Southward Bound

We have just passed our one month anniversary of being on the road. Our plan is to head south tomorrow to visit with our parents in Southern California, drop off the ski gear, and load up the backpacking equipment for the second leg of this trip. We started in the late season snowstorms, and tomorrow we will drive through the heat wave in Owens Valley with temperatures reaching record highs in the 90’s. And I just got my internal thermostat adjusted for this winter stuff…

We have had mild weather the last couple of weeks, and the snow is melting fast everywhere. One neighborhood here in town has a true river of snowmelt running through it, requiring sandbags to keep it from flooding homes. Reference points, such as snow drifts on the side of the road, recede visibly from one day to the next. This has been a new experience for both of us, raised in Southern California, where it goes from kinda cool to kinda warm between seasons. It is so interesting to see buds forming on the bushes. We went for a hike yesterday, and saw pine trees sprouting – tiny needles pointing skyward with the seed still attached.

It has been a fun month of skiing and exploring, and we will say goodbye to Mammoth until the fall when we will return to look for rental housing for the winter. Our last backcountry skiing day was Thursday, and the accompanying photo is a view looking southeast from our vantage point on San Joaquin Ridge towards the Mammoth Mountain ski area.