Led by Anna Baum, Alan Schimpff, and Jeff Bates
Photo above: On the trail above South Lake, headed for Bishop Pass. When the sunny day turned windy and wet while the hikers were still climbing, they prudently decided to turn around. Photo Tom Molloy
By Tom Molloy
After many years away, we finally gathered once again at the fabulous Table Mountain group car campsite on the South Fork of Bishop Creek for the Labor Day weekend. Perhaps due to the cool weather expected, only 7 hearty souls arrived for the weekend. Once again, the weather was the main event in the Sierras this unusual August.
Sabrina. Where the trail crossed a creek dangerously swollen by the recent storm, they prudently decided to turn around and return to camp. Photo Tom Molloy.
On the first night, after hearing a harrowing bear story from one camper who just arrived from a Mammoth Lakes campsite, we thought that bears would be on our minds that night. Instead, the first two nights, many of us were kept awake due to very high winds. At dinner time, objects literally became projectiles. The third night, as the wind died down, a terrific rainstorm swooped in and we receiving torrential rain all night. One of us was peeking periodically at the creek all through the night to ensure it wasn’t overflowing its banks. Turns out it was the same rainstorm that famously hit Burning Man in Nevada.
A very unusual August! First the hurricane cancelling the earlier mulepack trip, and then another tropical pulse not two weeks later bringing more heavy rain.
free time to scout hikes for the Table Mountain trip. Here is Anna on Aug. 19, checking out the pipeline trail to Green and Brown Lakes in clear but buggy
weather. Photo Alan Schimpff.
Nevertheless, through the great leadership of Anna and Alan, we were resilient and adapted, and got some good group dinners and hikes in. The favorite was probably the hike up the water pipe towards Brown and Green Lakes, taking the gentle switchbacks back down to South Lake. Some of us also did, the Table Mountain and Lake Sabrina trails. With all the rain, there were still many wildflowers this late in the year, and of course the rivers and streams were roaring, and lakes full.
Some of the group dropped out early as the weather issues increased. We all went home at least one day early to get warm and dry sooner.
