A Little of This and a Little of That

Nine Mile bird list
Sand Canyon Kern
Sand Canyon Inyo

After six weeks of limited activity, we decided to fill an ebird gap and do a very short and very easy hike.  We headed to Nine Mile Canyon.  Our legs were not happy.  We ignored them and finished our little five mile hike.  We knew we needed to do more miles, so the next day we filled the Sand Canyon eBird gap.  It would have been a six mile hike, but I noticed a dashed line on the map, an old trail.  An old trail in a side canyon we had never explored.  We had chores to do in town, but decided they could wait a day and we went off exploring.  We found an old footpath leading to house foundations, and a mine.  It was interesting.  We will be back when next there are flowers.

Since our legs survived ten miles the previous day, but were none too happy about it, we did another short hike.  We did our five mile hike in Noname Canyon.  After a bird filled fall in the canyon we were disappointed that it was once again a bird free zone. 

Noname bird list

Then we had to take a day off as our legs were tired.  Sad, but true.

Sawtooth Peak hike track link
Sawtooth Peak bird list Tulare
Sawtooth bird list Inyo

Sawtooth Peak was our next destination.  We had never been there, but the forecast looked great, so we headed to Chimney Peak campground and took the PCT south.  Then a straight forward, but very steep off trail section brought us to the peak.  Nice views into Domelands, Mt Whitney, Olancha Peak, the Indian Wells Valley.  On the way down we decided to be adventurous.  While a shorter distance, this was much more physically demanding, very steep, with a tricky section in a vertical walled canyon.  We will have to refine the return route.

Tungsten Hill hike track link

The Tungsten Hills and a very short jaunt to Aeoplane Mine was another new area for us.  We wandered along dirt roads, checked out mining debris and several holes in the ground, clambered over the rocks, had lovely views of the Sierra and Bishop Bowl, and decided we will do a longer hike in this area.  I already have something in mind for this winter.  All we need is someone willing to go exploring on my car shuttle route.

Our final short get back into shape hike was a ridge in the Inyo Mountains to a finger of rock locally known as the Druid.  A fun scramble and we had a nice view of the snow covered Sierra for lunch.  Another area worth more exploration time.