October 28, 2001

Last Saturday I woke up, peered out of my motel room in Bishop, and watched the sunrise paint the Eastern Sierra for the first time in almost 2 months.  Walking out of the room, the crisp, dry Owens Valley air jolted me further
awake, and the sweet scent of wood-burning stoves was a refreshing change from the thick air of Southern California.  It felt good to be "home" again.

Although the morning was much cooler in Bishop than we were used to, it was quite warm for late October...in the mid 40's.  Later that day, the high temperature would reach into the 80's in the Owens Valley, pretty typical for late summer or early fall.  Driving up highway 395 the cottonwood trees still displayed their summer green, although some variations of gold and yellow were starting to materialize.  Once we entered Rock Creek Canyon, the change from late summer to fall was obvious, as willows and aspens exploded into vibrant yellows, oranges, and reds.  The color remained stellar up to about 9,000 feet, at which point many aspens had begun to lose their leaves.  Still, several stands of aspens were in full-color above 9,000 feet.  The dichotomy between the two suggested the exiting of fall and the imposing onslaught of winter.  It's amazing how many seasons one can experience with just a 30 minute drive in the Eastern Sierra.

Winters of the past 2 years have not been all that impressive in the Eastern Sierra.  Rock Creek's snowfall last winter was only 36% of normal.  The lack of snow on the entire range from Lone Pine to Mammoth was obvious, suggesting the need of some further water conservation on the part of the city of Los Angeles, and it forced me to ponder how the Eastern Sierra somehow avoided the wildfires that plagued much of the west this summer and fall.  Some call Rock Creek "Asbestos Canyon," as it hasn't experienced a major fire in who knows how many years.  Considering how some of "humanity's finest" seem to make their way to the Eastern Sierra each summer, it's amazing more fires don't start in the area.  An unattended or illegal campfire is just as flammable as a lightning strike.

We continued up Rock Creek Road to Mosquito Flat (10,300 feet), the trailhead to one of the most popular and impressive hikes in the region...Little Lakes Valley.  In our excitement to get to the trailhead, we forgot to stop and buy trail food.  Luckily, we had left straight from work on Friday and I hadn't eaten all of my lunch.  There was a soft, brown
banana that had been in my lunch box for the past 3 days and a half-eaten bag of trail mix that had been picked at over several lunches since September.  We ended up being hungry, but we were far more interested in allowing the life-giving High Sierra air to sustain us during our short backcountry trek.  We each packed a sweatshirt, threw in the banana, trail mix and our water filter, and we were off.  I carried my fishing pole, but ended up only fishing for about 20 minutes all day.  Taking in the 13,700+ foot peaks, the many lakes, the golden marshes, the refreshing air and the
silence ended up taking precedence.  We ended up spending about an hour at the Gem Lakes before heading back.

On the way up we took a diversion from the main trail, avoiding the section from Mack Lake to Marsh Lake.  The creek was incredibly low, and anyone with a camera could've easily walked into the middle of the creek on the rocks and get a great shot of the headwall's reflection in the creek.  My camera, of course, was 300 miles to the south in the closet.  Why is there always one incredibly important item forgotten on each trip?  Anyhow, on the way back we stayed on the main trail and noticed the excellent trail work done this summer by USFS trail crews.  The trail no longer wanders
through the meadows.  It now bypasses them, allowing much needed rehabilitation to take place.  Being perhaps THE most popular trail in the Eastern Sierra aside from Mt. Whitney, the Little Lakes Valley Trail was becoming destroyed by the excessive amount of day use hikers, backpackers, and pack animals.  The new trail should prove to be more resistant to the rigors of heavy traffic.

Why is it that pie sounds so good after a hike?  We stopped by Rock Creek Lakes Resort on the way back to visit friends and check into the pie situation.  They had unfortunately closed the weekend before, but Sue had made about 30 pies on their last day in expectation of last day crowds.  They never materialized.  As a result, there just happened to be some mud pie left over, and we indulged ourselves.  Never had pie tasted so good!  On that last day business was so slow in fact, that Resort employees Jeff and Matt along with Kristin and Amy King, daughters of the Resort's owners,
jumped into the Resort's new electric "pie cart" and drove around the lake selling pie for $4.25 a slice.  They even took their pastry peddleship up to Mosquito Flat.  Hungry anglers and hikers jumped at the opportunity and scarcely a crumb returned to the Resort.

