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Day 20: Sun Aug 10, 1997

 Left Jim Butler motel in Tonopah at 9:15 PDT. Headed west on Rt 6, the scenery was quite good. The Monte Cristo Range had hills of reddish color, and further along were a field of volcanic hills and lava flows of blocks of black basalt covered with weathered light patches. Basalt seems to weather that way. After awhile we could see a large range in the distance and it became clearer as we continued. The map showed this to be the White Mountains, home of the Bristle Cone Pines (see Leonard Miller's excellent web page for more details). We took some pictures as we drove around the north end of the mountains and down into the northern end of Owens Valley. The Sierras became visible, with patches of snow on them. The road went down the wide flat valley with the White Mountains on the east and the Sierras on the west. Where the valley was irrigated it was deep green. Bishop was the largest town in this valley, but we didn't stop. South of Bishop we saw large dishes of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory. We also passed through an area of volcanic hills and lava flows.

At Big Pine we stopped to read the sign about the Bristlecone Pines, I wanted to see the visitor center but it wasn't clear there was one yet. We continued south, passing through Independence and finally to Lone Pine, our target town. We drove through town, it was bigger than I expected, had quite a few motels. Didn't see the one we had reservations for so we kept going beyond the town. We found it a bit over a mile south of town, just before the visitor center. We stopped at the visitor center to see which, if any, of the visible mountains was Whitney. A sign pointed it out, it was very clearly visible and we took some pictures. We got a map and lots of postcards, talked to a ranger there. She said they had a Hulda Crooks book there for sale recently. We told her about our hike and the web page and she said to stop by when we got down on Thursday. We then checked into the motel, nice place. It's called the Alabama Hills, after the hills just across the road. They have made a lot of westerns in these hills. Then we went off to eat and drop of 3 rolls of film at the 1-hour photo place. The photo place was closed, it's Sunday. So we went in the restaurant and ordered vegeburgers. After awhile they said they were out of them, so we went down the street to another and tried again. They had them. Got some groceries on the way back to the car, then back to the motel to pack our backpacks. Took hours to get everything set. The packs feel pretty heavy but we already left out some stuff, not much left to drop. One last needed item was a hat for me to keep from getting fried by the high altitude sun. We went out searching, the first place was a tourist place and simple hats were $15. I'd rather fry. Next we tried a drugstore, got one for $5, still high considering all the hats I could have picked up along the road over the years (except Sharleen never lets me stop for them). The hat, with a bandana borrowed from Sharleen will make an effective, if funny looking sunshade. We took a drive up into the Alabama Hills for a look and took a photo of Whitney.

Vallerie Miller called to wish us luck. She was supposed to be going with us, but Bob sprained his ankle.

We arranged to meet Helen Hayes, a hiking partner of Hulda Crooks. She's been up about 10 times so should keep us in line. We are to meet her at Whitney Portal at 8 am. Only saw her once, in 1995. Sharleen met her at the bulk bins in a market in Loma Linda, Ca. Don't know how big Whitney Portal is or how crowded, should be interesting. Whitney Portal is about 13 miles west on a small road out of Lone Pine.

[This is the last web page until we get back. No email either, until at least Thursday night. We ascend at 8 am. Over and out.]

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