Center Basin Party 2012

This past weekend was full of hiking and the frog crew's annual party at Center Basin, with arguably the best turnout of all Center Basin Parties. 

Center Basin Party Photos

I hiked out on Thursday, got some supplies at Bishop, and drove back down to Lone Pine to meet up with my friends Justin and Sam from Tucson.  Justin and Sam's birthdays are 4 days apart, so each year they try to do a birthday trip.  This year's trip?  To visit Kris during the Center Basin Party, of course! 

We camped off the Whitney Portal Road, had a great breakfast at a bakery in town, and got tied up with time as I did some preliminary internet stuff, hitting the trailhead a little late at 11:00am.  Now, Justin and Sam have not been hiking around for their job at high elevation for the past 3 months, so it took us until 8 or 9 at night to get to Center Basin - a long 15 mile slog, luckily with only one pass, but 10 of those miles are uphill.  They both did it without complaint (even though we were all hurting) - I was very impressed. 

Saturday we slept in and basically hung out at camp as people began to trickle in - the JMT hiker who knew three of my coworkers, 3 of the Rae Lakes trail crew and the girlfriend of one of them (from Yosemite), two previous frog crew members who are now on the lake monitoring crew, the girlfriend and two best friends of one of the frog crew, all of the frog crew, including Isaac and Mary, who are doing site assessments these days (Mary, my partner from last year!).  In total, 22 people arrived.   We had hotdogs, chips with dip, and homemade pizzas, with the food being cooked by Sean and Rosa - being awesome hosts of the party.  I had my speakers and everyone took turns putting on different playlists - music in the backcountry! - and there was some dancing.  It was a pretty fun night. 

Earlier, before the festivities, Justin, Sam and I went to one of the now fishless lakes in Center Basin and enjoyed the mountain yellow legged frogs there - because there are a bunch in Center Basin still.  We would throw ants into the watch and watch as the frogs would hunt them down - it was great fun.  I surprised them both by pulling out some slices of cake that I had bought in Bishop and hiked out - they seemed to appreciate the gesture.  :)

Sunday we had a pancake breakfast, made by Sean, and people began to leave - jobs await!  Justin, Sam, and I left at 10:00am and made it out to the trailhead by around 6pm or so - a much better hike out than in!  I had decided to hike out again mainly because I hadn't had a chance to download the next two weeks' worth of Bible classes, but also because I hadn't had a chance to do any job hunting and I wanted to say goodbye to Justin and Sam.  We ended up having dinner at my favorite place - the Still Life Cafe in Independence, which serves French food.  I had my favorite dish - braised filet of pork with caramelized onions, served on pasta - yum yum yum.  We then treated ourselves to a hotel room - showers, beds, and TV.  A great day! 

Today is Monday - we will soon get out of bed, have breakfast, and they will drive back to Tucson while I hike back to Sixty Lakes - I wonder who will get there first!