California 2023

After our flight landed, I was supposed to get a subcompact car from Budget, but instead, they gave me a Jeep Compass for no extra charge. I spoke to the person about where I was going and I think he figured a car that could do some mountain off-roading would be a better fit.

Norma and I unpacked and had a bite to eat. Then Mom and I worked on the shed in the back yard. She cleaned the exterior and I reinforced some parts that were falling apart and then patched holes. One of my goals for our trip was to repaint the shed. It had never been repainted and was possibly 30 years old. The bottom two feet were rotting but had recently been replaced. So that part was unpainted. The bottom part of the door was rotting a bit but it wasn't too bad. I think things last a long time in the dry Sacramento climate. Maybe that is why dogs are not allowed in so many places in California. Their poop might not break down as fast as it does in Maryland.

I visited Arnie that night. I saw Richard N. and we spoke about Filipino stick fighting and other martial arts. It was good catching up with the old Kenpo Karate gang.

Norma, Mom, and I went for a walk on the Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail near Watt Avenue. I spent a lot of time here biking these paved trails when I was young. We saw some quails and what I think was a blue-belly lizard.

We took a look at the American River. It was running high for this time of year thanks to all the snow that fell during the winter. Sacramento typically has a drought but not this year.

Along the access which connects the trail to the main road, we saw various fruit trees that had been planted fairly recently.

Norma and I primed the bare parts of the exterior of the shed.
Mom is really good about saving stuff and keeping things organized so we were able to use some old primer. We also made use of a lot of painting supplies which Mom kept around. Some of it might have been as old as me.

It was about a four hour drive to our destination, the Mono Lake Visitor Center. In the parking lot, I saw a car with a cool SUP sticker.
We arrived shortly before they closed and with just enough time to learn about the area.

Mono Lake is fed by five streams flowing down from the Sierra Nevada.
These pure streams drew the attention of the city of Los Angeles in the 1920s. The city's Department of Water and Power (LADWP) was looking for additional sources for its water supply. Through a lengthy court battle, they condemned the water rights of Mono Basin farmers. Eventually, they bought most of the watered land surrounding Mono Lake.
In 1941, the aqueduct into the Mono Basin was completed, diverting part of the water from Rush, Lee Vining, Parker, and Walker creeks. With the flow of incoming fresh water reduced, Mono Lake began to shrink since water lost to evaporation now exceeded inflow.
In 1970, the city doubled the capacity of their aqueduct system and began taking the entire flow of the Mono Basin creeks. The lake level dropped dramatically, falling as much as forty-five vertical feet. The decline caused Mono's water to double in salinity, threatening its simple, fragile ecosystem. The diverted creeks became dry washes.
- from sign at visitor center titled "When the Creeks Stopped"

Among the concerned biologists was David Gaines. In 1978, he and friends formed the Mono Lake Committee. The Committee's goal was to find alternatives to excessive diversions in order to stabilize the lake level. When LADWP refused to negotiate a solution, the Mono Lake Committee, National Audubon Society, California Trout, and others went to court.
In an effort to win protection for Mono Lake, the Mono Lake Committee lobbied successfully for the creation of the Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve in 1981, and the Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area in 1984.
The pivotal case is based on a doctrine called the "public trust." It requires the state to protect bodies of water for the use and benefit of the people. In 1983, the California Supreme Court ruled that the public trust doctrine required the protection of places like Mono Lake, even if this meant reconsidering past water allocations. The court said a "better balance" should be struck between the water needs of Mono Lake and Los Angeles.
On September 28, 1994, the State Water Resources Control Board released its decision regarding Mono Lake. The order will raise the lake by 17 feet to an elevation of 6392 over the next 20-30 years.
- from sign at visitor center titled "Take It to the Judge"

The three of us walked on the gravelly Mono Lake Trail and the David Gaines Boardwalk from the visitor center to the lake. It was a downhill path that gave us a nice view of the lake to our front.
With much higher ground all around, it is no surprise there is a lake here.
Five streams, fed by the Sierra snowpack, provide most of the freshwater flowing into Mono Lake.
Water also enters the lake from underground sources as seeps and springs.
Rain and snow falling directly into the lake average about seven inches of water each year.
- from sign at visitor center titled "How Water Enters Mono Lake"

Always on the look-out for wildlife, I saw some type of Fence Lizard, perhaps a Great Basin Fence Lizard.
The Great Basin Fence Lizard can often be seen basking in the sun on rocks, fences, and buildings. While sunning themselves, fence lizards may change their color dramatically ranging from a light gray to a dark black. This is a way for them to control their body temperatures in the heat.
- from sign at visitor center titled "Reptiles and Rodents of the Mono Basin"

As the three of us walked towards the lake, I thought about previous groups of people who called this their home.
The Mono Basin has been occupied off and on for the last 9,000-10,000 years. Evidence indicates that volcanic activity has influenced population movements in and out of the region. The Kuzedika, a part of the Paite nation, are known to have been living in the Mono Basin since about 1300 A.D.
Kuzedika women collected kutsavi, or alkali fly pupae, in winnowing baskets and laid the pupae in the sun to partially dry. Kutsavi were an important food source and trade item for the Kuzedika.
Kutsavi are about the size and color of a brown rice grain and taste like bacon bits.
- from signs at visitor center

