above Buckeye Creek<\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

This is quite a busier place when I emerge (late) in the morning than it was last night. A mini-schoolbus arrived around dark, and from the hubbub and headlights in the trees, another car or two arrived later. It all seems to be one large party, the\u00a0three cars and many tents at the other end of the mesa that were there when I got here, plus two more cars and the bus, in-filling the space between me and the original folks with tents and cars and a bus and even a couple of people. Very few people actually, making me think the hot springs are a very busy place! Whatever, I’m outta here.<\/p>\n

Sportsman Bar & Grill<\/strong>:\u00a0wifi and my now-traditional mushroom-Swiss burger. Burger+fries with coffee is a perfectly good substitute for my usual breakfast of something like sausage+eggs and coffee. This place has kind of a “restaurant at the end of the universe” vibe to it, all manner of 395 weirdos wash up here if you stay a while … Kind of like Nicely’s<\/strong> in Lee Vining, but I find this place less aesthetically degrading than Nicely’s. Nicely’s is pretty awful, IMO.<\/p>\n

After\u00a0brunching I took my time heading south.\u00a0I took lots pf pictures in the ever-so-photogenic valley at the Virginia Lakes turnoff. That’s what I’m here for, right?<\/p>\n\n

I’m feeling very leisurely, so next stop was to make the short drive over to Mono Lake County Park<\/strong>. I did not\u00a0walk the boardwalk this time.\u00a0It really only takes you to a half-mile\u00a0mile from the edge of the lake. I know that walk and it’s kind of meh. What I deeply love about the park is the little tree-lined brook running through deep, green grass at the edge of the playground. I had a little epiphany (that I’ve had before), that these little year-round glorified ditches that exist here in the Eastern Sierra are like balm to my soul.<\/p>\n

No stop in Lee Vining<\/strong>\u00a0today, straight on to the June Lake Loop. Did not stop to admire leaves, or for anything. If I am to get a spot\u00a0at Silver Lake tonight, better go straight there and nail it down.<\/p>\n

