Trail Report: Not a trail run but...

[RAT]

4th of July in the Eastern Sierras. Bodie ghost Town, Mono Lake Tufas, and catching (as opposed to fishing) at the secret spot near Bishop... Then Alabama Hills and whitney Portal.

20130706_101603 by MJR RAT, on Flickr


20130706_101636 by MJR RAT, on Flickr


20130706_101903 by MJR RAT, on Flickr


20130706_104857 by MJR RAT, on Flickr

Took the Mill tour. Pretty darn cool.

20130706_111150 by MJR RAT, on Flickr

Ore carts used to travel over our heads on the A frame track.





20130706_112100 by MJR RAT, on Flickr

15' flat bed lathe for working the hammer mill stems

20130706_114336 by MJR RAT, on Flickr

big Mama Jamma drill press. All the tools in this machine shop are run by drive belts. Talk about a dangerous work environment...

20130706_114345 by MJR RAT, on Flickr

One of the main drive belts for the machinery. This was driven by DC motors supplied by AC current sent to the town from a hydro electric plant 13 miles away, then converted to DC in a giant Tesla transformer on site.

20130706_115543 by MJR RAT, on Flickr

Da Money Pit... Sluicing tables, the second stage in a long process of refining the ore. They used mercury to amalgamate the gold. And cyanide to separate the gold from the mercury. Again, freaking hazardous work environs...

20130706_120244 by MJR RAT, on Flickr

Tufas

20130706_154117 by MJR RAT, on Flickr


20130706_155249 by MJR RAT, on Flickr


20130706_155551 by MJR RAT, on Flickr

More...

[RAT]

More tufas. If you've never been here to see these you should go before they are gone. The DWP is raising the level of Mono Lake to pre-1963 levels which will cover all but the highest tufas. It will take some time for the lake to fill but I'd guess they'll be gone in my lifetime.


20130706_155652 by MJR RAT, on Flickr


20130706_160307 by MJR RAT, on Flickr

Needs no caption

20130706_195329 by MJR RAT, on Flickr

The first one. Caught on old powerbait just as the Sun came over the horizon.

20130707_063817 by MJR RAT, on Flickr

Mike fightin a monsta!

20130707_071440 by MJR RAT, on Flickr



Four total on the stringer. Two got away. These are the biggest wild trout I've ever seen in the Owens at this spot. Three are over 13 Inches and close to one pound each. Nice!


20130707_082419 by MJR RAT, on Flickr

Alabama Hills.

20130707_104937 by MJR RAT, on Flickr


20130707_105526 by MJR RAT, on Flickr


20130707_105614 by MJR RAT, on Flickr

Mt. whitney through the Arch

20130707_113454 by MJR RAT, on Flickr

waterfall at Whitney Portal

20130707_122404 by MJR RAT, on Flickr

Beauty and the Beast...

20130707_122709 by MJR RAT, on Flickr


20130707_122904 by MJR RAT, on Flickr

That is all. Hope you all had a great 4th of July.

[Roger]

I love all the places you guys visited! thanks for posting the photos!

[Mitch]

Great pictures Kurt. That is such an awesome area. I keep waiting for yall to drive through and explore the Reward Mine. It is right there. I bet the trout were tasty!

Mitch

[aw12345]

Great pics, would love to have that whole machine shop

[RAT]

Great pics, would love to have that whole machine shop

One thing for sure, you could drill some REALLY big holes...

[TipsE-Z]

Awesome shots. That waterfall looks huge! And now after seeing those trout I think I'm headed to the lake today.

[RAT]

Awesome shots. That waterfall looks huge! And now after seeing those trout I think I'm headed to the lake today.

Lets see some fish pictures!

[TipsE-Z]

Lets see some fish pictures!

None to report. Finished up a Transmission Flush instead. I could tell some really sweet stories though! See ya in a few weeks, I'll have my Powerbait as well. That stuff is magical.

[inVERt'D]

Great pics!

[Ol Man]

Bodie is a neat place.

One of the funny stories told by a tour guide at the mine was that when they electrified the town, they tried to run the cables in as straight a line as possible to not suffer line losses due to going around corners and such.

[Deepwater]

Thanks for the pictures Kurt, getting itchy to head up that way soon. I could use that big drill press to drill holes in my engine block and lighten it.

Mike

[slickrock steve]

Yeah Guys, I love that area.
Bodie is even too much to really see in one day, so we did it several times.





Also the buildings that need a bit of "assistance" to even stand.;

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

And some of the creeks that are hidden back in the mountains are producing some nice trout!

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[suntinez]

fun fun fun! And great pics, thanks for sharing them!