An important source of food for shorebirds, the alkali fly is a fascinating creature.
- from sign at visitor center

The sun was getting low, casting shadows on the hills and making the vegetation glow.
Looking out on the lake, I could see white rocky formations also reflecting the bright sun.
These structures are known as tufas and they are what make Mono Lake famous.
Mono Lake's "petrified springs" are spectacular examples of what nature can do with a few basic ingredients. Ask geologists what "tufa" is and they will tell you "it's calcium carbonate formed by the mixing of waters of different compositions."
Tufa gets is name from the Latin "tofus" which means porous stone.
Freshwater springs (calcium) + alkaline water (carbonates) = tufa (calcium carbonate)
Calcium-bearing freshwater springs well up through the carbonate-rich lake water causing a chemical reaction that forms solid limestone, or tufa. Over many years, a tower forms around a spring. Tufa continues to form today where freshwater and lake water meet.
- from signs at visitor center

The first major tufa we saw up close was Icebox Tufa.
This tufa formed thousands of years ago under a much larger lake as the ice ages were waning. Shepherds of the Mono Basin took advantage of the natural cave-like formation using the tufa for shelter and rest.
- from sign on trail titled "Ranching the Mono Basin"
Alkalinity isn't the only thing that makes the water in Mono Lake special.
An estimated 280 million tons of solids are dissolved within the lake, and it is 2-3 times saltier than the ocean depending on its water level fluctuation over the years.
- from Mono Lake Committee - Water Chemistry

The water in Mono Lake is inhospitable to most wildlife. But that doesn't mean it is devoid of life.
When Mark Twain dubbed Mono Lake the "Dead Sea of California," he could not have been farther from the truth.
Actually Mono Lake is one of the most productive lakes in the world. It doesn't have a great variety of species, but those that live here do so in phenomenal numbers.
During the summer months, one cubic foot of near-shore, rocky bottomed lake water contains:

Brine shrimp 50-400

Alkali flies (larva, pupae and adults) 5,000-10,000

Microscopic plants and animals - These are too numerous and variable to count

- from sign at visitor center

There is also a lot of life surrounding the lake.
The most abundant shrub at South Tufa, rabbitbrush, quickly moved in as the lake moved out. In the fall, its profuse yellow blossoms color the Basin.
- from sign at South Tufa trailhead
Looking across the lake, we could see two islands.
Paoha, the larger of the two islands, does not look volcanic because its surface is composed of lake bottom sediments. About 300 years ago, a magma rose underneath the lake and pushed these sediments above the water level. Negit, the black island, was formed by volcanic eruptions that occurred between 300 and 1,700 years ago. Negit once hosted most of the state's nesting California gulls. When the land bridge emerged in 1977, most gulls moved to nearby islets to escape predators that could reach their nests.
- from sign outside of visitor center titled "Volcanic Islands"


Mom and Norma walked to the Old Marina at the west end of the boardwalk. I walked back to the car and then drove to pick them up, giving them an easy quarter-mile stroll instead of a mile of slightly uphill terrain.

We checked into the June Lake Motel and then went out for pizza at June Pie. Norma and Mom seemed to like their choice but my New Yorker was not so great.

Back at the motel, I read about the Mono Lake area in the Summer 2023 issue of the "Mono Lake Newsletter." In the 2023 winter,
The Mono Basin amassed a record-breaking snowpack. By late February, 67 inches of snow covered the ground in Lee Vining - a new record for total snow depth. A season 229.1 inches of snow was measured in town, which smashed the 1952 record of 170.5 inches.
Last winter was also the coldest in decades, adding a further twist to the extreme precipitation.

The local weather prompted me to read about something called poconip fog.
It's a form of freezing fog - fog that forms at below-freezing temperatures. When freezing fog comes into contact with a surface (like a tree, fence, road, or power line), it deposits ice crystals in the form of frost, or rime. In the Mono Basin, where freezing fog can last for days, or sometimes even weeks, frost can accumulate into layers several inches thick.
- from Michael Frye - Poconip Fog

It rained the previous night. But the sky cleared up in the morning, leaving a beautiful rainbow in front of the mountains. A good omen.
Norma played various podcasts to educate us about our next destination...Manzanar. What was Manzanar? First, a little background history.
For decades before World War II, politicians, newspapers, and labor leaders fueled anti-Asian sentiment in the western United States. Laws prevented immigrants from becoming citizens or owning land. Immigrants' children were born U.S. citizens, yet they too faced prejudice. Japan's December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor intensitifed hostilities toward people of Japanese ancestry.
President Franklin D. Roosvelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, authorizing the military to remove "any or all persons" from the West Coast. Under the direction of Lt. General John L. DeWitt, the Army applied the order to everyone of Japanese ancestry, including over 70,000 U.S. citizens. DeWitt said, "You can't tell one Jap from another...They all look the same...A Jap's a Jap."
In spring 1942, the U.S. Army turned the abandoned town site of Manzanar, California, into a camp that would confine over 10,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese immigrants.
- from National Park Service Manzanar brochure

Here's Mom and me in front of the Manzanar visitor center. Before us is a rock marking the site as a National Historic Landmark. The sign reads as follows:
Manzanar has been designated a National Historic Landmark. This site possesses national significance in commemorating the history of the United States of America. 1985
Manzanar was the first of ten relocation camps that would intern 110,000 people.

