<\/a>Slept with the van door cracked open, and slept pretty well I think. But the heat and constant activity always awakens me early here – I’ll see the same person walking to and from the bathroom 2, 3, 4 times in a morning, often chatting with their friend as they pass two feet from my open door.<\/p>\n
Also, I’m still a little bummed about the W’s losing last night.<\/p>\n
WHUFU page for: Independence Creek Campground<\/a><\/b><\/p> \n Real good find! I thought these county parks were spendy, but $10 seems like a pretty good deal to me right now! On one of those little "creeks" LADWP sculpted out to constrain "their" water. Wide open sagebrush on one side, a column of willows and cottonwoods following the creek on the other. Very quiet and pretty today.<\/p>\n<\/p> <\/p>tonight<\/b>: \n $10 seven weeks ago has given way to $14 here in March. Sigh ... no wonder I thought it was pricey. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Day FIVE! Doing the trip in the opposite direction requires a little bit of creativity in the planning department. I rolled into the Lone Pine Bistro<\/strong> in the morning last time, but this time I rolled in mid-afternoon, to eat\u00a0a sando and get a sando to go but mostly because it was the only chance I’ll have to soak up my daily wifi before I get to my campground.<\/p>\n I am SO\u00a0not engaged in March Madness that I had completely forgotten the semis are happening right now … meh.<\/p>\n I think Independence Creek<\/strong> is a perfect place to enjoy the\u00a0Owens Valley<\/strong>.\u00a0I am really digging the fact that it’s getting a little nippy now that the sun is going down. Good to be back from the hell that is Death Valley!<\/p>\n Finally, really did sleep well, maybe for the first time this trip.\u00a0When the\u00a0the sun started\u00a0streaming in past my makeshift curtain, I roused myself enough to back down the hill 40 yards to a shady spot, where I happily spent the next three hours.<\/p>\n I tried a new coffee place in Bishop<\/strong> – Black Sheep Coffee<\/strong>. Just my kind of place. It was like a Friends episode for rock climbers. Those cheerful, healthy but annoyingly clannish young people have definitely taken over Bishop. The kids across the aisle mentioned the “green church” on the phone to their friends multiple times, which was a preview of the rest of my day and night. The green church<\/strong> is the landmark for the Benton Crossing Road<\/strong> turnoff to the hot springs, so what’s there the whole effing tribe of these kids is going tonight. \u00a0aargh!<\/p>\n Stopped at Manor Mart<\/strong> for their quality fresh deli items and their hot check-out women. Yep! they are maintaining consistency in\u00a0both departments, and good for them!<\/p>\n WHUFU page for: Whitmore Tubs<\/a><\/b><\/p> \n Hot water pops out of the ground at numerous places around here. Get the Cal\/Nev Hot Springs book for details. \r<\/p>\n \r<\/p>\n Today I went to the first one off Whitmore Tubs Road, called "Hot Tub" in the book, "Rock Tub" on the PDF. It was just excellent for one or two people.\r<\/p>\n \r<\/p>\n This is BLM land so I think you can camp. I did not this time.<\/p>\n<\/p> <\/p>tonight<\/b>: \n The hills are alive with healthy young rock climbers streaming to the hot pools after a hard Sunday of whatever they were doing. Every pool has way too many vehicles parked next to it. There is however a nice, level, relatively spacious turnout on the road to the Rock Tub where I have decided to set up camp for the night. Maybe I'll get to soak tonight, maybe I won't. I am optimistic about tomorrow morning however.\r<\/p>\n \r<\/p>\n Update, I did get to the spring and it was not hot! The pipe that feeds it needs tweaking, methinks.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Crrraazy busy around here tonight. \u00a0The tub down the hill had a van parked there which stayed all night. In the 20 or so minutes I’ve been here, three cars have gone down there, turned around and left, two more yuppie SUVs went and stayed, so there’s probably eight or ten folks down there, for a tub that fits three people willing to get close.<\/p>\n I actually did have an opportunity to soak, but come to find out that\u00a0the water NOT\u00a0hot tonight! Dunno what’s up with that?!\u00a0but since I’d already let\u00a0go of caring about it it was no big deal :) I just walked back to my happy van and watched sunset until the plummeting\u00a0temperature drove me inside.