| Here above Mono Lake, you can see the weather system moving in. If you hike the Sierra's long enough, you quickly figure out a repeatable pattern to the weather when moisture is pushing in. In the morning and early afternoon, the skies are mostly clear with just a few clouds. The sun is out and things look great. As the afternoon wears on, the clouds move in and the skies grow dark. By evening it's raining and at night it may pour. By early morning it's down to a light rain and clearing back to blue skies. This pattern can repeat for many, many days and this trip was no exception. |
After arriving in Mammoth, we left the car at the Ski Resort and took the shuttle down to the trailhead. By the time we were dropped off it was about 2:30pm. Here just a few hundred feet from the road, we ran into this guy busily munching on anything green. He was doing such a great job of ignoring us, I had to make noises just to get him to look up. Crunching up a mouth full of leaves he was probably thinking - "Yeah, what do you want?"
The trailhead elevation is approximately 8,350ft. Our first stop (Shadow Lake) sits at about 8,850ft. |
