Eastern Sierra October 2017 photo forum TR

**splitter** · 10-10-2017, 09:53 PM

I was lucky and stoked to get away during my school district's fall break. After spending a nice first part of the week doing a trail run with the dog, taking the little man to the climbing gym for the first time, and a nice hike with my wife, I loaded up the truck while a sullen, 13-year-old dog looked on. This trip was going to be a little too long with too much vert and temperatures too cold at night for my old friend. After tossing the tennis ball for a little while and a giving him a bone from the butcher, I climbed in the cab and headed south on 395.

I met my friend and his girlfriend at some hot springs on the Eastside for some whiskey and easy car camping. It ended up being the perfect spot for the evening's sunset.

The whiskey was good before, during, and after the soak. It was less good the next day 3,000 feet into the climb.

The morning broke cold in the desert.

Not long after hiking out of the canyon, just as we entered the forest, we found a slow burning fire that seemed to have started from a campfire. As best we could reckon, it had been burning at least a few days and we were apparently the first to pass, or at least notice.

We spent a couple of hours dousing any openly burning flames.

Eventually a couple passed by the site on their hike out. They entered the area 5 days prior and hadn't seen or noticed a fire then. They agreed to report it to the forest service once they reached the trailhead. We gambled on the perceived slowness of the burn and decided to continue our trip in.

We reached Honeymoon Lake, after our 2-hour fire detour, and tossed in a fly. Quincy, a retired sled-dog, wondered aloud why she had to carry so much dog food when the fish seemed so easy to catch.

The next morning we made our way towards Granite Park and chose a lake that seemed to hold some nice fish.

Fish on

There were plenty of laughs

Until next time