July 22-26, 2020
🚵♀️ Prologue ⛰️
In July 2020, Stan & I and our two dogs go on a five-day trip to Mammoth, including two days of travel and three days of biking.
We stay in our condo with daughter Tiffany & 10-year-old granddaughter Juliet, who have been regular guests there during much of the COVID period.
The Levine clan on our first biking day in a park in Mammoth Lakes with a view of the Sierras in the background. From the left are our dogs Henry & Ginger, Juliet, Barbara, Tiffany & Stan.
Henry is a three-year-old Boxer and Ginger is a 14-year-0ld Australian Cattle Dog.
Mammoth is a ski area in the Eastern Sierras, located near Mammoth Lakes (the upper blue dot on the map). Our home in Rolling Hills in the Los Angeles area is the lower blue dot.
Mammoth is 328 miles from our home – a drive of over six hours. With a stop for breakfast and two stops to charge our Tesla, it takes us more than eight hours to get there.
We take my electric Trike on the rack on our Tesla. Stan keeps an electric bike in our condo, since the Tesla hitch won’t support the weight of his bike also.
The first day, we do an easy ride on the bike trails around the Mammoth Lakes village area (in the upper right in the satellite photo below). Our condo is near the light blue circle (elevation 7,800'). The following two days, we do some serious mountain riding – serious for us and the dogs, at any rate.
The first serious ride is a hard one up to Horseshoe Lake (on the left of lower center in the satellite photo below). We pedal past Twin Lakes, Lake Mary and Lake Mamie on the way.
The second serious ride is a difficult climb up to the Main Lodge (elevation 8,900') at Mammoth Mountain (the small blue circle on the upper left in the satellite photo below). We stop at the Earthquake Fault on the way for a hike and a picnic lunch. The small maroon circle near the upper left of the map is the top of Mammoth Mountain (elevation 11,053').
Satellite view of the Mammoth area where we ski in the winter and ride bikes & hike in the summer.
🚴♂️ Day 1 – Bike Ride Around Mammoth Lakes Village 🦆
Distance: 4 miles, round trip
Elevation Change: 7,800’- 8,000’
Delta Elevation: 200'
Difficulty: Easy
Description: A nice, easy ride on bike trails and streets around the village of Mammoth Lakes to acclimate us to the altitude and get used to biking with the dogs running on a leash beside us.
Our Rolling Hills friends Gail & Gian also have a condo in our complex at Mammoth. They loan Tiffany a bike for the day and lead us on the ride. This is the only day they ride with us.
Upper left: Starting out in front of Gail & Gian’s condo – Tiffany holding Ginger & Henry on leashes, Gail, Gian, Barbara & Juliet.
Top right: Juliet & Stan beside a pond with several ducks.
Center: Tiffany with Juliet, the huntress, who is about to capture a young duckling in the pond.
Lower left: Juliet holding the duckling she just carried up to the top of the lawn. The excited mother duck chases Juliet up the bank, grabs Juliet's shoe laying on the grass in anger and rushes back down to the pond with it. Tiffany rescues the shoe just in time. Juliet soon releases the duckling back into the water.
Lower right: Riding through a condo complex with Mammoth Mountain in the background.
🚵♀️ Day 2 – Bike Ride Up to Horseshoe Lake 🐟 Distance: 14 miles round trip
Elevation Change: 7,800’- 8,955’
Delta Elevation: 1,155'
Difficulty: Hard
Description: A hard, mostly uphill ride on the mountain bike path to the southwest of Mammoth Lakes village on Lake Mary Road, through gorgeous scenery all of the way to Horseshoe Lake. The views include sweeping vistas of Long Valley all the way to Crowley Lake, two large crags* (Mammoth Rock and Crystal Crag), waterfalls and beautiful lakes (Twin Lakes, Lake Mary, Lake Mamie and Horseshoe Lake).
* A crag is a high, rough, jagged mass of rock that sticks out from the land around it.
Upper left: Since Tiffany doesn't have her own bike here at Mammoth, she takes the trolley to Horseshoe Lake with the two dogs (in masks & muzzles). Here they are waiting at the trolley stand.
Upper right: Stan, Juliet & Barbara starting out from our condo.
Lower left: About a third of the way up, Juliet & Barbara with a vista of Mammoth Lakes village; Crowley Lake is in the far distance.
