Sixty Lakes Demobilization

Has it really been almost a month since I last posted?  Seems hard to believe – and it isn’t even because nothing of note happened (like closing down two sites, hosting a backcountry party, attending a trail crew party and a wilderness department party, ending my job, and visiting friends while now unemployed).  If nothing of not had happened, it would be much easier to update a blog!  So I guess I’ll take it in pieces.

Sixty Lakes Demobilization

Photos from the Demobe

To “demobilize” a site (or “demobe”, as I like to call it) involves taking out all the nets currently in a lake, drying out the ones to be stored over the winter, mending the ones to be put in the lake over the winter, re-setting the winter nets in a particular way, and cleaning up and packing up camp – including taking a complete inventory of everything that is staying or going.  After last year, and due to my organized (anal?) personality, I am really good at demobes.

For the Sixty Lakes demobe we had a volunteer, Mike, who was one of the John Muir Trail hikers who had stopped by a month earlier (also Christi’s friend), and was interested in helping out and learning the ropes of the job.  For the first two days of the hitch it was just Christi, Mike, and I, taking out nets and mending them.  Our boss, Isaac, hiked arrived late the second day, and from that point on progress really escalated.  We broke into teams – Mike and Christi, Isaac and myself – to go around different sides of our lakes to pull and set nets (Sixty Lakes has two float tubes), and we very efficient with our time, usually working 9-10 hour days.  This ended up being essential, because it caused us to be done with most of the work by Monday, and our helicopter flight unexpectedly came on Monday (the other option was Thursday).  By this time we were ready to be done, and had no problem getting things ready for the “ship” to take our gear away on Monday, and we hiked out on Tuesday.

On the day I hiked into Sixty Lakes I was invited to dinner at the Rae Lakes trail crew camp, which is always fun.  Good food, good company.  Since it was the last chance to bring treats to my backcountry friends, I went a little overboard, with macaroons, a soda, the sports page, and two carefully packaged cheeseburgers from the Burger Barn in Bishop (awesome burgers – homemade buns, homegrown tomatoes, self ground and seasoned beef).  The following Saturday we hosted a Sixty Lakes party, attended by the boys of the Rae Lakes trail crew, us, and a trail-head ranger who was in the area (Jim).  I had hiked in cheese, tomatoes, avocados, tortillas, a bell pepper, and guacamole, and managed to use up the last of my dried refried beans, enchilada sauce, and most of my rice.  It was a great night in terms of food, company, fun, and using up more of my food!  Lol

My hike out time?  5.5 hours – my best time ever, and I finally met all of my time goals throughout the hike – two hours from Sixty Lakes to Glen Pass, two hours from Glen Pass to Kearsarge Pass, 1.5 hours from Kearsarge Pass to Onion Valley.  It was awesome.