<\/p>\n Three or four more cars when by after dark, but by then I had rotated the van away from the road for privacy and sunrise avoidance, so I lost track.<\/p>\n As least six cars went by this morning. And to be clear, I do not mean six cars zoomed by on Whitmore Tubs Road 150 yards up the hill, I mean six cars took the turnoff to the Rock Tub, drove the bumpy, dusty road pst\u00a0my van and either decided to have a go of it or turned around and drove back.<\/p>\n That was fun, then on to Mammoth. I didn’t really plan it to be so, but it was Errand Day as it turns out. Get my coffee and enjoy my Looney Bean experience, then get my propane refilled (yay!), then go to\u00a0Safeway (called Von’s because Mammoth is in Greater LA, but it’s really Safeway), then hunt down the only car audio place in Mammoth to get my audio looked at.<\/p>\n The sad fact is that my podcast setup is crapping out\u00a0over\u00a0the last few days. I have an iPhone 4S plug (the older big flat one) hooked into my car audio\u00a0through which I listen to podcasts on my old iPhone. I basically do this all the driving day every day of these trips, so having it fail is just not acceptable. It started disconnecting\u00a0randomly three days ago, and today it got\u00a0really bad. It crapped out completely this morning, a few hundred yards into my gravel road adventure to Hot Creek. The nice dude took apart my Kenwood console, everything looked all right, guessed that it was the cable, but did not have any in stock. So it was a FAIL in terms of fixing it, but he did sell me a mini cable so I can listen the old fashioned way for the rest of the trip.<\/p>\n So … back to vacation! Left Mammoth, drove north. Drove into where Glass Creek Campground is far enough to confirm that it would be campable if the roads are passable. That is, there is no gate to stop one.<\/p>\n Finish up the day, drive through Bridgeport<\/strong>, then the long right-angled trip through the flat valley to Buckeye Road<\/strong> and my favorite little spot in the trees above the hot springs.<\/p>\n WHUFU page for: Buckeye dispersed<\/a><\/b><\/p> \n There is an actual Forest Service campground right down the road, but it's closed half the year, and these dispersed spots are so nice I usually stay here anyway. \r<\/p>\n Coming from 395 on Buckeye Road, you first encounter the pull-off for the hot springs. 300 yards later at the bend in the road is the real campground, then another 300 yards up the hill on the left is the dispersed area.\r<\/p>\n It's really nice. you can see out over the wide valley through the pine trees. It is sometimes crowded.<\/p>\n<\/p> <\/p>tonight<\/b>: \n I lucked out and got the exclusive spot on the point. There is nobody else here. It's spring and the creek is running very high, so I will not plan on fording in.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div> A little before dark I decided to make a run (well, really a fast walk) to the hot spring. I packed my necessaries and headed down the dusty road, around the bend and across the creek, then cut through the free camping area after the bend. I stuck as close to the creek as I could, wondering if there is a creekside trail. There is! \u00a0I felt very pleased with myself for finding it and taking it. It was pretty rustic, but got it me\u00a0there.<\/p>\n The last 30 yards were the toughest, because the ground was extremely wet and boggy and it was hard not to get pretty muddy. Four kids in the water, one left so I got the second best hot waterfall.\u00a0A couple never moved from the first best waterfall. I didn’t stay as long as I would really have liked, because it was getting pretty dark, and this is a no moon<\/em> night – so dark is DARK.<\/p>\n Got pretty cold again – 30-ish – but I’ve got a full tank of propane, so it’s all good. Beautiful, perfect morning.<\/p>\n The exit choices were:<\/p>\n I hate backtracking, so forward I went.\u00a0It went just fine until maybe three miles from 395, but then … a fucking road grader. There was a single sign saying “Road Construction” about two miles in. Then four turns later there was suddenly a 2 foot\u00a0tall ridge\u00a0of gravel<\/em> right in the of the road, continuing forever! \u00a0At first I instinctively went to the right of it (the outside\/downhill side), but quickly realized that “lane” becomes too narrow.