On Sunday we woke up and took in the beautiful sunrise.  A slight threat of showers had been forecasted, and although the showers never came, clouds did.  The result was another majestic Sierra sunrise.  Dark stratus clouds hung on the Sierra crest, while higher cirrus clouds towered over them.  The sun's rays struggled to catch sections of the peaks, but where they did it was lovely.  The balance between dark and light coupled with the variety of pastels was spectacular.  And where was my camera?  With the passage of the cold front came cooler temperatures and strong winds.  Much of the color in the aspens that had been present the day before swirled about with each gust.  The high that day ended up only in the upper 40's, and with wind gusts in the 40-60 mile per hour range, the wind chill was brisk.

So what would any prudent angler do on such a day?  That's right, I chose to venture out onto the lake in a boat for a couple of hours and see if I could experience "The Perfect Storm" on Rock Creek Lake.  It was one of the roughest days I've experienced on the lake, but I still enjoyed myself.  I chose to troll a perch Thomas Buoyant while my friend Matt used an olive matuka.  Anyone who has fished Rock Creek Lake knows that trolling an olive matuka is the most effective way to fish the lake, especially late in the day.  For some reason it didn't feel like a matuka day to me though.  In those 2 hours, I caught 2, releasing them both, and hooked 3 others that spit the hook.  The ever-trusty matuka caught nothing.  There must be something to intuition and hunches.  For much of October the fishing has been great at the lake.  Anglers have done well with all the traditional baits, lures, and flies.  No large trout were brought into the resort
however, so none were documented, although I'm sure a few 3-5 pounders were caught and hopefully released in the past few weeks.

The weather in the Eastern Sierra has been painfully consistent all summer.  Very little precipitation has fallen and it has been extremely warm.  The only significant outbreak of thunderstorms occurred in July, so most visitors to the region experienced beautiful weather all summer.  This pattern is going to change drastically early next week with the arrival of the first winter storm of the season.  Some forecasters are expecting 10-20 inches of snow on Mammoth Mountain and 6-8 inches in the town of Mammoth Lakes.  If this pans out, Rock Creek will receive significantly less, probably only 4-8 inches at the lake, and it will quickly melt except on north-facing slopes.  The ground is very warm still, so 2-3 good snows will have to occur before the winter base will become a fixture.  I think the main part of the storm will stay to the north and affect Tahoe and the Cascades more significantly, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.  Apparently a major warmup is expected after the storm, so the snow will probably not last.  On Monday, go to the Rock Creek site's weather page and click on the "Real Audio" link to KIBS weather.  It should be a fun listen.  Visit the weather page for all the latest forecasts and conditions...
http://www.rockcreeklake.com/weather/

Well, the summer season is officially over next Wednesday with the culmination of the 2001 Eastern Sierra Fishing season, but many of Rock Creek's campgrounds have already closed and the rest are closing today.  No more pie is being served at the Resort, and the bears are thinking about where to bed down for the winter.  The coming snow should close the road at East Fork, signifying the end to another beautiful summer and fall in the Eastern Sierra.  Let's hope this winter brings lots of snow to the Sierra to feed the streams and lakes for next season's trout.

As we set our clocks back and prepare to drive home in the dark after work for the next 4 months, we should keep in mind that Rock Creek is still sitting there weathering away, braving the wind and the snow, replenishing and cleansing herself so that next spring, when the itch to return starts bugging us again, she will be ready.  And we should further remember that even though for many of us the Eastern Sierra is "home," there is beauty everywhere.  That's sometimes hard to do when we have such an insanely spectacular area to compare things to.  John Muir reminds us...

"This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising.  Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls."

Until next time, take it easy and THINK CREEK!

Tim