Eastern Sierras Vacation; Day One

Things I love today

Cruise control
Windshield wipers
ice water

The drive to Mammoth just had to be chock full of adventures. This is Carly dogs first vacation and I have to say, as she slept for five hours straight on the ride up here, she slept through the excitement of would we be swept away in a flash flood.
As we made our way through the deserts barren wasteland we entered the worst thunderstorm ever off the 247 driving towards Barstow California. The desert ghost town that is Barstow California is not a fun place to be. The best thing about Barstow is that they have a Tommy’s chili burgers, which I am so stopping at the end of my vacation coming home.
I had to work a few hours before I left for vacation, I spent my three hours at work today sprinting in and out of the car to deliver produce in a torrential downpour. The whole Forest Falls and Angeles Oaks area was just drenched with thunderstorms today. Some of the hardest rain I’ve ever seen in my life and lucky for me I got stopped in it at work today. Good thing I love the rain and thunderstorms. By the time I finished my deliveries my shorts and T-shirt were completely soaked and I was dying to get home, change as fast as I can, load the car as fast as I can, grab the dog and hit the road
Around 130, only about 45 minutes later than I wanted we were headed down the backside of the mountain highway 18 for the high desert. Carly was asleep almost by the time we got down the mountain.
I could see black dark clouds in the distance as we drove farther north. By the time we drove into the storm it was raining so hard that I had to slow down to twenty miles an hour on the deserted state highway.
My windshield wipers were turned on as high as they could go and thank god the road was straight for miles because I couldn’t see a damn thing. I was merely guessing as I pointed the car down the road, lightning flashing ahead and thunder rumbling over the country twang on the radio.
And in the back seat Carly slept on and drooled on my jacket.
She had no idea I was gripping the steering wheel hanging on for deer life any time a semi truck splashed past as soaking my entire SUV to the roof with gallons of water.
As much as I loved thunderstorms I couldn’t wait for this one to level out a bit.
I was counting on making this drive on five hours with a few stops in Bishop.
We were Dispersed Camping on a dirt road off Mammoth Scenic Loop and I wanted to find our camp site before dark so I could find us a good one, oh and also be able to enjoy it a bit before we went to sleep…. The fun would start at dawn the next day!
The thunderstorm finally let up by the time we made it into the Barstow area and the the drive was a bit faster after that.
Which was excellent as it was incredibly smoky in Lone Pone; all the smoke coming over the mountain from the Rough Fire in King’s Canyon. I felt so bad for all those people hiking Mt Whitney in this terrible smoke!
One thing about smoke and thunderstorms; it makes the best sunsets.
The sunset in the Eastern Sierras that night was a two hour long affair! As we passed Bishop and began to ascend
Summit before you get to the
Turn off for Mammoth Lakes the whole sky was pinks, reds and purples. It was incredibly gorgeous. All the other people in Subaru’s were pulling over to take pictures.
I like Mammoth; every one here drives a Subaru.
We located a camp site fairly quickly (we could have gone ahead and decided to use Rental Cloud beforehand for more concrete accommodation but I like camping), and I woke up sleepy head, I mean Carly.
She bounded out of the car like a puppy; full of energy at eight p.m.
Didn’t she know it was bed time?
After walking a half mile or so and Carly running laps around me it was time for camping in the back of the Subaru; Duck’s Pass hike in the morning!