No exaggeration is needed to say that the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range is on another level. Gorgeous and vast, it will certainly take one’s breath away. Literally, because it‘s all way the hell up there above 8,000’.
The mountain range is marvelous to look at from Highway 395. A combination of jagged and smooth, saddles and peaks- it really tickles the senses. There’s no shortage of information on blogs and YouTube about the whole mountain range, but I wanted to call out an area we happened upon named Aspendell. 20 or so minutes West of Bishop CA, it ended up being a hidden gem and perfect hub for enjoying the splendor of the area.
We camped at the Four Jeffrey Campground which was affordable, had a mind-blowing view of Mt. Tom and its neighbors, was situated along South Fork (Bishop Creek), and had superstar campground hosts. From there, we drove up to Lake Sabrina (suh-brine-uh) each day. On day one, we hiked from Lake Sabrina to Blue Lake which I’m sure was the hardest hike of my life. The elevation was very difficult on my lungs, so I would be huffing and puffing even 50’ from the car, when trying to sleep, etc. But it was all well worth the effort:
On day two, we rented a kayak at Lake Sabrina. Even though it had some sort of critical flaw making us go around in circles (the bow was up above the water. Maybe we’re too fat??), the peacefulness and views cemented it as a great idea in the end.
A small amount of ham radio did happen, and I learned a lesson from it. Some familiar operators from SoCal had a SOTA (Summits on the Air) activation underway, and being mobile I only had a slim geographic window to make contact with them. I called them with my callsign adding that I was mobile and was asked to standby for some crosstalk between them and another SOTA crew trying to make another hike up. I missed making the contact, which is of course not a big deal. After all, my SOTA points are fun, but worthless. But I started thinking about how I prioritize incoming radio traffic when doing SOTA activations and think I’ll be more mindful of mobile, handheld, QRP, etc. stations because of their innate disadvantages.
Mechanical Failure on the Mountain
On the way back to Los Angeles, we had time to visit the Ancient Bristlecone National Forest. Finally! It’s a long, winding drive up the mountain, especially with a travel trailer, albeit tiny. When you finally reach the visitor‘s center, the road turns from paved to unpaved but still quite smooth. We ventured up it with our trailer toward the famous Patriarch Grove:
The road there got worse and worse, but we made it. Even to us, fair weather 4x4-ers, the road was BRUTAL. But we got out to the grove, hiked around the trees, and made friends with a truly awesome off-duty park ranger.
The drive back down the road, however, was more eventful. The leaf springs on our little trailer cracked and we saw it almost roll over behind us. We stopped and regrouped, far, far from any paved road, above 11,000 of elevation.
After some thinking, and phoning a friend for ideas via the car’s Starlink, we put into effect a half-donkey idea I’d seen a good friend do once. We got the spare on, and used wooden blocks and lashing straps to immobilize the thing.
Just after our 20’ test drive forward, the off-duty park ranger I mentioned rolled up on her way down the mountain offering help. We were good to move, but we could sure use a spotter! We talked about how it would take 2-3 hours to reach pavement at slow speed with periodic checks on the “fix” but she had no problem with it. And this is where some more radio happened! We plunked a Motorola XPR-6550 into her car and were off to the races. The slowest race that ever existed, crawling out of the Ancient Bristlecone National Forest. To our delight, we ended up getting a guided tour over the radio from her. It was truly spectacular, and we learned so much on that slow drive out! We frequently smirked and joked about how lucky we got as the sun went down and we saw the stunning beauty of the forest at Golden Hour.
We limped our rig home, and have plans to return to the Eastern Sierras soon. Perhaps minus the “almost destroying trailer” part. We’re going to replace the leaf springs and use some steel rope leftover from Tree as a Mast: Grief, Convenience, and Lessons to make it so the axle can’t rotate like it did should we snap the springs again.
I would be remiss if I didn’t add some sincere appreciation for my significant other Jen who keeps a great level head during trying times and constantly encourages me to do my radio stuff. I feel very lucky to have a travel companion and close friend in her.
