My friend RC who I rode mini bikes with back in the 60's when we were tiny knobbies take my drz and his 650 Honda to Mammoth Mountain. Supposedly to see some of the Moto but end up riding and golfing with of course the requisite amount of drinking. Base camp day 1 Redrock In the morning we head up the slab and cross 8 miles of some fairly deep sand to the bizarre Burro Schmidt tunnel and an abandoned but protected miners camp. we are 300 or so feet into the cave the white hole is the entrance we head back but it goes much farther 2200 feet in all or so at the restaurant i have an excellent breakfast burrito and we visit with a couple KTM riders one of whom unhappily repairs a flat The poster girl of Jawbone has had 1 too many of their burritos. next we play 9 holes at the Mount Whitney golf club it is much nicer on the course than you would think flying by it on hwy395 it looks hardly better than miniature golf that is not the case once you are on Day 1 comes to a close we are now in Mammoth this is our perch for the rest of our stay a little place I lucked upon in 97. Life has been very kind to us at times.
Day 2 starts with the breakfast of champions. using a 4wd guide i discover how little i know about navigating an area I've been to probably 50 times. We find a trail to the Laurel Lakes that sounds doable enough. Here is where I get all the pics that say it's a lot rougher than it looks. RC whips the Honda up the trail and you can see him if you look really hard as the trail veers left he's just below the sort of pyramid shaped rock a little less than 2 thirds of the way up. I suck and lay it down and await the verdict. RC returns and tells me it's impassable with too much snow so with my heart racing at the 7500 foot altitude I take a couple more pics than slowly head down. There's thousands of miles of trails and I don't take nearly enough of the good pics. Also we really need a decent GPS as the books didn't explain the routes in a manner I could follow. So we rode out and around Crowley Lake for 60 or so miles and it is all very scenic but not real challenging lot's of fun though. We did happen along a fellow on a 800GS who had laid it down on the soft road that we helped up. I hope he had an easier go of it after that. That afternoon we hit the 9 hole course at Snowcreek. It has the beautiful backdrop of the Sherwin Mountain Range and is well kept but windy as hell. We are done for the day Sierra Star's 18 awaits first thing in the morning.
Day 3 we get on Sierra Star bright and early and if you're a golfer or even a hack like me you owe it to yourself to get up there. It's extremely sweet and unpretentious the balls fly forever and there are lots of bears watching your every move. After the game I take the old mountain bike and head up onto the Mountain. We saddle up and hit the end of Saturday's racing to buy some tee shirts that's as close as we get to seeing the Moto maybe next year maybe not. We're both of the type who would rather be doing than watching and if you're here you're probably the same way. After the souvenir stop we freeze ass heading to the Main Lodge but the trail's are all snowed in so we have a couple beers and head down. The bar tender smokes an electronic cigarette I'm sure this being Cali someone is figuring out how to put the herb in it. The road to Horseshoe Lake is a must in the very late afternoon. Heading home now and the trip was great. We rode about 180 miles in all offroad not much I know but we tripled last year's mileage so if we do that next year we'll do 540! That is all but just one thing I'd like to reinforce there is almost nothing better than taking trips like this do it now do not wait!
Thanks for the memories Cali Native. Lived in and around Mammoth for a few years late 80s and early 90s. That trail, the moto course, golf courses and the lake look familiar. Couldn't say what bar you were in. Had a CJ5 and KTM 250 at the time. I'll try to find some old photos to scan and post. Still a good drinking town?
OhBoy, we were in the Yodler up by the Main lodge where the bar tender whipped out the high tech cigarette you actually charge them on the USB port. Perfect if you're still a smoker in todays increasingly anti-smoke environment if you don't want to freeze your cajones off outside in the winter. Needless to say there is still a whole lot of drinkin going on up there and one of our favorites is John's Pizza they've just redone the bar and it's not bad at all.
Just got to say...THAT"S MAN SHIT RIGHT THERE. Beer riding golfing then back to beer repeat!!!!!!! Some of my favorite area to be!!
