H4O - Bishop - August 2011

Once again, the SoCal chapter of H4O had a great time wheeling. We met up in Bishop, California for a weekend of mountain climbing.

I met up with Zach and WarMongur to do one last prerun up Wheeler Ridge. When we were up there last month, the trail was blocked by a small avalanche. Fortunately, all the snow was melted away and we were able to reach the outlook spot on the crest.

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Saturday started off with a good sized group, one H1, five H2s, three H3s and one H3T. We aired down the tires in Swall Meadows and proceeded to head up Sand Canyon.




We grabbed a quick bite to eat and did some troubleshooting on mb30sdl's H2 (bad cooling fan). The challenge of Wheeler Ridge Mine Road was waiting for us.




Once we got to the top, the crew was treated to a beautiful view of a snow melt pond.




A little more driving took us to the lookout at the top of the Sierras at about 11,000 ft elevation with a spectacular view of Round Valley.




We started our way back and found a nice playground of rocks and sand dunes just south of the pond.




Even portager and MuDnYrI got in on the fun!




On Sunday, we took Silver Canyon out of Laws to the top of the White Mountains. Three people from the first trip dropped-out but we picked-up a Chevy pickup driven by my childhood friend Chris. On the way up, Zach was the first to spot the bighorn sheep.


The first-timers were quite impressed once we started up the switchbacks.


Once we got to the top, we lined up for a beautiful shot of the trucks with the Sierras in the background.


Next, we drove down to Patriarch Grove to view the oldest living organisms in the world and eat lunch. Unfortunately, MuDnYrI had to depart early to he took his family back down White Mountain Road. The rest of us went down Wyman Canyon where we found many creek crossings and amazingly enough, rain!




We also stopped by a creek crossing where Zach had some fun washing the mud off his truck.


Towards the bottom of the canyon, the scenery changed quite a bit and the landscape looked like something from another planet.


We aired back up once we got to Highway 168 and we started back to Big Pine. From there, four of us turned north to stay in Bishop one more night while the rest of the troupe headed home.

The rest of my pictures can be viewed here: LINKY