Mammo

Back to Mammoth again and although we have been hundreds of times now (no joke) this trip was unique in so many ways. For starters, we took some boats and started off Friday morning with an EARLY morning paddle. . . cold but watching the sunset rise through the trees as it spread over the hills surrounding the lake was unbelievable. WCD (words cannot describe).


After we loaded up and warmed up with a stop at Starbucks we were back to our comfortable 15 person condo to gear up for a long day of riding. The "fast guys" were off to ride all day while the "party people" made a journey out of our day on and around the mountain. The weather could not have been better and was only exceeded in greatness by the company we were with. . . Seriously, it was a funny group of people and we were all pushing, pulling and laughing it up. These are the trips that make me just LOVE being out and adventurous. Good times!


Riding all day caused some real hunger for the crew so we headed out for some burgers . . . at Burgers. Agghhh.... Nice. It was the day before the 4th of July and we had about 30 Birthday Songs to sing to Andrew... HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW!

James led the entertainment for the evening and due to our lack of sleep and looong day we decided to go for an easy hike the next morning... Jeff, Monique and I had stopped at the visitor station to get a map or two and we found a little 1.75 mile hike around Lake George that sounded promising. 1.75 miles? What are we going to do after that we thought... It was a good thing that everyone was looking for "ADVENTURE" because that is what guided our trek the entire day.

While the "fast guys" got out early for another long day of ridding... Monique, Melissa, Kryistie, James, Josiah, Jeff, Corby, Joe, and I headed into the trails around Lake George. Corby wanted to head back early to get more riding in and I though fo sho I would be back to ride with him before dark. It was something like 10am and it was not like we were going to get lost or something...? Corby and Joe headed back and we headed for the hills.

Who would not want to get lost here?

Our 1.75 mile trip turned into an all day "EPIC" on the ridges around countless lakes in every direction and nowhere close to our "standard" Mammoth mountain trip. Love it. . . again, words cannot describe the views and changes in landscape along the way. The team we had was so committed and positive that we pushed on for over 7 hours even after only packing water and food for a little 1.75 mile trip. I think that one of the requirements for an "epic" trip is running out of food and/or water right?? We were motivated and carried by the momentum of our adventure and on or off the trail it directed our route in a grand loop around Duc lake. Where to next?? What is MOST adventurous??

(do you see Josiah?)

We made it back just before dark and just before we all split up... I have some blame about running ahead to fetch the car(without letting anyone know) but we met up in time to get some food and miss the fireworks(We had some candles for James early BDAY to make it up). This has got to be one of the best hikes that I have ever done and the company was top notch. USA, USA, USA!!

The next day we packed up and headed to Convict Lake for some relaxation and paddle time. I got to test the waters with some eskimo kayak rolls and it was a camera dropping experience.... Those boats are harder to roll than I thought and we need to get some practice in just in case.