6 April 2006, Bishop CA

Made camp outside of Bishop at a place Steve reccomended, called Buttermilk Boulders. Got to ford a stream and drive up some dodgy hills trying to get far enough off the road. Mostly granite boulders and gravel topped with a thin covering of sagebrush scrub. To my west the Sierras fall into shadow, and to my east is Bishop and the White and Inyo Mountains. There are veins of a very light granite that I would be inclined to call marble if I knew how it could have gotten here, often deeply stained with red, and indeed the general color scheme is orange and red which I imagine must derive from iron and the episodes of volcanic activity that left much of the valley covered in lumpy bits of Bishop tuff.

Not much wildlife except a large rabbit, probably Lepus californicus, from the very long black-tipped ears, two kinds of lizards, a mountain bluebird, and several brownish and wary birds, probably female MBBs. I have hopes that as the sun sets in an hour or so things will improve. But. I have no desire to complain in the least, because I saw a golden eagle above Devil’s Gate Pass. Be glad you were not with me (not that there is any room in my car), because I yelled, ‘That’s not a TV!’ (TV == turkey vulture) and pulled the car over in a screech of gravel. Indeed it was not a TV. White banded tail and wing ‘windows’ from its light primaries, which according to the bird book makes it a juvenile. Very exciting, especially in comparison to my first bald eagle, who I saw in Alaska fishing from a !McDonald’s dumpster. As we all know, Benjamin Franklin didn’t like the bald eagle as a national animal, because it was sort of scrappy and stole from other birds.

Also stopped at Mono Lake, although it was not really the season for anything. Buffleheads and Canada geese out on the lake, lots of yellow-rumped warblers, and at least one Say’s phoebe. The passes have been beautiful and I had great difficulty restraining myself from pulling out the skis near Mammoth Lakes and borrowing some snowmobile tracks.

(cdm, in ContinuingEastwards | 6April2006 )