Family Reunion
My sister Mareli has been traveling through South America for the last 6 months. I met her and my parents - traveling from South Africa – in Los Angeles and brought them back to my campsite at the Owens Gorge. A family reunion in the Owens Valley! The last 10 days have been very busy. We started with a trip to Pine Creek Canyon. Without knowing much about the area I misjudged the distance to Pine Lake and a leisurely half hour stroll turned into a 5 hour adventure. My mom did great and if we didn’t run into a huge snow bank covering the trail at 10000 ft we would’ve made the lake. The next day saw us scrambling down into the Gorge fighting through very dense underbrush trying to avoid the poison oak. We were following Doug’s gps coordinates to a hidden spot on the Owens River. The fishing turned out spectacular with both my dad and I catching trout with almost every cast. Thanks Doug. Our stay in the Bishop area ended with a drive up the 4wd road in silver canyon to the top of the White Mountains to see the beautiful Bristlecone Pines. Some of these trees are more than 4000 years old and the wood is so resilient that it can last for more than 10000 years. The following day Mareli and I went climbing on some of the easier routes in the gorge. I was a bit sad to leave my camp spot in the Owens Valley and my home for the last 6 weeks. We spent one night in June Lake and then on to Lake Tahoe where we wrestled our way into the Emerald Bay State Park. This State Park has a maximum RV length of 21 ft but the guy at the gate didn’t know that and waved us through. There was no turning around and wide-eyed parents were frantically gathering their screaming kids as we terrorized the RV park with our 32 ft ‘monster’ RV. Luckily we found the only site big enough for the RV but we had to use a separate site to house the truck. The next day we dropped my dad at Sacramento’s airport and now we are staying at the Napa Valley Expo RV Park. My mom and sister are thoroughly enjoying the shopping and the local cuisine is fantastic.