Silver Lake Campground<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
WHUFU page for: Silver Lake Campground<\/a><\/b><\/p>
\n
at the end of beautiful Silver Lake. Probably has great lake swimming\/kayaking in the summer. Sites 16-27-ish have best lake access. Spectacular fall color spot.\r<\/p>\n
\r<\/p>\n
All the June Loop campgrounds no longer allow checking yourself in at the kiosk. A stressed-out concession employee must come and personally check you in. A step backwards, IMO.<\/p>\n<\/p>
<\/p>tonight<\/b>:
\n
Crazy busy today. I got maybe the last spot at 3:30 on Friday. In addition to the usual fall color and fishing crush, people who can really want to escape the smoke and awfulness of the Sonoma\/Napa fire situation.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>
<\/a>
Rush Creek down from Silver Lake<\/div><\/div><\/p>\n
As luck would have it, I got the last or second to last place!\u00a0It is close to the road and not very private, but it’s got a great view of the mountains and is pretty close to the lake. As mentioned last time, I am not a fan of\u00a0the new June Lake regime of having to sign in with the camp host. This camp host and I did not hit it off. I think because she was a stressed-out biatch. I’m sure she would have a different reason … but that’s over now and I am registered and can get on with my hike!<\/p>\n
I had a very nice walk: first dawdle around the lake shore, then follow\u00a0another one of those\u00a0little year-round creeks up from the lake, across the road, into the trailer park. Then back to the lake shore to the far east end of the campground,\u00a0where I discovered a\u00a0horse trail that\u00a0parallels the road going east, then crosses it down into one of the super-photogenic aspen groves one sees from the road. A nice little walk that got me to darkness, and no moon this seem so sunset = really dark.<\/p>\n
Saturday<\/a><\/h3>\n
Another very cold one: temperatures at dawn: 39\u00b0 inside, 16\u00b0 outside. 16\u00b0<\/span>! By the time I got myself moving the temp was about 50\u00b0 It’s hard to leave, so I sit in my chair and soak up the sun and the excellent alpine vista\u00a0till noon, checkout time. Then hop in the van and head for coffee. All the usual aspen-color spots were swarming with camera-clicking tourists. I kinda felt above all the hubbub, so I just kept going.<\/p>\n
<\/a>
hiding from the sun in the back yard<\/div><\/div>At Looney Beans<\/strong> I got the last bear claw! It’s gonna be a great day! Thence to Salsa!<\/strong> for a chile verde<\/em> burrito. Very good, but they’re meals are huge. I had that too-full feeling for the next few hours.<\/p>\n
Thence to Von’s for what turned out to be a liquids-only shopping trip:a gallon of water,\u00a0a\u00a0liter of water,\u00a0three pints of milk, and three twelve-packs of Sierra Nevada beer!!! On sale for $11.99 is a mighty good price, so I got my usual Torpedo<\/strong>, plus Oktoberfest<\/strong>, which is very good this year, plus a bonus twelve-pack of\u00a0Hop Hunter<\/strong>, which I like very much but haven’t seen for a few months – since last winter I guess. That’s a lot of beer, but it gives me a feeling of abundance :). and I certainly will drink every last one eventually. My work is done here, so off to:<\/p>\n
Convict Lake Campground<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
WHUFU page for: Convict Lake Campground<\/a><\/b><\/p>
\n
Large campground at the foot of Convict Lake. Really cool place, mountains on three sides, nice little bite-sized hike around the perimeter of the lake (2.6 miles). Quite popular, but it's a big campground so there are usually open sites.\r<\/p>\n
Downtown Mammoth is fifteen minutes away.<\/p>\n<\/p>
<\/p>tonight<\/b>:
\n
2 1\/2 weeks since the last time I was here! \r<\/p>\n
\r<\/p>\n
Peak Fall colors happened in between :-\/ Still beautiful though. Site 72 has a nice vista, close to bathroom and the trail across the creek.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>
<\/a>
my spot at Convict. Don't think this tree will ever be a shade tree<\/div><\/div><\/p>\n
A minute after I pulled into\u00a0a spot that looked pretty good, I realized\u00a0I’ve\u00a0stayed here before!\u00a0It is close to\u00a0Convict Creek<\/strong>\u00a0and has a lovely view across the little canyon. You can hear the\u00a0burbling creek very well. The downside of the spot eventually becomes apparent, namely that the RV dump station is right\u00a0across the canyon, and basically at eye level with me. So even though\u00a0the dump station\u00a0is a two mile drive to up the canyon,\u00a0across the dam, over and down, it\u00a0is right there, 200\u00a0unobstructed yards away. I didn’t like it in the evening, but\u00a0it’s a little entertaining in the morning, to lay in bed and watch the never-ending line of retired couples stretching their legs, looking around, then emptying their poop.
<\/a>
ruins of something on Convict Creek<\/div><\/div><\/p>\n
On my stay last month I circumambulated the lake wearing myself out pretty thoroughly. Nothing so strenuous this time, but I had a great little walk down to the creek, up the road to the marina, all the way down the south side of the lake to the end of the picnic area and back. The leaves are maybe 4-5 days past prime.
<\/a>
missed the wedding, but diggin the chairs<\/div><\/div><\/p>\n
There was a wedding earlier. Two clues: the rows of chairs by the lake (and a couple of stray programs left there) and the fact that young folks in suits and gowns were walking down the road to the Resort. That’s pretty hard core on their part.\u00a0I’m surprised they didn’t work out some kind of shuttle, but I commend them for it!<\/p>\n
Also, there are tons of Chinese. Also some other kinds of Asians, and some Nordic\/Teutonic folks, and even a few Americans! But well over half of all the scenery admirers up at the lake were Chinese. Twenty years ago they would have been Japanese. I commend all of them for wanting to come see the fall foliage.<\/p>\n
Cold again, but not cold enough to form ice in my water bottle, as it was the first night.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In my peculiar way of doing things, I am not super sure I’m going to leave today, so I just start getting ready and see how it goes. With my usual dawdling I start the van around 3 pm, by … 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":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-october-2017-395-and-utah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}