Ghost Train RadioThe Fantastic Eastern Sierras
We just got back from a week in the Eastern Sierras, where we stayed at Mammoth. I went on three serious hikes so took my new knee replacement out for a serious boot camp at 9000 feet. It was hard, but no pain. Huge success! I was the slowest hiker on the trails, but I’m very pleased I can hike again after 10 years of having bone on bone in my left knee. It really is amazing – being able to walk with zero agonizing pain.
We were hoping for great fall colors, and this area has the best in California, but we were about 2 weeks too early. Last year, between Ashland, Crater Lake and Bend Oregon we saw the best fall colors I have ever seen out West. They rivaled anything I experienced growing up in Sussex County, NJ. Yeah – I’m a total sucker for fall colors. You can scroll down to my posts from late last October – I was elated with what I saw and captured with my camera.
The consolation prize this year matched last year, but in a different form. We visited:
- Manzanar
- Mount Whitney
- Devils Post pile
- Rainbow Falls
- Mono Lake
- Highways 4 and 108 over the Sierra
- Bridgeport, Bishop, Lone Pine
- Bodie (ghost town)
I was completely caught off guard by Bodie. As you can see by my recent posts – it blew me away like the Oregon fall colors did last year. In fact, we will plan another trip and go back to Bodie – it was that good. A ghost town right at the start of fall and before Halloween is glorious.
The trip filled in one thing I never knew about California – which is the variety of terrain and beauty of the high desert – making California the most diverse and amazing state I’ve ever lived in, and you’d be hard pressed to find another such place in the world.
We are moving to Oregon in 2 years (most of our relatives live there), but I will never, ever trash California – especially since I’ve lived in much worse places, not to mention have had the kind of career people dream of.
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