Rain and Homesickness

Photos from the first two weeks of August

I’m a little gloomy today due to some pretty intense homesickness.  I miss my family, my friends, my cats, having like-minded people to talk to on a regular basis.  I really miss cats.  However, I will try and focus on the positive that has happened in the past two weeks. 

Work is going well.  My field partner and I are doing a great job at checking gill nets and electrofishing to the point where we are hopeful of removing the majority, if not all, of the fish in most of our lakes this summer.  It’s a pretty cool feeling.

My field partner and I hiked after work one day and found a pretty spectacular waterfall in the Mt. Clarence King area.  The Rae Lakes trail crew guys came and visited us the next day, and we hiked over to this same waterfall again to show them – it was that cool.

As mentioned above, we had guests!  The trail crew gets weekends off (just Sat and Sun) and while this is hardly any time to hike out to the front country, most elect to stay in and explore instead.  So last weekend three of the trail crew at Rae Lakes came over to visit us Sixty Lake girls(don’t get any ideas; they all have girlfriends), and we were all thrilled at having other people to talk to for a while.  At the beginning of the hitch two of Christi’s friends also hiked out to Sixty Lakes for a few days, which was also pretty neat. 

I bought a fishing pole and Christi worked with it for a while to try and figure out how to catch fish, with no luck.

We had dinner with the Rae Lakes Ranger, Dario, again, which is always a pleasure, and got to sleep in the loft of the cabin again, on temper-pedic mattresses – very fun.  The trail crew guys came over for beverages afterwards – tequila in lemonade – which was also pretty fun.  It’s a bit essential out in the backcountry to break up the monotony of the day to day tasks, especially when the number of fish caught each day starts to decrease. 

The weather in the backcountry for the past two weeks has been pretty crummy.  I think the only day that was sunny throughout was the first day we hiked to the waterfall.  The rest of the days were cloudy and cold at some point in the day (usually at the end of work, which is the best time to clean off in the lakes), often drizzly at some point with occasional thunder and lightning.  Ick.  Give me a nice hot, cloudless day for a change – that’s the Sierra Nevada Mountains that I know and love from last year.  On the plus side, since all the rain in the Sierra Nevadas comes from the southwest, I’m pretty sure that AZ has been getting rain this summer.  On the negative side, the forecast for next week calls for more rain, every day.  Alas. 

For our hike out, Christi and I hiked to Charlotte Lake on Thursday and then out to the front country on Friday.  We had to work 5 hours on Thursday, so left Sixty Lakes at 2:00 pm or so.  It threatened to rain, but we were pretty determined to make good time, so hiked to about a mile before Glen Pass before stopping to let the thunder and lightning pass by.  I had hiked in my rain pants and rain coat, and was thoroughly soaked with sweat by this time, so while we waited for the storm to pass I was mainly cold because of sweat, not rain.  Ironic.  I found a neat spot in a small patch of white bark pines that was mostly sheltered from the rain, and must have been there for an hour or two before the booms of thunder no longer sounded in the Glen Pass area.  We got to the top of the pass around 5:30pm, and got to the Charlotte Lake Ranger Station around 7:00 pm.  The ranger there, Rick, was expecting us, and already had company in the form of the Rae Lakes ranger and his wife.  We were fed tacos – delicious – with red wine and chocolate for dessert.  After dinner the Rae Lakes ranger and his wife went to bed, and Rick showed Christi and me some tricks of the trade when it comes to fishing for rainbow trout.  Turns out we didn’t have the right lures or equipment, or the right fishing knot, so I am looking forward to getting some of that equipment this weekend in Bishop and trying to fish again. 

So far in Bishop I’ve gone to two movies with Emma and Rosa – The Bourne Legacy (awesome movie, would definitely see it again) and Total Recall (more of a movie to rent then see in the theaters, but definitely entertaining).  The movie theater here is a two screen one, so that’s all there is to see this weekend.  :)  I’ve done all the usual things – shower, laundry, check email, eat out, buy chai lattes – and also found a really neat used book store here – East Side Books – that I would recommend anyone stop by and peruse if they are ever in Bishop. 

So things aren’t that bad, but I can’t wait to go home.  I know this is where God wants me right now, for the next two months, and have no idea what is in store for me after September 28, but I know that God has that under control as well.  Next weekend (in two weeks) is our Center Basin Party, where I will be hiking out Thursday, helping buy supplies, and hiking in Friday for the party Saturday, so I may not have time to update the blog, but I will give it a shot. 

If anyone knows someone in Bishop who has a cat, please let me know ASAP.  Dogs just don’t cut it in my world.  :)

I will post photos tomorrow.  Time to sign off and find a camping spot tonight.