To Bee or Not To Bee (A Eastern Sierras Autumn Adventure)

This weekend I lucked out and was blessed with a big win, over five hundred dollars and it was just in time to pay for my eastern sierras camping, hiking, fall colors vacation!

Some folks love to gamble in casinos amid the slot machines, the craps tables, and the blackjack dealer, others like to play online by or using similar sites. Me? I play the ponies. It’s what I do for a living actually. I work as a professional handicapper and even during my hiatus months I can’t seem to stay away from the lure of “the track” and the big win.

I work as a handicapper eight months out of the year.

The other four months I travel.  Yesterday I hit the road just the pup and I to try to catch some early fall colors in the eastern sierras. I wasn’t expecting to see very much in the way of delightful yellow aspens swaying in the mountain breeze but as we made our way around The Mammoth Loop and started exploring the dirt roads near Inyo Crater I was surprised that at this altitude the leaves were already yellow!

How excellent!

Carly and I made our way up the dirt hiking trail and up towards the giant crater causing me to yell,

“Mammoth Mountain I am in you!!! Inyo Crater!”

Why not yell? I mean I was the only one around besides my little brown dog and she stopped judging me years ago.

It was just a gorgeous morning in the high eastern sierras, just a little bit breezy as a storm was expected that night and into the next day.

I found a perfect little camp site off one of the side roads near the Inyo Crater completely surrounded by yellow aspen trees.

It seemed pretty perfect.

Until I unloaded the camping gear.

Then the bees started.

I don’t know why the bees are so angry in the fall. I always say they must be angry that winter is on its way but every fall the bees are just the biggest nuisance!

Within five minutes of having the camping supplies out of the back of my Subaru we were completely surrounded by about fifty wasps!

It was insane! There was just no way I could camp there in that situation!The spot was just so gorgeous with the aspen trees in all their full glory but I had to pack up the supplies and the little doggy, who seemed very upset also about all the bees.

We high tailed it out of there and found another spot to camp off Highway 203 on the way to Red’s Meadow, actually only about a mile outside the entrance gate where you paid to get in.

Than we hunkered down in what was left of the sunshine; it was getting cold real fast!

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