TRAVELS WITH MATTIE

GUYS!!! I actually don't even know where to start with this post.  Shasta is the best? I guess that's a good place to start? Anyway.  Mattie and I left Lee Vining Thursday morning and started driving north, and it was warm. We spaced out along the way and took it easy in some amazing meadows along Highways 44 and 89, and rolled into Mount Shasta City around 4:30 with a little time for a nap on the Forest Service lawn while we waited for Ryan to get off work. Then everything awesome started happening really quickly.  FIRST, right after he got home we went swimming in Castle Lake (I think? I think that's what it's called...). The water was perfect and totally clear, it was warm out, there were PBRs involved. A short hike took us up to Heart Lake and an unreal view of Shasta as the sun went down. On the drive home we were stopped by a black bear. We made tacos for dinner. THEN Friday happened, and it was one of the coolest days ever. Ryan led me ...

Great things happened this week. I mean, great things happen every week when you're up here...but still. It doesn't make them any less great. Anyway. Last week Mattie and I did a lot of wandering, including all around Mosquito Flats where I read about dragons and soaked my ankle in this awesome little lake with a terrible view.  Then we crossed the 395 and found a magic secret canyon (with secret chalked holds) somewhere on the south end of the Sherwin Plateau: ...and then we spaced out and played a serious game of Artifact-or-Notifact around the rim of the canyon, which we DESTROYED: Then Mattie got all pissed off because she didn't find that mortar (and Artifact-or-Notifact is getting pretty competitive between the two of us), so we came back and worked on a lot of school stuff early on in the week until she mellowed out and my ankle felt better.  Thursday we climbed a little, then went and saw Dead Winter Carpenters at the Mob...

HEY GUYS.  Last week: thunderstorms, boulders, dinners with my Eastern Sierra buddies and foster parents, hot springs, fireworks, snakes, Clark Canyon, Dike Wall, fish tacos, beer, statistics, too many burritos, Mono Bars (What the hell!? Why didn't anyone tell me???), statistics math math math statistics, the Ryan Moynier/Galbraith Experience, rolled ankles, the School House Museum mystery tour, statistics math, salty Mono Lake floats, and yesterday A REAL SHOWER and Vietnamese Lettuce wraps for dinner, then dessert wine as the sun went down over Mono Lake. Whoa.  For most of last week, it rained all afternoon. And not the typical hour-long passing Sierra thunderstorm...I mean all  afternoon it rained. It was gorgeous, and made perfect daily windows for working on course prep in Lee Vining and Mammoth Lakes. Late last week, the rain stopped and it's been beautiful since. Not hot. Just beautiful, breezy, cool, sunny, perfect.  Recently, Mattie a...

Last year we were 30 miles south, camping at Lake George and painting and drinking a beer at Slocum's while watching a little red-white-and blue parade through Mammoth Village. This year, we're sitting on the front porch swing of the Latte Da Cafe in Lee Vining watching a rain storm over Mono Lake and writing a lesson about Bayes' Theorem. Work still feels like play when you're up here, and we're doing a lot of both. Happy 4th of July, everyone. Love, Allison & Mattie the Patriotic Dog

Y'all! We've had a really great time since we last checked in. After fishing the beautiful East Fork of the Walker River (during which Scott and I were both totally eaten alive by biting flies), we caravanned northwest (I think?) for a relaxing couple of days at the Kaffer Cabin near Grover Hot Springs. Uncle Dan and Aunt Diane made us a great BBQ dinner, with delicious gin and tonics, and we ate out on the new deck for the evening.  With the help of Benadryl, I fell asleep quickly after cookies for dessert, and the next day we woke to a mellow start and drove up to Charity Valley for a friendly hike. We found petrified wood, caught a few fish, saw the most amazing beaver dam ending in a 13-foot waterfall (those are brave builders), walked through neon wildflowers, and learned all about every plant along the trail from Uncle Dan (whether we wanted to or not...but we really wanted to).  Everyone left and Mattie and I stayed for an extra night. I love camping, but e...

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.