Secret Golden Trout Lake 9/3
This year due to the pandemic, you cannot stop by the ranger station to pick up your wilderness permits. For my last trip I went to Recreation.gov back in February and reserved my permit for Secret Brown Trout Lake. The Forest Service sent an email in June saying you should call one of these three numbers 14 days before the trip and someone from the office will send it to you in an email.
I tried three of the numbers. The third one for the Mammoth Ranger District someone answered. They gave me the rundown of the usual: no fires, bury human waste 6 or more inches, bring a bear keg and hike out your trash. In 45 minutes I had my permit.
For this trip to Secret Golden Trout Lake, they made it even easier. I went to the site to make the reservation and the Forest Service sent an email saying, send an email to SM.FS.WildPmt_Inyo@usda.gov with your reservation number and location and attest that:
· Final group size is 1
· I will use a Counterassault Bear Keg
· I have viewed the Leave No Trace video
Four days later they emailed the permit, again in PDF format. I hope they stick with this method. At times when I would stop by the Interagency Center in Lone Pine, I might wait in line almost an hour before someone issued the permit.
Three weeks ago I was making jerky in my smoker. I have two heating elements, the Big Chief is hot and is good to use for the initial smoking phase, as it burns the mahogany fast and efficiently. After the wood burns I pull out the Big Chief with pliers and plug in the not-as-hot Little Chief element which allows the beef to slowly dry out the next seven days.
I went into the house to grab my oven glove and back outside with my bare left foot stepped on the super hot Big Chief. Oh no my hike, I cried to myself. I had planned on staying at the lake four nights and also hiking far back into the high country for a photo session. Oops.
Two weeks later, after many bandages and Neosporin, the foot was healed enough that I could do yard work but after an hour it hurt very well. I figured since it normally takes me two hours to hike to the lake from the end of the road, I could take four hours this time and just limp along.
Early Saturday August 29 I drove toward Bishop up US 395. Somewhere around the old Boron Prison about seven miles north of Kramer Junction, I saw a coyote crossing the road ahead. As I approached, I thought, wow this is one big coyote and then as I passed, I saw it was a mountain lion! The nearest mountain is Freemont Peak, about 10 miles away. Also, I figured out how a desert panther can be so big and fat. In that stretch of highway I counted no less than 100 fresh road kills per mile, mostly rabbits.
The last couple of trips with the truck, first gear has slowly started to go out. It will not stick if you shift from neutral into first. Just pops out when I let out the clutch. I found that if I am rolling from second and shift into first, it will stick and not pop out. I calculated I had one more trip before I would need to have it repaired.
The road to the truck camp trailhead is steep and rough. A lot or rock climbing. First gear 4WD low is required, as 2nd low is too high. Up the road about an hour it worked fine. I was crawling over the exposed boulders no problem but then bad news. At some point it would not stay in first any longer no matter what I tried. Would just grind and pop out repeatedly as if the syncros are shot. I had the whole trans rebuilt with new clutch about 10,000 miles ago.
I limped home by starting out in 2nd high many times or else from a dead stop I used 2nd low to start out and then shift the transfer case back to 2WD high.
I will have the truck fixed this month and then sometime next spring sell it and buy aa nice new 4WD vehicle.
Photo of wildflowers near Big Pine.
Photo of smoke pouring over Mt. Whitney.