Picks and Pans – Mammoth Lakes, CA

Mammoth Lakes is a serious ski town, really an all around mountain sports town, and there is no greater evidence of this than the morning conversations at  Stellar Brew. Locals gussied up in their down and fleece come by for their morning caffeine fix and stop to discuss climbing/hiking/mountain biking plans for the day. The locally owned cafe also has good coffee, free wi-fi and comfy couches.

It just so happened that we were in Mammoth Lakes at the same time as some of our favorite Nevada City-ites, Buzz and Mardi (better known to some of you as the bee and flower at the Greatest of Unions). We spent a very vacation-like afternoon hanging out with them in their rented condo, reading, joking, eating and relaxing before finally heading out to Convict Lake for a walk under the fall foliage and, later, a great meal. Thanks Buzz and Mardi!…the meal was fantastic and the conversation was even better.Being in the company of good friends is a treasured thing, especially when it’s in such a beautiful place.

Originally when we set out on this hike, we were thinking it was about 6-7 miles round trip based on, what we were to find out later, was a very inaccurate map. Our first clue that the hike was a bit more epic than we expected was when we crossed paths with another hiker who informed us that Devil’s Postpile was still several miles and 2000′ of elevation change away. Undaunted by this new information, we continued on through a mountainside of burned forest, along a creek, through a valley and eventually to Devil’s Postpile, an eerily geometric assemblage of columnar basalt that resulted from a basalt lava eruption thousands of years ago. The formation looks oddly man-made with its hundreds of pentagonal and hexagonal columns breaking away and falling into a heap of rock below. It felt like standing amongst Greek ruins, but in strangely dissonant mountain surroundings. Totally worth the work and the 2000′ of mountain that stood between us and the end of our hiking for the day.

By the time we finished our hike and climbed back into Arvin, we were in no mood to cook dinner outside in the dark. So, we headed into Mammoth Lakes in search of a beer and a burger, which we found at Grumpy’s. Not the most amazing burger in the world, but the prices were good, the beer list extensive and the heating centralized….everything we were in search of. Plus, we got to watch a bit of the last game of the AL playoffs (we quietly cheered on NY in the heavily pro-Angels crowd).