\u00a0The only option is the left “lane”. Ok, fine.<\/p>\n Backed up 30 yards to the start of the ridge and took the left. Followed this track for a mile or so: 6-8 turns on this narrow road.\u00a0The turned-up dirt seemed extremely fresh. Then I went around another bend and boom! there’s a fucking road grader right in front of me, going about 2 mph, scraping out a nice clean corner on the hill side of the road and leaving the resulting dirt in the middle of the road, no doubt to take a second pass later and push it to the edge or over the edge.<\/p>\n For a while I had foolish hopes that he would do something nice like\u00a0move over and let me get on my way, but it became clear he did not give a fuck what my problems were, he was going to plow his track. This went on for 15 minutes, 5-6 turns, until a particular inside turn had the two necessary features:<\/p>\n So off I went, able to go speed up all the way to 15 mph! \u00a0Gave that dude a middle finger salute and went on my way, I didn’t lose very much time really, but I lost a lot of composure and energy. Instead of being all happy and ready for action like you should be 40 minutes into your day, I was wrung out. It was actually pretty stressful.<\/p>\n The rest of the day went according to plan, there was just more of it than I expected. First part was easy, enjoy the pretty drive to Topaz Lake, where I had the beloved steak & eggs special at the casino. Got my favorite view table, the steak was thick and a perfect medium rare. Excellent.<\/p>\n I am heading towards home, but I did not go home. I cut left (west) before Minden<\/strong>, across the Carson River<\/strong> and the wide flat Carson Valley<\/strong> to Kingsbury Grade<\/strong>. I want to camp at Sierra Hot Springs<\/strong> tonight, and decided to take the maximally scenic route, taking the Grade to South Lake<\/strong>, then up the east side of the laks to Kings Beach<\/strong> and 267<\/strong> to Truckee<\/strong> then 89<\/strong> to Sierraville<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Kingsbury Grade was longer, higher and curvier than I remembered. The lakeside drive was also long, and I managed to be\u00a0driving the next leg,\u00a0Kings Beach and the road to Northstar\/Truckee, at Tahoe rush hour. Finally checked in at the Hot Springs at 5:30, anxious to get started on relaxing.<\/p>\n WHUFU page for: Sierra Hot Springs<\/a><\/b><\/p> \n Camping is just the edge of the forest behind the lodge. Next to a very pretty cow pasture at the edge of the huge Sierra Valley. \r<\/p>\n \r<\/p>\n Nice lodge to hang out in, wifi and kitchen, free to campers. \r<\/p>\n \r<\/p>\n The Hot Springs has also taken over the hotel in town. There is also a breakfast place and aMexican restaurant in town, both pricy but good!<\/p>\n<\/p> <\/p>tonight<\/b>: \n here I am again! Camping choices are limited this time of year because the ground is so boggy - it's very easy to get stuck if you stray off the beaten path. I nailed my second favorite spot anyway! Weather is perfect, but thanks to the standing water everywhere, the freshly-hatched mosquitoes are looking for blood!<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Checked in at 5:30 last night, so I have the run of the place till 5:30 tonight. I breakfasted at The Fork and Horn<\/strong>, formerly the (I think) Sierraville Cafe, and before that the Roundup Cafe. They cleaned the place up and went kind of gourmet. The food is very good now. Back to a lovely day of hanging out on the porch all afternoon. Left a little before 5 and drove 300 yards to the hot springs parking for a short soak in the\u00a0very hot pool.<\/p>\n Left, and drove back to town for dinner – chile verde at Dos Hermanos<\/strong> – yum! Then drive home to Reno. A very nice trip!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Slept with the van door cracked open, and slept pretty well I think. But the heat and constant activity always awakens me early here – I’ll see the same person walking to and from the bathroom 2, 3, 4 times … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-march-2016-hot-springs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/a>Sunday<\/a><\/h3>
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<\/a>Tuesday<\/a><\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Wednesday<\/a><\/h3>
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