We spent quite a bit of time talking to the staff and obtaining printouts of historic family records from other relocation camps. Then we toured the visitor center. It is definitely worth visiting.

Outside, we saw a guard tower, similar to one that would have overlooked the camp.
From 1942 to 1945, eight U.S. Army guard towers loomed over the more than 11,000 Japanese Americans held in Manzanar. For most of that time, U.S. Military Police manned the towers, a visual reminder that the unconstitutionally incarcerated people were not allowed to leave without permission.
- from sign titled "Icon of Confinement"
We also got to walk through reconstructions of the barracks.
One of the most memorable things about our visit was the wind. It blew across the desert landscape with such force, it was difficult to stand still.

What became of the camp?
The Manzanar camp closed on November 21, 1945, three months after the war ended. Despite having regained their freedom, some people found life equally difficult after the war. Most spent decades rebuilding their lives, but few spoke openly about their wartime experiences.
- from National Park Service Manzanar brochure

There wasn't much around Manzanar so we figured we'd stop for food on the drive heading back north. The first few places we checked out were closed or out of business. Then we came to Copper Top BBQ. I had their tri-tip sandwich. This cut of meat originated from California.

The cut was known in the United States as early as 1915, called "the triangle part" of the loin butt. Rondo (Ron) Brough, a butcher for the US Army during World War II working in Southern California, claimed that he created the "triangle tip" cut as a way to gain an extra portion of meat for the troops by reorienting nearby cuts and eliminating scrap. This practice caught on with Brough's Army colleagues and after the War, they began cutting and serving triangle tip throughout restaurants and butcher shops in California.
Otto Schaefer Sr. originally named and marketed tri-tip in Oakland, California, in the 1950s.
- from Wikipedia - Tri-tip

It was the most delicious cut of meat I'd eaten in a long time and it was without a doubt the best meal I had during my visit to California.

We arrived at Bodie State Historic Park in the afternoon. This was perhaps my favorite part of our trip. I love things from the old west and this met my expectations. The only thing that could have made it better is if they had reenactors. A simulated gunfight would have been spectacular.

We returned to Mono Lake to spend some time looking at tufas, learn about the wildlife, and just spend some time outside in Mono County.

The tour at Panum Crater fueled Norma's and my interest to see more obsidian. So the two of us drove out to Obsidian Dome while Mom rested up at the motel.

While back home in Maryland, folks had been experiencing hot, humid weather, in Mono County, the temperature in the early morning was in the high 30s.

For the final day of our eastern Sierra adventure, we visited Mammoth Mountain. I had never heard of this place before but it is quite popular, especially with families. There are numerous recreational activities in this area. But with the holiday and the nice weather, that meant it was quite crowded.

Had we arrived very early, we could have driven to our destination but since we arrived later, we had to take a shuttle bus from Mammoth Mountain to Reds Meadow. The bus was extremely crowded.

Heading back to Sacramento, we had some fantastic scenery on the eastern Sierra as we left the valley and then drove over the mountains.

There were plenty of cattle in the flat, grassy terrain.
Up in the mountains, we had some dramatic views.
At higher elevations, there were no trees.
In California's Sierra Nevada Mountains, the tree line averages between 8,000 to 12,000 feet.
- from A-Z Animals - What is the Tree Line and Why Does It Change?

The setting sun cast a glow on mountains in the distance.
The sun played peek-a-boo with us. Here's one last shot as we continued northwest to Sacramento.
I did almost all the driving over the last few days but Norma drove the whole way back to Sacramento. As with the drive to Mono Lake, many of the roads were windy but for our return trip, much of it was done in low light or in the dark. There was also a long stretch where we needed a gas station but there were none. But it all worked out fine in the end.

On our last full day in Sacramento, I had one goal...finish painting the shed. Norma, Mom, and I all pitched in and finished the job. We were all pleased with the results.

Later that day, cousins Cindy, Steve, and Steve's girlfriend, Kelly, came over for dinner. Kelly took the photo below so she's not in the picture.

After packing up, Norma and I said our farewells and then drove to the Capitol Mall Farmers Market, which was on the way to the airport. This is the Sacramento downtown area's largest Certified Farmers Market. In the background in the below snapshot is the vertical lift Tower Bridge.

Our flight home was pretty uneventful.

I watched the first hour of "Big George Foreman" until Norma's laptop battery died. It would be nice if Southwest Airlines offered electric outlets for the passengers. I don't know if the other airlines do.

We had two flights to get to Sacramento and two to get home. None of the flights were full and on the last flight, which was the longest, Norma and I each had a whole row of seats to ourselves so we could stretch out. I am thinking that flying mid-week, ideally Wednesday, is the best.

We had a great trip. I'm really glad we got to see so much stuff that is so unlike what we have in Maryland. I was also thrilled that Mom could join us.