The last two days have been interesting. I am in no way prepared to do any sort of winter sports. Nor do I have the cash to rent a bunch of equipment to do so. I set out around Mammoth and the Lake June Loop to find some hiking spots. Apparently hiking in snow is awesome with the aid of snowshoes. I pull up to a few different trail heads in the area hoping to find a path that won’t make me sink to my waist in snow, but turn up with nothing. Oh well, at least I got to tour a bunch of areas and I got my laundry done while I was in Mammoth. It was definitely needed.
I decide to head back to where I’m camping and hike around Lake June. It’s a beautiful body of water, and is pretty much deserted this time of year. I take my time walking around, hoping to spot a trout in the crystal clear water. No such luck. I’ll be heading to Mono Lake the next day, and I’m excited to see the Calcium carbonate “tufas” that surround the lake.
Created at least 760,000 years ago, Mono Lake is old as shit. At the edge of the Great Basin Desert, it gets about 5″ of precipitation a year. All of it’s other water comes from snow melt or ground water bubbling up. There is no exit for water here… It’s a last stop shop. It either is evaporated away or left in the lake. This causes a very saline condition, about twice that of the Pacific Ocean.
Apparently, water levels dropped drastically when LA started diverting water away for its growing population. Fucking LA….. When water levels dropped like crazy, the islands in the middle of the lake were now connected to the mainland. Who cares, right? Well the 45,000 California Gulls nesting out there cared a lot. Coyotes devastated the ground nesting out there. Along with the gulls, Wilson’s phalaropes and red-necked phalaropes were being harassed by predators while trying to fuel up for their migration south. So, a concerned group of citizens lobbied, and got water re-diverted back to Mono Lake. Big Win! But, with climate change and other human impacts, water levels are dropping again. California having water issues?? You don’t say…
A cool feature about this lake are the Tufa formations around the margin. Calcium carbonate structures that are created when calcium rich ground water hits the saline lake water while bubbling up. They are exposed now due to the drop in lake levels. These things are awesome bird rests, and make good nesting platforms for ospreys. There are no fish in this lake, but they are close enough to other feeding sources that they are still amazing real estate. Most of the birds here are only interested in the alkali flies that are buzzing around the lake shore. They are plentiful, but stay about knee high so they are not bothersome.
Alongside the lake is also a previously underwater volcano that is now above water. As the magma was pushed up, it was cooled by the water, creating long, smooth fissures and cracks in the rock. There was no trail here, just a crazy 4×4 trail and a rock scramble. I was really trying to not fall in a damn crack. That’s what she said…
At the end of the day, I found a random, lonely 4×4 trail that was hidden from other roads, and settled in for the night. This was the first time the stars were actually out and about without disruption from artificial lights, dust, smog or the moon. It was desolate and beautiful. In the morning, I head to South Lake Tahoe for 2 nights, then a weekend getaway in Dallas to see Cas and help her with her mom.