My Hometown: An Alphabetical Travelogue

Last month, I finally took Meg to visit the town where I grew up. We left the kids with my parents in for a few days so we could do some real hiking and exploring. Growing up in the Eastern Sierra was a pretty unique experience. John Muir describes it better than I can:

No pain here, no dull empty hours, no fear of the past, no fear of the future. These blessed mountains are so compactly filled with God's beauty, no petty personal hope or experience has room to be. Drinking this champagne water is pure pleasure, so is breathing the living air, and every movement of limbs is pleasure, while the whole body seems to feel beauty when exposed to it as it feels the campfire or sunshine, entering not by the eyes alone, but equally through all one's flesh like radiant heat, making a passionate ecstatic pleasure-glow not explainable.
John Muir, July 20, 1869

ALABAMA HILLS
If you're a fan of Westerns, you've probably seen dozens of movies in the Alabama Hills. Otherwise, you might recognize the terrain from Gladiator, Ironman or Tremors. Mount Whitney (not shown in this photo) is the highest peak in the contiguous United States, at a height of 14,505 ft.


BUTTERMILKS
The Buttermilks are one of 5 premiere bouldering areas in Bishop. If you open a climbing magazine, you will definitely see pictures of these granite boulders. Grandma and Grandpa Peabody (shown below) are two of the famously challenging boulders in the area. Bishop Creek runs through the Buttermilks, and the waterfall has always been one of our favorite spots.



CHALK BLUFFS
The chalk bluffs are the volcanic tablelands to the north of Bishop. The Happy Boulders and the Sad Boulders are located in these bluffs.


DIXON LANE
I ran cross-country through high school. Some of my favorite runs took us down Dixon Lane along the canal. It was ideal for summer practices. Too hot? Take a little swim. Thirsty? Take a drink from one of the groundwater pumps that feeds the canal.


ERICK SCHAT'S BAKERY
The home of the original Sheepherder bread. The only things I can eat at the bakery are gelato and caramel apples, but it's still a landmark. Most Southern Californian's know Bishop as the place with the good bakery on the way to ski in Mammoth. I don't know what's going on with my face in that picture.


FAMILY
For the last few days of the trip, my parents and most of my siblings joined up with us. Whitney and her family weren't able to join us, and neither was Hayley's husband Byron. Maybe next time. This is the front yard of our old house.


GORGE, OWENS RIVER
The gorge was the place where I learned to sport climb. There are a few hundred single pitch routes and several multipitch routes for sport or trad climbers. I'm not sure if it's the nettles that grow along the river, or a combination of plants, but the gorge has a really unique scent. If I could bottle that scent, I'd make millions selling air freshener. I met lots of european climbers in the gorge, and it was amazing to see the pros scale 5.14 routes. I climbed barefoot for three years until I saved up to buy a pair of used climbing shoes for $50.


HOME
We moved to Bishop when I was 9 years old. To picture my childhood, think of a wussy version of Huck Finn. I guess I was more like Tom Sawyer. We climbed trees, caught fish in our pond, played ice hockey on the ponds, built forts, and played with black powder. I don't think it has changed much since then.


INDIAN PAINTBRUSH
It still surprises me to see such a bright color sprouting out of the ground. They have these in Utah too, but of course I find these ones superior.


JANE THE RODEO QUEEN
Jane was only in Bishop for a few days, but she made sure to make a scene while she was there. At the Mule Show that we attended, the announcer asked the kids to come down and place their shoes in the middle of the arena and run to the east end. Jane insisted that she was big enough, so I lowered her down and she ran out into the middle. By this time, all the other kids were on the east end. When she got to the middle, she wasn't sure what to do. The rodeo clown told her to leave her shoes and run to the side. She made it half way before getting nervous about leaving her shoes all alone. She turned around, ran back to the middle, and sat down to put on her shoes (much to the delight of the spectators). The announcer and rodeo clown devoted the next 10 minutes to talking about the "cute little blonde girl".


KEOUGH'S HOT SPRING
This geothermal hot spring was converted into a health spa in the 1920s. It is a really fun place to swim with lots of history.


