen. Here are photos from 2017 and 2020.