Lower right: Juliet & Stan with a view of the crag named Mammoth Rock to the right of Stan’s head (expand the photo to see the crag better).
Upper left: Juliet prowls around a fallen tree trunk off the side of the bike path.
Upper right: Stan & Juliet at a rest stop, with a view of Crystal Crag in the background over Stan’s head.
Lower left: Rushing rapids of Mammoth Creek, which flows out of Twin Lakes.
Lower right: Lower end of Twin Lakes where Mammoth Creek begins on the left, with a view of Crystal Crag and 250' Twin Falls in the background.
Upper left: View from an outlook across Twin Lakes at the back of Mammoth Mountain and The Hole In The Wall: The true hole is the one second from the right in the rocky cliffside below. Tiffany has skied off the backside of Mammoth Mountain through the hole in the winter (see more below).
Lower left: On our ride back along Twin Lakes, we can view The Hole In The Wall more closely across the lake from Tamarack Lodge.
Upper center: Juliet & Barbara overlooking Lake Mary and Crystal Crag.
Upper right: At the top of Twin Falls, which drains from Lake Mamie, as it tumbles 250’ into Twin Lakes below.
Lower right: Our final destination, Horseshoe Lake.* It is located at the end of Lake Mary Road and the Lakes Basin Path, with winter access by ski or snowshoe only,
* Horseshoe Lake is a popular recreation area and staging point for the Mammoth Pass and McLeod Lake trails. With the Mammoth Crest escarpment and the southern flank of Mammoth Mountain as backdrop, the area is further distinguished by more than 100 acres of tree kill – carbon dioxide from cooling magma seeped through the surface after a swarm of small earthquakes hit in 1989-1990. In dry years, as its feeder streams dry up, the lake diminishes dramatically over the summer, leaving expanses of sandy beach to play on.
Lower center: We find Tiffany and the dogs after they have run around the lake, but first we have to pry Ginger away from where she is circled by a group of adoring dog lovers.
Center: Tiffany & Stan after a much-appreciated lunch that Tiffany fixed and brought for us on the trolley.
The Hole In The Wall
The Hole In The Wall at Mammoth Mountain (which Tiffany skied through a few years ago) is a out-of-bounds, backcountry ski adventure for the advanced skier. As with any backcountry endeavor, never ski this alone. The Hole In The Wall is a natural lava tube which formed a hole in the bottom of a cliff which allowed natural erosion to generate a spectacular chute on the backside of the cliff for the more advanced to ski (proof that God loves backcountry skiers).
There are no sanctioned guides or tours, the area is out of bounds, and the traverse has hazards. The entrance is treacherous and is at a level of an aggressive double-black diamond (like the top of the Avalanche chutes) and can lead to unmarked cliffs if your directions are off.
Juliet takes Ginger down to Mammoth Lakes village on the bus, while Tiffany rides back on Juliet’s bike with Henry on the leash. All that is left of the day is a long, exhilarating, seven-mile ride – downhill all the way to the condo!
🚵♀️ Day 3 – Bike Ride Up to the Main Lodge at Mammoth Mountain 🏔️
Distance: 12 miles round trip
Elevation Change: 7,800’- 9,000’
Delta Elevation: 1,200'
Difficulty: Difficult
Description: A long six-mile, all-uphill, fairly steep ride along the roadside to the Main Lodge at Mammoth Mountain.
On this, our last day of bike riding, we get Tiffany a rental bike so she can ride with us and take the dogs on their leashes. We know that Ginger won't be able to run for more than a mile or so (she is 14 years old – that’s 91 in human years), so we put her in my Trike’s bucket for the remainder of the ride – UP and down.
Halfway on our ride to the Main Lodge, we come to the Earthquake Fault* where we stop for a welcome break for lunch and a hike around the fault.
* The Earthquake Fault is an impressive fissure in the underlying rock. Because the rocks on both sides have not moved much vertically or laterally relative to one another, it is not really a "fault." If you look closely at the edges of the "fault," you’ll see that the sides of the rock – now six to 10 feet apart and as deep as 60 feet – fit together perfectly.
The fissure extends several hundred feet in length and crosses under the road to the Main Lodge. The fissure opened around 600 years ago during a time of intense volcanic activity. Some of the trees growing in the fissure are ~160 years old.
