Big Pine, CA

Wednesday, 6 July 2011

I was up at 4:30am, ordered a weak coffee at a Wendy's at another truck stop, and continued my route up I-15 to US395. I crossed most of the Mohave Desert here during the weak sunrays, and had enough time to stop in the old mining town of Randsburg. I didn't need to meet with Mary until 11am in Big Pine, which I calculated I would reach by 9am. I thus had time to explore this charming little old mining town-turned-tourist trap.

It was 6:40am when I pulled into the hillside town. No one was awake yet and the only life I saw was a small delivery truck that had arrived at a business a block away. Shacks, antique shops and an old bar with flexible opening hours ("Closes whenever it gets slow") were the main points of this small town. The old jail and church remained as historical features, and a small museum claimed home to old mining equipment.

I didn't stay long as nothing was open. The only street open for business was the Main street and I didn't want to endanger Sadie who seemed to enjoy walking around. During the day Randsburg surely broils in the heat of the Mohave desert, but during my short visit the early morning hues of blues and purples still kept the place cool.

This stretch of US395 was familiar to me: small Hispanic towns of small lots, cluttered yards and rusty automobiles adorned the road as I sped on by, disinterested this time in looking for things to photograph. Lone Joshua Trees gave way to more typical desert flora such as yuccas as slowly the northern Mohave Desert gave way to a more diverse high desert habitat. Barran horizons disappeared to reveal approaching hills, then mountains as the desert turned into the once busy Owens Valley of farmers and loggers and cattlemen. The drive along this stretch of US395 is indeed a pretty drive.

I stopped briefly in Lone Pine at 9am to call Mary. Even in this town the outfitter shops weren't open until 10am. I was now around 90 miles away and due to arrive at 11am. I drove up instead at 10:20am and recognized her Subaru right away; she was in her car writing postcards to family back in Iowa. We hugged, I introduced Sadie to her, and we waited around town for the pizza restaurant "Uncle Bud's" to open, a local place that had gotten rave reviews for serving "mountain pie" pizzas due to their size. Unfortunately, it didn't open as posted at 11am or even 11:30am so Mary suggested driving to the Mobil gas station on the north side of town were we ordered stuffed chicken burritos and beers which we took to our campsite to eat.

Mary had picked out an ideal site at the Lower Sage Flats campground in the Big Pine Creek Recreation area the day before for $20 a night. Site 11 was across from the bathrooms and close to the raging Big Pine Creek, but not so close as to keep me awake at night with constant urges to pee. Her small tent was already set up close to the picnic table but I opted to sleep in the Ford for the night due to a 30% chance of rain that never came. There were no neighbors on either side of us.

We chatted some more before embarking on a short 4-5 mile hike up the South Fork of Big Pine Creek Trail, a short hike only because the bridge over the creek had been washed away in a winter avalanche and hadn't been repaired yet. I didn't mind the short walk as I needed time to acclimate to the higher elevation now; the campsite sits at 7600' and I hadn't hiked in a month.

A light drizzle had fallen over the peaks and left its dew on all the flora along the trail. The late snows had delayed the usual spring flower bloom until July, creating a colorful and diverse display of forms and colors. One plant especially fascinated me, the white-flowered Spur Lupine with its finger-like slender leaves that collected rain drops in uniformed round pellets. These wet leaves in turn created lovely photographs when taken up-close. I was even surprised to see prickly pear cacti this high up the trail.

We hiked as high as we could, following the relatively easy trail that followed the creek's path and turned around before the missing bridge as a lower drainage creek was overflowing and knee-deep. I wasn't about to cross that, not at the speed the water was cascading. Sadie was not going to ford that. We could see a waterfall nearby, around a small cliffside, and snow mounds. Mary was OK with turning around. We returned the way we came and arrived back at the site three hours later and dampened with the dew we had swiped out next to.

The Big Pine Creek Recreation Area is an ideal area for elevation training. Several trails can be accessed here. The Palisades on the other side of the high ridgeline is home to what I think is one of the prettiest part of the John Muir Trail: the Upper and Lower Palisades Lakes. Snow still lingered at these high peaks.

We ate leftover burritos for dinner, drank some more beer, and retired early. I was tired from the previous day's driving and Sadie was anxious to get to sleep. Thus ended the first day of the roadtrip. I slept soundly, never noticing the loud cascades of the nearby creek.