Troll Travels

Bodie, Ancient Bristlecone forest,and Mt. Whitney

August 2008

Bodie is a ghost town that is being held in a state of arrested decay. That means they are constantly doing repairs to keep the buildings from falling over but keeping all of the buildings looking like the town had been abandoned 30 years ago.

Bodie, CA was a gold mining town that popped up after gold was discovered here in 1859. Many of the buildings are still standing.

Here’s the old schoolhouse complete with desks. It was 1st

grade through grade 8 in one room and the teacher lived upstairs.

The mortician left several caskets behind. Of course, many of them were for children because nutrition and health care weren’t as good as we have today so many children never made it to adulthood.

Some of the buildings are propped up to keep them from falling over and others,like the bank only have the brickwork still standing.

There was even an old gas station. Bodie was fun with a lot to see including the cemetery with the old tombstones.

What is now over 10,000 feet above sea level was once the ocean floor!

Most 1st year cones on the Bristlecone pines are purple but some trees have green cones.

The genetic differences also make some trees grow twisted and others straight.

Some of these logs are from trees that died over 7000 years ago. Because the trees grow so slowly their wood is too hard for insects or rot to decompose them quickly.

Somewhere in this grove of trees is the oldest living thing on the planet. It is a Bristlecone pine that is over 4600 years old and still growing very slowly because of the short growing season at this elevation and the poor soil.

The lower part of the trail had lots of trees as we started our climb. That’s my friend, the traveling giraffe from Mrs. McKay’s classroom, riding in a pouch in her backpack.

To lessen our chances of getting altitude sickness we camped the first night a the base of this waterfall at 10,000 feet in elevation. I took the picture of Mr. McKay when he went to check out the falls. Pretty good hah.

We’re above the tree line now and this is looking back at mirror lake

This is trail camp at 12,000 feet above sea level.

Here we are resting in front of our tent before we attempt the final assent tomorrow. So far we’ve been lucky, no altitude sickness and good weather. Two days ago an afternoon thunder storm dropped 4 inches of hail on this camp.

We didn’t have to worry about bears getting our food at this elevation but the marmots got anything not in a bear canister.

We made it up the 97 switchbacks to the saddle and are going on the back side of the mountain for the final 2 miles to the top. No fires allowed? The nearest stick of wood is at least 5 miles from here unless you burn the sign.

The only deaths on this trail have been from lighting strikes during fast developing afternoon storms.

Here’s what part of the trail looks like on the back side of the mountain. Mrs. McKay with traveling giraffe is looking back at us.

The view is nice but slip and it’s a fast 1500 foot drop to the valley floor.

My friend and I made it to the top of Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the continuous 48 states, and signed the log book before resting and eating lunch.

Next year I think we’ll climb Half Dome!