[Leica] Eastern Sierra

[oliverbryk at comcast.net (Oliver Bryk)]

Many thanks to everyone who commented on these pictures. This feedback means
a lot to me; I post photography only to the LUG.

After our visit to Bodie, my wife and I had lunch at the Hayes Street Caf?
in Bridgeport; as usual the fare was excellent, reasonable, and ample.

Tina, I am familiar with the Golden Trout area. The locations for the
pictures I showed recently are north of Lone Pine in the following order
from US 395 (further details gladly given on request):

the Ancient Bristlecone Forest is reached from Big Pine, about 40 miles
north of Lone Pine; 
the Little Lakes Valley is reached from Tom's Place, about 25 miles north of
Bishop;
the Shadow Lake and Mammoth areas are reached from the town of Mammoth
Lakes, about 40 miles north of Bishop;
the Saddlebag Lake Road is reached from Lee Vining, about 65 miles north of
Bishop;
the Bodie junction is about 80 miles north of Bishop;
Bridgeport is about 90 miles north of Bishop.

Because Bodie is a California State Park it is not a tourist trap. It may,
however, be closed because of our state's insoluble budget problems. 
I agree with Adam that the height of summer is not an ideal time to visit
Bodie. It can be a very dusty environment; I do not change lenses in the
open. 

I do not know of any other ghost towns worth a visit except possibly Berlin
in Nevada, and I have been to most of them; they are heavily clustered on
the wrong end of my scale from "picturesque" to "decrepit" and lack the
visual interest of Bodie's wooden structures and the occasional artifact.

It is almost 400 miles from LAX to Bridgeport. IMO a much better time would
be the first week of October when a visit to Bodie can be combined with
photographing the fall colors (details gladly given on request). The
distance from Reno to Bridgeport is about 120 miles.

Oliver

PS: I, too, am 80 years old, and while I am fortunate that my original knees
are in in working order, I have to wear a lumbar brace when I go hiking
because I have had two spinal surgeries. These operations have made it
necessary that I limit my load so that I can no longer hike with a full
complement of LF or even MF equipment, plus sleeping bag etc. etc. as in the
days of yore. Does anyone remember the pleasure of dipping one's Sierra Club
cup into an ice cold mountain stream?