Walking in Lone Pine

This is what we see from the end of our street in the RV park.  It's pretty dang inspiring.  Lone Pine is at the foot of Mt. Whitney.  I'm not exactly clear on which of those peaks is Whitney, but she's up there. 

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Since we were tired from our grueling two days of driving in the wind, we slept in and then mooched around the RV for awhile.  After said mooching we went for a strenuous walk.  The road across the freeway from Boulder Creek is pretty steep.  See the road zig-zagging its way up the mountain side?  That's the road up to Horse Shoe meadows.  We did that hike last year and didn't like it so much.  The trails are sand, plus it's at 10,000 feet and there are bears. 

This is a very bucolic area.  It has to be livestock heaven.  The dark blobs are cows.  There is a stream that runs through the field and there is grass.

On the other side of the street is horse heaven.  I think of the poor horses in Tucson who spend their lives on dirt and sand, and then you look at what these horses have.  This is better.

After lunch we headed out in the truck and found this road.  It was a left turn off of Horseshoe Meadows road.  We took it to see where it went, since it was labelled off limits to trailers.  It has a lot of up down and very tight corners.  The sign was correct about trailers.

There are some very cool rocks along the way.

I'm guessing this an old mine entrance.

Eventually it ends up on Whitney Portal road in Lone Pine.  I love this sign. 

We stopped in at Joseph's Bi-Rite for groceries.  We flunked stocking up before leaving Sedona.  People in remote small towns pay so much for food.  A box of french toast is $2.50 in Tucson and $3.89 here.  Transportation costs must be paid somehow. It was interesting to watch people in the grocery store; they know each other and stop to chat.  In Tucson people practice not making eye contact and getting out of the store as quickly as possible.  Our checker today had a fire department scanner on and was very interested in where they were going.  I couldn't understand a word that was being said.
Tomorrow we will attempt to make it to the Ashram, a hike I did not complete last year