Life Out West: Mono Lake and Bristlecone Pines

how does one get down the bristelcone pines?

On a 3 day weekend Scott "B-Ratiuk" Batiuk, Scott Massed, and I decided to travel to Mono Lake and Bristlecone Pines. I studied Mono Lake in my Environmental Systems course at UWGB so it was pretty sweet to see it in person.

Mono Lake

Before diversion, the water was up to where I took this photo

Mono Lake is a very important and fragile ecosystem located in California, 2hrs south of Carson City, NV. The lake itself is 3x salter than the ocean and is home to very unique organisms and multiple populations of birds. Birds take advantage of the lake as a resting, feasting, and nesting area. They eat the brine shrimp and water flies which are the only organisms beside bacteria living in Mono Lake. Speaking of bacteria, the only arsenic based species is found in Mono Lake (http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/02dec_monolake/). Concern for Mono Lake arose once the effects of diverting the lake's only stream inputs could be seen. Los Angeles claimed the streams around Mono Lake in the early 40s or 50s and therefore diverted them into their city causing a drastic decrease of water levels in Mono Lake. By 1962 the effects could be seen. The diversion of streams and rivers created a land bridge between an island in the lake and the shore. This land bridge allowed predators such as coyotes to prey on the nesting birds and their young. A few other consequences were the increase of salinity of the lake which could have caused brine shrimp and water flies to disappear thus crushing the ecosystem and exposure of limestone structures called tufas. Thankfully, environmentalist groups took action and the streams were diverted back to Mono Lake and water elevation is increasing again. In short, it is a truly amazing place that can be visited within a day and is a must if you are traveling in California.

B-ratiuk being B-ratiuk

Mono Lake

Exposed limestone tufas

Enjoying the view

Panorama of Mono Lake. Photo by Scott Massed

Hot Creek Gorge and Camping

After Mono Lake, we went on a search to find a campsite. We took a detour to try and find some hot springs we could enjoy. We failed, but in failing we found an awesome area called Hot Creek Gorge. I do not know much about Hot Creek Gorge besides it has pretty good trout fishing and it is too hot to go swimming in some areas. Since I do not know much about it, I will show it off in photos.

After the nice detour, we continued our adventure for a campsite. We ended up finding an area in the Inyo National Forest. It was pretty awesome. We were surrounded by Jeffrey Pines, had a view of the Sierras, and found an area away from the fisherman. It turned out to be a fantastic night. We enjoyed our wines and had some great conversations. We also managed to have some hatchet throwing contests.

our campsite

Monkey Bay. A wine from New Zealand.

Scott M. and his injured thumb

nice toss B-ratiuk!

Nighttime shot. Photo by Scott Massed.

Bristlecone Pines

After camping we headed to the Bristlecone Pines in the White Mts. On our way, we stopped in Bishop at Erick Schat's bakery for breakfast. If you are ever traveling through Bishop this place is a must to stop at. The food is excellent and you can get delicious bread for very cheap. Anyways, as I was saying, the Bristlecone Pines are located at the top of the White Mts. What is so significant about these pines? Well, they are over 4,000years old, thus making them the oldest living organism on the planet. Pretty fricken neat if you ask me. Even though they are the oldest living organism they are still very short (compared to other old trees like the Redwoods). Their habitat of cold temperatures, high winds, dry soils, and short growing seasons cause them to grow slowly. The wood of bristlecone pine is very dense allowing them to withstand bugs, fungi, and other pests. The oldest living tree is called Methuselah (4,789 from a core sample in 1957). The oldest dead tree, Prometheus, is recorded to be 4,844 years old, but was cut down for research. To help ease the hatred to the guy who cut down Prometheus, he did not know its age at the time.

Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva)

Our main objective was to hike into the Methuselah grove, but time limits seem to be our enemy. Also, the damn snow. The snow covered many areas of the trail so we ended up bushwhacking (walking off-trail) our way around the park. In the beginning, bushwhacking was difficult because we had to hike vertically. Eventually we made it to the ridge and walked about until we decided to go back down and head up another ridge. During our walk we some spectacular trees. The elements have shaped them into incredible pieces of art. The exposed wood made some amazing patterns that my photographic capabilities could not capture. We are excited to go back in summer and make it to the Methuselah grove and spend more time bushwhacking this marvelous area. A definite must see in eastern CA.