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Mammoth Monthly
Every month, quality magazine journalism from on high.
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Wildlife, sport and activities, sometimes all at once
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It is the shortest of Mammoth's sports seasons, and some years it doesn't happen at all. It is the ice skating season, the season in late fall when the lakes freeze but snow has not accumulated on them. Conditions have to be just right. The freeze optimally happens in the absence of wind, so the ice isn't bumpy. The freeze should be sudden, and last at least several nights. The result, for a few nights at least, is thick, smooth ice. The best lake for skating? It depends on how hard you want to work to get there. Aficionados are particularly fond of Ruby Lake, one mile up the Mono Pass Trail from Little Lakes Valley, south of Mammoth in the Rock Creek drainage. Ruby Lake lies at the bottom of a north-facing slope (Lookout Peak). It is remote and, at 11,040 feet, is about as high as a skater could want to be.
The firewood season has been extended to Nov. 18 on account of fair weather and numerous "no chainsaw" days during the hot, dry summer, the Inyo National Forest announced on Friday, Oct. 26
The cables on Half Dome in Yosemite National Park are scheduled to be taken down on October 15, weather permitting, a park spokesperson announced on Thursday, Oct. 4. The cables, the scene of four deaths in the past two years, extend approximately 300 yards up the steep shoulder to the 8,842-foot dome.
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Yosemite National Park will waive its $20-per-vehicle entry fee on Saturday, Sept. 29, as part of the annual National Public Lands Day, a park spokesperson said.
At almost ten thousand feet, the brilliant, noonday alpine sun is visible through the water, even far below the surface of Thousand Island Lake.
The water shimmers like a bolt of cross-died silk as blue turns to gold, gold to blue, then back to gold again. A slip of a rainbow trout glides past, just beneath eye level, then does a ninety-degree turn and shoots back towards shore, looking as startled as a trout can look.
Lower down, the bottom of the lake is a fine silt: pale cream, littered with ebony and gray basalt boulders that have tumbled down from Banner Peak, looming three thousand feet above the lake.
The water is bracing -- cold but not unbearable. It is mid-summer in the High Sierra, and these few brief weeks between late July and mid-August are the only time it is possible to traverse the mountains by swimming these high country lakes. Any earlier, any later, and it is simply too cold.
Right now, though, it is time to come up for air. Swimming up, moving closer to shore, the shallow water is warm, almost balmy.
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The Mono Lake Committee
Lots of activities throughout the year, including South Tufa walks and a terrific "Bird Chautauqua" in the spring.
The Sierra Club Range of Light
Group hikes, XC ski and snowshoe outings and other activities throughout the year.
Friends of the Inyo
Hikes, wilderness restoration and other activities, winter and summer.
Eastern Sierra Audubon Society
Based in Bishop, this group is for the birds. Field Trips, hikes, activities throughout the year.