Eastern Sierra hikes - 2019

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In September, 2019, a group of 15 of us stayed at the Twin Lakes Resort, near Bridgeport. There's a group photo on the 2nd hike.     

Twin Lakes at 7,081 ft., and Sierra peaks at about 12,300 ft.

Our first hike was to scenic Barney Lake, in the Hoover Wilderness. The trailhead, at Annette's Mono Village, was a mile's drive from the cabins.    

note - on a pc or laptop you can zoom in & and out, but not on a smartphone.    

	heading out		the meadow
		northward bound		looking back
	late season paintbrush		first look at Barney Lake at 8,340 ft.		lunch view
		Cirque Mountain at 10,555 ft.		Surjit
	Patrick & Elise		Dick F.		Rich
		Julie & Rick		< back downhill to upper Twin Lakes >
	rock garden		White fir		Rich & Linda
				nearly back

note - this walk was 8.2 miles with 1,207 ft. of gain, a good acclimation day.

The second walk was to Green Lakes, located a short drive south on 395 from Bridgeport, near the Bodie turn off.    

	group photo, taken by Geno		John and Rich		Sierra juniper
		Rich & mountain mahogany		scarlet gilia
					Rich leading the way
		lunch spot (see note)		Green Lakes
			Elise		thistle
		again		Jeffrey pine
	Sierra tiger lily		break time
		Juniper again

note - once at the Lake there was a 30+ mph wind, in your face, and we had to search to find a wind-free lunch spot.

The third walk was out first visit to the Mine Creek trail to Bennettville and beyond, the trailhead being just off Tioga Road, near the East Entrance to Yosemite NP.  We were at 10,000 ft., or so.

	Twin Lakes peaks from Bridgeport		starting out at Mine Creek		the hikers
		gradually uphill
	getting to the good scenery
		Mine creek meadow		Dana Peak, see note
	Surjit & Mt. Conness at 12,002 ft.
		lunch stop & high point of the day		Dick, Jerry, and Geno
	Mt. Dana again		heading downstream		Linda and I talked
abut an Osprey overhead and a stone she had just found		see note 2
			Bennettville		the old mining road (Hwy 120)

note - Geno, Rick K. and Dick F. climbed Mt. Dana, at 13,061 ft., about a year before.  

note 2 - on the start of the return walk, Linda became mystified because she had just found an interesting stone in a streambed, a rock with a distinct bird-flying mark.  Then only minutes later an osprey fly over, a sign from above? Thirty minutes later she told me that pondering this helped her make her mind up on something.  (see Epilogue) 

We had an enjoyable hike up and back and must have gained 700 ft or so. 

In attendance were: Rich & Linda, Chris Lewis & John, Patrick & Victoria & Elise, Rick & Julie, Lynda & Jerry, plus soloists Jean, Geno, Dick F., and me.

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Epilogue - On the drive home north on 395, most drivers opted to take scenic Hwy 89 over Monitor Pass, a great drive ! About 20 minutes later, a number of us arrived at the only good breakfast stop in Markleeville, population 170 & a one-intersection town at elevation 5,500 ft.  This place has a wonderfully remote feeling.  

As the driving groups enjoyed coffee & breakfast, Linda and I compared her rock image to the camera photo. I was glad that she found it meaningful, and this was a good end to the trip.      

rock w/bird flying mark

General note - only a few weeks later Rich and Linda and my wife and I would merge at Dublin, where we started our 16-day driving tour of parts of Scotland & England, see Oct. '19 UK Trip.