Bishop, CA: Happy and Sad

We spent nearly a week in Bishop, one of the most popular bouldering areas in the US. The climbing we did there was amazing and fun! There are several different locations with two very different kinds of rock and ambiance. We drove northwest from Death Valley on Sunday night, it was a spectacular drive as we headed north through a valley between the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains and the western side of the White mountains (no, not those White Mts NH people). We arrived at the campground just after sunset, exhausted and wishing for bed. The moon was almost full and cast an eerie blue glow over the snow covered mountains…..it was just incredible, I’ve never seen mountains that high! The next morning was clear and beautiful, but we were so tired from our weekend adventure that we decided to take some time to relax, sit in a café in Bishop and catch up on organizing photos and blogging and such. In the afternoon we went to one of the main bouldering areas—the Buttermilks-- just a few miles outside of town. We got there to find the road partly covered with snow, and a good deal of snow on the ground! We tromped through shin-deep snobanks in our t-shirts to get up to the slope where the boulders are. Pretty bizarre. The afternoon was lovely, but sadly it was our last nice weather for the week. Alas! We went to the place that’s famous for nice, dry, warm weather in the winter and we got rained and snowed on. Tuesday and Wednesday it was just cloudy and cool, and we went bouldering at an area called the Happy Boulders (yes, there are Sad Boulders too, hence the title). The rock is really interesting, it’s volcanic and it weathers away to lots of bizarre shapes and overhanging roofs that are fun to monkey around on! With just two of us we managed to get completely worn out in just a few hours each day, but it was great fun to just wander up the little canyon from boulder to boulder, look at an interesting line of holds on the rock and say ‘Let’s climb that!’.

Wednesday night we were lucky enough to have clear weather for the lunar eclipse....it was a phenomenal sight! Mike took a lot of great pictures with his new camera. Once the moon was covered we got our first real view of the stars!

Thursday our arms just couldn’t pull us up any more rocks, and the weather wasn’t great, so we went for a little drive and exploration. We’d planned to go up to Mammoth, a popular ski town just 45 minutes or so to the north, and we did get there eventually after a little detour. As we drove up the highway, Mike saw a sign for Hot Creek and we decided to go find out what it was. A little swim in a hot spring sounded pretty good at that point, so we kept our fingers crossed. A mile or so down the road the plowed area stopped, but there was another sign saying Hot Creek was a mile and a half away, and we thought that sounded like a nice little walk so off we went. The road was covered with at least 8 inches of snow but it was all packed down from people walking and snowshoeing and stuff, so it was a fairly easy walk. We eventually took a side trail down to the edge of the creek, it wasn’t hot by any stretch of the imagination but it wasn’t frozen over either. In the distance we could see some steam rising, so we trudged along, eventually getting there to find that it was all fenced off and not safe to swim in because of increased arsenic and unpredictable temperature spikes! So sad! We did stick our hands in; it didn’t feel all that hot but we decided it was best not to risk it seeing as the stream had obviously been eating away at the banks and looked a little dodgy. As we turned around to start back to the car, the gray clouds I’d been seeing creep up behind us turned into….a snowstorm! Huzzah! (that’s sarcasm, in case you were wondering). Luckily we had both worn hats and coats, so we didn’t get too cold, but walking a mile and a half with wet snow being blown into your face isn’t all that entertaining! Still, it wasn’t too terrible, and we got back to the car very glad for the opportunity to get warm and dry. We went up the road a few more miles to Mammoth, drove around the little ski town (wasn’t very exciting), then headed back to camp. We arrived late in the afternoon just as the rain was starting. Sigh. Had an elegant dinner date in the car (dinner and a movie…our own personal drive in! Portable DVD player sure is handy.) and went to bed with snow falling.

Friday’s weather was just as delightful so we spent the day holed up in a café drinking coffee and getting restless. We did take a fun walk around downtown; Bishop is really a cute little spot. Almost all of the stores have a very late-60’s feel to them, obviously locally owned and run; not much evidence of standard corporate America which is a nice change. One of the highlights is Schat’s Bakery, which makes unbelievable breads and pastries and was very crowded every time we went in. I planned to take pictures of some of the stores, but we didn’t have the camera and ran out of daylight on our last day. So you’ll just have to imagine how great it was! Saturday started out pretty nice, but another storm was predicted to start in the afternoon so we packed up and planned to leave after we finished bouldering for the day. Mike’s friends Ben and Dan joined us (they live a few hours away), we climbed at the Sad boulders and made the best of the day, though it was cold and sprinkled for most of the afternoon. The rain started in earnest around 5:00, so we said our goodbyes and hit the road, headed south for warmth and sunshine in Joshua Tree!

Bishop