Things to do in Mammoth, part VI: John Muir and Pacific Crest Trails

This is the final installment of the Mammoth Summer series; Catch up on the rest of the series here!
Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V

Friday was our last full day in Mammoth, so it was a "lets do everything we haven't had a chance to do yet while we're here" day. We made further use of our National Parks Pass and hiked a few miles along the Pacific Crest and John Muir Trails. We were excited for this day and had been looking forward to it all week, since those trails lay outside the boundaries of the National Park, which meant that there wouldn't be many people doing the same thing.  I guess most people there preferred to "hike" along the groomed highway-wide paths inside the national monument borders.

 

Daisy learned from her last two hiking experiences {here and here} and took advantage of any shade she could. She would RUN between patches of shade and camp out in the next one until we had caught up, then she was on to find the next patch. This hike had the benefit of occasional water source, so she cooled off a lot easier.

We even passed by Devil's Postpile and got a much better panoramic view than we did the first time we saw it. Tim was a little peeved we didn't skip that altogether and just seen it from here.

The area is littered with lakes (hence the name "Mammoth Lakes") and they're connected by creeks and streams and rivers, so we spent most of the day hiking the trails that webbed the mountainside from one to the other. It was a gorgeous day at the end of the summer, and we loved having the trail to ourselves.

It wasn't a long hike, but we gained a lot of altitude, so we cut our hike short at Johnston Lake to explore the meadow and play in the river. {We had also dropped the really expensive compass Tim had insisted we purchase and he was pretty bummed about it. The Cracker-Jack compass I wanted to get would have been a lot less painful to have lost, just sayin'}

We popped open beers and the Subway sandwich we'd toted up the mountain for a little picnic, and after about an hour of swimming in the pool of the river we packed up and started exploring the back country surrounding Johnston Lake.  There were no trails, just paths made by animals back there, so we felt like explorers blazing our own trails! You know, just without a compass.

isn't it seriously breathtaking??!?

 After spending a good time jumping rocks and breaking sticks and altogether being children, we made the trek back.

A self-satisfied and content pup, wouldn't you say??!?

Tim, breaking the trusty map back out after we returned to the car to see where we had just hiked.

The next day, we packed up the condo and the car, loaded both animals and ourselves in, and made the drive back to Santa Barbara. It was a great trip, and one that was both exhausting and relaxing at the same time, somehow. This was NOT our typical relaxing vacation, but we still came back mentally recharged. Physically, we were spent though!

Spock had had a lovely time in the condo without us during the day.

We would definitely need a few days to recover, though!

Things to do in Mammoth, part V: Biking the Lakes Basin

Catch up on the rest of the series here! 

Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV

Rather than do breakfast in our condo like we'd been doing since arriving in Mammoth, we decided to grab bagels and explore the Village when there were no people around.

One of the coolest things about the Village was how they catered to families with young children. Every restaurant has a play area with toys (a lot of times it was a sandbox), there was a few sets of corn hole, a life-size chess set, Ping-pong, and a giant Jenga set. Tim won.

Since Daisy was still clearly recovering from the days before, we left her behind in the condo while we rented bikes to explore the town. However, we were pretty sore and tired too, so rather than ride along any of the hundreds of trails throughout town or in the mountains, we did the "lazy" thing: we loaded the bikes onto a trolley, took it to the highest lake in the lake basin, and rode the whole way downhill! 

It was the best way to do it, in my opinion. We would have loved to do the bike park at Mammoth Mountain, but there's no way we could have done it in our condition. Maybe next time. On the Lakes Basin bike trail (it's really a paved path, as you can see), we were able to coast most of the way down, and we still got to see gorgeous lakes and rivers along the way. We were like kids again, jumping over rocks, seeing who could  off road the steepest dirt hill, etc. Uh, Tim won that one too ;)

The trolley was free, it picked up every thirty minutes or so, and we were able to ride up and down the hill a few times in the four hours we had rented the bikes. Best sixteen bucks spent. 

Things to do in Mammoth, Part IV: Gondola to Mammoth Mountain

Catch up on the rest of the series here! 

Part I, Part II, Part III

On our fourth day in Mammoth, Tim, Daisy, and I hopped on one of the free busses downtown and rode to the base of Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort. Today was the day we would ride the scenic gondola to the top. Tickets were 31 bucks a person which isn't exactly cheap, but that included a lunch at the top and we had been wanting to do this since coming to Mammoth, so we splurged a little!

The mountain's main draw in the summer is biking--any trail you can ski on during the winter could be taken down on the mountain bike too! It was a serious trip; all this terrain park under the snow. We weren't going to be riding bikes this time, though; that would be tomorrow.  Today, we'd just enjoy the view, have some lunch, and hike down. Piece of cake!

The pup had to be carried onto the moving gondola, but once she was on it she loved it!

The gondola took us to the summit of Mammoth Mountain, which is the tallest mountain in the area, so we could see for miles. It was gorgeous! It was so bright up there that the dirt still kind of looked like snow, right?

The top was a bit crooked, so you had to lean a bit walking across it ;)

The tippy-top of Mammoth Mountain!

Daisy is grinning for the picture too haha

Before heading into the Summit Lodge for lunch, we enjoyed the scenery for a little while. It was windy but not unpleasant, and the was about 65 degrees or so compared to the 90* at the foot of the mountain. Not that bad! We just wore pullovers we'd picked up at one of the million winter clearance sales all across Mammoth. Mine was a Patagonia I'd snagged for 75% off!!!

After lunch, we began the hike down. It was at this point that I noticed we had very little camera charge, so we don't have many pictures of the trek down. From the summit, like in the winter, the trails are all Black diamond or Double Black diamond, and we chose the longest possible path to maximize that $31 we paid to get up there. Switchbacks snaked the mountain, and the lower we got, the hotter it got.

I don't know if you do a lot of skiing or spend much time in the mountains, but after a certain altitude, you don't tend to see a lot of trees. I the winter, it's not so bad; there's snow and wind and its nice and cool. In the summer, though, when its 90 degrees and dusty and the sun is baking down on you, the lack of trees SUCKS. The lack of streams and rivers and lakes was like the icing on the cake.

As we descended, it got HOT, and it was a long hike down. We brought water for ourselves and the dog, but we were used to hiking where streams and lakes were present so we could just filter more when our bottles were empty and it was no trouble to cool our feet off in the water. There was ONE small lake about two thirds down the mountain, which took us maybe two hours to reach. The heat, combined with the granite gravel surrounding the lake, was too much for our pup.

Tim carried her the last stretch to the river, and once she flopped in and found a spot in the water that was shaded, she perked right up. We took a nice long break around the lake to be sure everyone was recovered before finishing the last stretch of green trails back to the lodge and the bus stop.

Near the bottom of the mountain, on one of the Green slopes. Cars would drive up and down this one, so Daisy was leashed. The rest of the time, she just ran free!

 We would definitely recommend taking the gondola and hiking down the mountain to anyone, but do bring plenty of water! Next time we visit we will rent bikes and try taking the paths down that way, but I think we'll leave Daisy behind that time.
;)