The snow from the winter months sometimes lasts all year in the bottom of the fissure. Because of this, the local native Indians would store their food at the bottom of the fissure during the warmer months.
Upper left: We start out on Forest Trail, a back road that loops around the main part of Mammoth Lakes village. We have to ride along the roadside, but there isn't much traffic at this time of the year. Here we find a full-sized, carved, black bear outside of a cabin – ready to take to the slopes. [Did you know that there are ~30 live black bears that live within the city limits of Mammoth Lakes village???]
Upper right: Juliet pumping up Forest Trail on her standard mountain bike. No electric assist for this girl!
Lower right: Once we ride the mile around the village and join the road to the Main Lodge, Ginger is ready for a well-deserved rest in the bucket of my Trike, where she remains for the rest of the ride. Her 50 pounds added to my weight are about all that my trike can safely handle. The extra weight and steep hill give me an added strenuous workout, even with electric assist.
Lower left: Ginger & I stop about halfway up the mountain at the entrance to the Earthquake Fault while we wait for the rest to catch up to us.
Middle: Tiffany & Stan on the 0.3 mile hiking trail around the Earthquake Fault.
Upper right: Juliet goes ahead with Henry on the Earthquake Fault trail.
Lower right: Barbara climbs up the trail on the other side of the fault.
Lower center: Juliet & Tiffany start down into the bottom of the fissure. Stan & Barbara opt out of that venture.
Lower left: Tiffany can't resist rock climbing up the side of the fissure from the bottom.
Upper left: Tiffany & Juliet enter the tunnel through the bottom of the fissure.
Upper center: Juliet finds snow on the floor of the tunnel.
Upper left: Tiffany demonstrates how to find natural shelter during a storm.
Upper right: Stan practices his Tai Chi among the pines.
Center right: Barbara, Tiffany & Juliet have lunch around the picnic table at the Earthquake Fault while the dogs watch.
Lower right: We finally arrive at the Mammoth Mountain Main Lodge, where we decide to stop our ride shorter than originally planned.
Lower left: Under the life-sized sculpture of a woolly mammoth by the Main Lodge. The sculpture was created by Douglas Van How’d and installed in 1990. The sculpture is life-sized and made of bronze. The monument was gifted to Dave McCoy* on his 75th birthday in 1990.
* Dave McCoy founded the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area in 1953. He passed away in February 2020 at his home in Bishop, California, at the age of 104.
Our plan had been to go a bit farther up the road past the Main Lodge to Minaret Summit, but we got off to a late start, and we had a long stop at the Earthquake Fault for our hike and lunch, so we turn around at the Main Lodge.
Tiffany decides to take the dogs down on the bus, but she had left their muzzles in the condo, and can't board without them. So we all start riding down the long, steep road back to town with Henry on the leash and Ginger riding in my bucket.
Henry has different plans on the trip down – he can't stop chasing after little critters along the way, nearly pulling Tiffany off of her bike. She finally turns Henry over to Stan, because she has to return her rental bike to the bike shop before they close at 5 pm.
Stan has the same difficulty with Henry that Tiffany had. Halfway down, the passing bus driver sees Stan’s plight and takes pity on him by offering them a ride back to The Village at the edge of Mammoth Lakes. The bus can carry bikes, and there are no other passengers so the driver ignores the muzzle rule. Stan is able to bike the remaining mile through town with Henry with no problem – there are not as many critters down in civilization.
The brakes on my Trike start to go toward the end of the descent! Too much weight with Ginger in the back, and the road is too long and steep. During the last mile through town, I have to start braking a half block before each intersection, and hope they will work. I barely make it back to the condo before the brakes are totally shot!
🚵♀️ Epilogue ⛰️
On the morning after our ride to the Main Lodge, I present Juliet and Tiffany with their own hard copies of the May 2020 issue of the Rolling Hills Living magazine. We three are featured on the cover while rock climbing at the Sender One LAX indoor gym near the Los Angeles Airport.
Barbara, Juliet and Tiffany with Ginger & Henry outside of our condo in Mammoth Lakes. We are holding copies of the Rolling Hills Living magazine with the three of us on the cover.
We usually make a trip to Mammoth each summer, and often ride our bikes while we are there. However, this trip has been the most strenuous biking adventure that we have had there.
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