LAKE SABRINA (pronounced sa-bry-na)
Shortly after moving to Bishop, my dad took us hiking around Lake Sabrina. I remember being nervous as we walked on the glacial till. I was a city kid, and this was the real outdoors, not Griffith Park. Fortunately, it only took a year before I felt at home in the Sierras.



MULES
Since the 1970s, Bishop has claimed the title of the "Mule Capitol of the World." Tens of thousands of mule lovers come to Bishop over Memorial day weekend to join the festivities. I had to make sure Meg witnessed Mule Days in person.


NORTH FORK BISHOP CREEK
Ok, I had a hard time finding a letter N. The stream that runs through our yard was diverted from the North Fork of Bishop Creek. We couldn't keep Grey out of it.


OWENS VALLEY
Here's a panoramic of the Owens Valley that my dad took. When the winds blow over the Sierras from the west, they create a distinct cloud pattern in the clouds called the Sierra Wave. The Sierra Wave is most noticeable at sunset (photo courtesy of flickr).



PETROGLYPHS
Hidden among the chalk bluffs, there are hundreds of ancient petroglyphs from the Paiutes who have lived in the Owens valley for thousands of years. No matter how many times I have been to see these glyphs, I always forget where they are located. Fortunately, we usually stumble upon them.


QUARTER HORSE
My friend Maria was kind enough to take a break from moving cattle to let Jane go for a horseback ride. The horse was a really gentle mare named "Jessie". Jane had been looking forward to this part of our trip for three months.


ROCK CREEK
This is one of Whitney's favorite places in the Owens Valley. We went right after the parade, but none of us were prepared for freezing rain and hail. It was freezing, but it was gorgeous. Jane enjoyed being "the leader" on the hike.


SOUTH LAKE
Even though I like Lake Sabrina more, South Lake has some pretty spectacular vistas. There are lots of beautiful trails around the lake.


TUFA TOWERS
Mono Lake was the most scenic place we went on our trip. After spending most of the day in Yosemite, we arrived at Mono Lake just in time for a really cool storm. These tufa towers are alkaline deposits that were exposed as water levels fell in the 1940s (thanks a lot, dad!).



UNDERWOOD LANE
U is a bit of a stretch too. While we were there, I went for a run to the indian cemetary on Barlow Lane. I stopped near Underwood Lane, sat on a rock, and drew the skyline. I'll post the drawing later, but here's a snapshot of the view. Mt Tom is the big one, and Basin Mountain is to the left with big U-shape glacier in the middle.


VOLCANOES
We drove out to the mono craters while we were at Mono Lake. I hiked inside one of them in 6th grade, and I definitely recommend it. Pumice on the outside, and obsidian on the inside.


WHITE MOUNTAINS
The Sierras Nevadas get all the attention, but there is another huge mountain range to the east of Bishop called the White Mountains. White Mountain peak reaches a height of 14,250ft. Bishop is only at 4,150ft, so you try to picture a dish 10,000 ft deep. Indescribable.

A huge grove of Bristlecone Pines are located in the White mountains east of Bishop. The Methuselah tree is over 4,800 years old. It is the oldest living organism on the earth. Meg almost went crazy searching for the Methuselah tree, which is unmarked. The bottom picture is a vew from over 10,000 feet on the road back down to the valley.



eXCELLENT ACCOMMODATIONS
Our friends, the Scotts, were kind enough to let us borrow their home while they were gallavanting around Europe. Our party of two grew to eleven when my siblings found out that we were going to Bishop. I spent a lot of my youth at this house, so it really felt like home.


YOSEMITE
Tioga Pass opened up on the second day of our trip. Even though I wanted a whole week devoted to the Owens Valley, I had to take Meg to Yosemite. We had lunch below Yosemite Falls and walked around the base of El Capitan. We also found a quiet place along the river with a great view of Half Dome. Meg wrote some poetry and I sketched a picture of Half Dome.




ZURICH
I learned something new while compiling this list. I knew that before Bishop was established, there was a railroad town just east called Laws. I didn't know that there was a similar ghost town just east of Big Pine (the town 15 miles south of Bishop). It was called Zurich, and apparently we drove past it on our way to the White Mountains. It's located right before the turnoff to Death Valley.