Going North

So, it was time to leave 'the Valley' and not a moment too soon. Its very easy to become stale in Yosemite, everything is so readily available but it's far from a normal environment in which to spend large amounts of time.

Back on Highway 120 (the Tioga pass) we stopped off in Tuolumne for some shorter routes on 'Dozier Dome' before heading to the 'World Famous' 'Whoa Nellie Deli' located in the Lee Vining Chevron gas station to sample their legendary Fish Tacos. Very good.

For once, I'd conceded that we could actually do a few touristy things on the long drive North. The first stop (and not very far away) was 'Mono Lake' where limestone tufa grows out of the alkaline waters.

You can barely make it out, but there IS actually an Osprey in that picture (which sat still for a 4 minute exposure). However, there are no fish in Mono Lake and the Osprey travel far afield to hunt, still preferring the tufas on which to make their nest.

One thing you don't find in Europe is 'Ghost Towns'. They're everywhere here (with a particularly modern and creepy one not far out of Moab). Towns, that for some reason (usually the plummet after a gold rush) totally abandon everything and leave it to rot. Bodie is one of the most famous (and well preserved) of its type and thus warranted a day (given we were passing anyway).

Once a thriving gold-mining town (named after the prospector that died wintering out at his find) the town now lies abandoned, except for the tourists with cameras. Quite good (although still very eery).

We hadn't completely abandoned the idea of climbing on our journey North, but arriving in Lake Tahoe we were clearly not going to do it there. It rained, and did so for a good few days. We carried on, stopping for dinner ($4.29 ea. Dennys Chilli) and a movie ($3 ea.) in Carson City.

Driving further North (and watching the 'gas' needle plummet with alarming speed) we approached 'Crater Lake' which partly fills a volcanic crater (a caldera lake) and apparently has startlingly blue water. Unfortunately, the rain clouds had set in and we arrived at the rim to see nothing but thick fog. We returned the next morning hoping for better luck and were rewarded with the odd, slightly hazy, glimpse of the lake between large patches of cloud and fog.

The second attempt to climb was somewhat flawed from the outlook. Smith Rock actually featured highly on our agenda, but given its location in Oregon, and the season in which it is 'in', climbing here just didn't fit with any logical schedule.

Regardless, we were going to climb at least one route (before sampling the local huckleberry ice cream on sale at the climbing shop, housed in an original piece of John Wayne studio scenery). A local friend pointed us at the 'Monkey Face', an easy route which features a bolt ladder pitch, a cave, and a tower summit. What should have taken a very short amount of time, dragged on as the party of 3 took their time, all 3 of them re-aiding the ladder pitch instead of simply cleaning and jumarring. It was hot. The ice cream was good. We skipped the local 'Deschutes Brewery' given the fact we were imminently driving.

Time on our visa was rapidly running out ('overstaying' isn't a good idea if you want to get back in again 'easily') meaning that we had to skip the cities of Portland and Seattle and forge a path straight to the border and Squamish itself.

Typically, the border crossing wasn't plain sailing and we were instantly pulled over due to the combination of our British passports and Colorado registered van. Given our vehicle has a fair few dinks and scratches the border police spent a lot of time trying to find hidden panels where you could store anything illegal (I wonder if they checked the foot-wells for turtles? [if you don't understand this reference I suggest buying the current Alpinist]). After finding no such hidden compartments, the sniffer dog was released and was soon stood straddling our engine. Lots of sniffing again caused a fair amount of interest by the border police but nothing was found and we were finally let on our way into Canada, armed with a 6 month visa and a clear forecast.

(If you haven't yet got around to buying the current edition of Alpinist, the previous reference to smuggling Turtles refers to Turtle Mountaineering Co. outside of Squamish. The article describes how the owner used to smuggle turtles from the USA into Canada using the wheel wells of climbers cars as temporary aquariums!)