No New Snow In Two Weeks = Trout

Unfortunately, it hasn't snowed since shortly before Thanksgiving.  The mountain needs snow.  We've had to go up above the main ski area--towards the Minarets--in order to take our cross country ski Masters classes.  Tamarack doesn't have enough snow to make it happen.

It's been cold too.  Yesterday it was 14 degrees when Christy dropped me off at the mountain for xc skiing.  Fingers were not happy in my lightweight gloves.  Almost lost 10.

So without good snow, we've been picky--no downhill runs, just XC.

With no skiing on a Sunday...it was time to go fly-fishing instead.  Hot Creek yielded a couple of decent sized rainbows...nothing special...but nice for 35 degrees in the late afternoon:

Here's a terrible pic from my awful phone.  My fingers were too cold to do it properly:

Bears

Finally we saw some bears in our neighborhood.  A mama bear and her two cubs on the golf course behind our house.  Pretty cool to see--especially this time of year when they're supposed to be in their dens for Winter.

Doesn't Get Much Better...

I love it when people ask me why I wanted to move to Mammoth (mostly perplexed LA people who can't fathom the thought of living somewhere that Trader Joe's has yet to colonize).

It doesn't get much better than living in a place when you can ski on Saturday and fly-fish on Sunday...all within 10 minutes of your front door.  That's a pretty solid weekend...

Only way this gets any better is if Lagavulin decides to move its distillery from Scotland...to my backyard.

Some pics...

Saturday on opening weekend--pretty decent snow for early November.

Sunday Evening on the Upper Owens River

 Sunset on the way home from the river

Shadow & Ediza Lakes Hike

Christy trekked 13 miles to these lakes in the Mammoth backcountry before the snow started.  Nice scenery...

More pics below...

Fall Colors - Best Pics

Lots of pics from all of the areas we drove to and/or hiked into this Fall.  A good SLR and better timing with the afternoon sun probably would have helped.  But we got some good ones with our point and shoot.  Here are some highlights:

Sherwin Mountains

 More pics below...

Fall Colors - Some HD Video

Fall colors are turning now--and there are some areas that look insane with color.  It's hard to capture the brightness of the colors on these Aspen trees.

Here are a few videos--on some of them, the colors are so extreme that it washes out the background and makes it look almost black and white.  The videos turned out brighter than the photos.

Mammoth Rock Trail

More videos below...

Lundy Canyon 10/9/11

Hiked up to the "20 lakes Basin" in search of Fall colors and waterfalls.  Colors just beginning--several waterfalls.

Overall a nice day followed by dinner at The Mobil Mart.  Essentially 4 star dining in the back of a Mobil gas station mart.  I had heard about if for years and it lived up to the hype.  Any day that ends with eating ribs and Buffalo meatloaf is a good day.  Should have had the Elk chops though...they were thick.

Some video--

Lundy Canyon - 3rd waterfall up

More pics below...