TRAVELS WITH MATTIE

Things are perfect. Scott has been camping with us after coming out of a successful Half Dome trip in Yosemite. Which means: awesome fishing (great browns on dry flies out of Lee Vining Creek - who knew?), meals (and meals, and meals) at the Mobil Station, stunning late afternoon storms, floating in Mono Lake with Pacificos, and wildflower adventures below Tioga Pass. I got to see my great friend Elin, and her parents (and also my great friends) John and Mary are coming to stay in the Mono City Paradise Villa in just a few days. Yesterday, we walked through a giant meadow of wildflowers framed by snow-spotted mountains and watched a handsome coyote slink through the grass below us along the creek and out of sight. It's been kind of like this:  Our last night at Convict. We miss our family. Making friends with the locals, from our sagebrush home in the Owens Valley. Wild things.  Looking north from our little temporary home. If there is a...

Mattie and I are still playing around the Lee Vining/Mono Lake area. Some mellow bouldering in Mammoth Lakes and on the Oh! Ridge Road above June Lake. More artifacts, and artifacts, and artifacts forever. Last night I saw the Dead Winter Carpenters kill it at the historic Mono Inn as the moon came up over a  still Mono Lake on a perfect weather early summer evening surrounded by a bunch of dirty, bearded, PBR-drinking men, gorgeous mountain women in long dresses and shoeless children. Everyone danced. Today we're headed back to the Ice Cream Boulders. Tonight, Scott is coming out of The Valley and Old Coyote Moon is playing at the Lee Vining Mobil Station. Seriously.

Recently: 1. Family reunions and multi-player 'Artifact or Notifact' with Mom, Dad and Anni off Benton Crossing Road. We're sad to see our family leave the mountains. Also: hot springs, fish, family, storms, sunsets, sagebrush, Convict, campfires, s'mores.  Everyone wins. Yetis and gremlins everywhere. 2. Petroglyphs with Aunt Diane in the Owens Valley.  Walking with bears. This was special. I'll write about it sometime, when I get it together. And bighorns. 3. BOULDERS. Dreamers, Buttermilks, Geophysics, Pocketopia, and on and on for ever.  Ray cruising the classic "Bourbon IV" at the Dreamers.  THE BUTTERMILKS. 70 degrees and everything came together. Views of the petroglyph boulders and perfect backdrops down on the Buttermilk Road.  Oh, you know this one. Figuring it out on Green Wall Essential. 4. Perfect Sierra storms... Mattie the mountain dog, looking south through the Owens Valley.  ......

Hallelujah, we're officially back. After a great time with Sid, Anni and Scott, Mattie and I packed up the little truck and moved south.  Anni, Sid and Mattie on an evening bike ride. The drive was an incredible evening through Carson Valley, Walker Canyon, past the smokey sawtooths behind Twin Lakes west of Bridgeport, and finally down from Conway Summit and on to Lee Vining just as true dark hit Mono Lake. We made a home for the night at our favorite secret site along Lee Vining Creek, and fell asleep quickly in warm weather to the sound of rushing water. Mattie waking up, the home at Lee Vining Creek. We were up early and continued south on the 395, stopping briefly at Convict to get sites for Mom and Dad (they're coming up today!), then were off again to climb at The Dreamers east of Sherwin Summit.  These rocks are unbelievable. Perfect pockets of solid tuff, unbeatable weather, and new friends. Mattie and I spent a day climbing with wonderful Santa Cr...

Happy Father's Day, Dad.  Thank you, for everything. We are the luckiest kids in the world to have you as a Dad and Grandpa.  We love you. 

HEY! After messing around on a few problems in the morning, including rounds on my favorite of the trip so far (below), Mattie and I packed up our home in the Secrets and drove east then north through South Lake Tahoe and Carson Valley and finally back onto the 395. Fun on "Driver's Test."  Mattie watches over the house.  We're now happily visiting Scott, Sid and Anni for some good exploring and adventures outside of Reno for the rest of the week. My new "Artifact or Notifact" buddies have even shared their secret petroglyph site along the Truckee River with me. They are killing this game. WHOAAAAAA Sid the archaeologist.  Annika the beast. Things are pretty wild up here. Love,  Allison & Mattie

...and we drove back into the mountains.  We pulled onto a nondescript road off of the 50, about a 1/2 mile west of Strawberry, and meandered up to The Secrets - a lesser used (but really amazing) bouldering area only 20 minutes from South Lake Tahoe.  The tent was set up under threat of a thunderstorm sounding from the north, and rolling closer. We only got a few drops of rain, but from our perch above the Mystics we watched lightning strikes and listened to thunder cracks for the afternoon.  Mobile home. Thunderstorm backdrop from the Secrets.  In the evening we wandered down through some of the main areas and did a few easy problems. The rock is incredible. Granite. Knobs. For. Days. I beat my fingers to a pulp. Mattie was an excellent spotter, as always.  Perfect granite knobs in The Mystics.  We went to sleep early after a battle for tent space. Mattie is getting pretty feisty about trying to sleep on my bag, which isn't f...

Holy cow, we're finally (and somewhat unexpectedly) back on the road for a while.  What started out as a plan to head north for a long weekend for Rick's birthday turned into a plan for a long weekend with the farm and then Rick's birthday, which evolved into the farm, Rick's birthday, then camping and climbing near South Lake Tahoe, which then morphed into the farm, Rick's birthday, climbing/camping South Lake Tahoe, heading to see my nieces for a week, then heading to the Eastern Sierras for my family reunion and then more climbing. And at this point, there's a good chance that Mattie and I will be spending the entire summer up on the east side again.  I split this into two entries because the last week has belonged to two separate universes. The first, a whirlwind of socialization with people I love, great new friends, a lot of neon, cars, beers, games and general shenanigans. The second, silence in the mountains with thunderstorms, climbing, reading...