Our plan for the day was to head south to Mammoth to do a little bike riding (hopefully less strenuous than our Mono lake ride). By this point we were pretty sick of eggs for breakfast, and what's a holiday without pancakes? We went to the Sierra Inn for breakfast and waited a very long time for some very mediocre pancakes. The "espresso" came out of a scary vending machine, so we didn't even have coffee! Next time I'll fortify with Peet's before going out!.
Memorial day is the official start of the fire season, and it started in a big way. As we were heading out of June Lake, we had to pull over while a stream of emergency vehicles passed us heading for US395. As we approached the highway, we could see a huge column of smoke rising to the north of us, somewhere near Lee Vining. It didn't look good, and it was lucky that we were heading south that day. All the way to Mammoth we kept seeing more emergency vehicles driving by (mostly volunteer firemen).
We didn't quite go straight to Mammoth though, because we happened across Glass Flow Rd., a dirt road following an obsidian flow, and leading up to Obsidian Dome. I just had to turn off and follow the bumpy road up the hill and go climbing on the big glassy blocks of obsidian. I was a very good boy though, and didn't collect any to make tools with.
Our first stop in Mammoth was Susie's Subs to get some lunch. While we were waiting for the sandwiches, we wandered next door to an antique store to look around. I ended up chatting quite a bit with the owner, whose husband is the local fire chief. She was a pretty good source of news on the fire. We picked up our sandwiches and went to the park to eat.
For not-so-serious bikers like us, Mammoth has a couple of nice paved bike/pedestrian paths. We figured this might be easier than the "easy" ride of the other day. It all started out fine, but someone went and stuck a couple of hills on the path. We would have been fine even with that, but then guess what? Wind in the face! It was blowing so hard we could hardly move even on the level surfaces! Didn't look good for fire season. We ended up doing a there and back run on the long trail, and by then we were ready for a vacation.
And what would a vacation be without outlet malls? Mammoth has its own outlet mall (the smallest one in the West if I had to guess). In our weakend state, Alison couldn't resist the siren call of a shoe sale at Bass, and a handbag at Coach (such a deal!). I'm really glad there weren't more than 4-5 shops, because I was getting pretty sleepy. We managed to stumble a few blocks to a coffee shop and an iced espresso did wonders for my attitude.
Though the fire ended up closing Hwy 395 for a time, it was north of the June Lake turnoff, so we were able to get back to the cabin for a much needed nap. We did manage to drag ourselves out of bed to dine on whatever snack foods we could find around the cabin, and to take a little sunset drive up to the lake. The wind was still howling away, and the second the sun was down it got pretty chilly. This didn't seem to bother a psychotic wind surfer that was out on the lake (glacial lake I might add) zipping back and forth at about 50 mph. Such dedication!
We decided to take the long way back from the lake, and it became the VERY long way back when I missed the unmarked exit for our road. We ended up going all the way up to Lee Vining (damn, the Mono Cone was closed), and getting a piece of pie at Nicely's. The whole place reeked of wood smoke from the fire, and we could still see flashing lights on the hill, though no flames. We drove back very slowly, and a good thing too, because we kept seeing deer on the road. By the time we got back to the cabin, we were mostly asleep already!
Day: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
Last Updated 9 June, 2000
Send Comments to: rlindstrom@earthlink.net