Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Leaving Yosemite and First Campfire

I drove North after leaving Yosemite. It was an extremely scenic route.









My next point of interest was Mono Lake, as suggested by Jim back in L.A. As soon as I got there, I asked about free camping and got myself a fire permit. This permit means it's okay for me to start a fire in any national forest in California. I couldn't believe they gave me one--I've never started my own fire! But permit in hand, I drove to the national forest outside of town and began down long, treacherous dirt roads. I was talking to my dad on the phone, and I think that's why I popped a tire.

I had to unpack everything from the back to uncover my spare. A nice family who was moving to the Silicon Valley stopped to help me.

After that drama, I found a place not too far off a main road. It was in camping area SI17. Finding firewood was easy--everything was dead. And it was all dry, too. That made me a little nervous. I cleared a spot, then searched for rocks to make a pit, but there were no rocks anyway, so I used logs to form my pit. Bad idea, I learned later, but anyway, I made my own campfire for the first time!



I guess I've figured out the technique. It got pretty big at one point, and it even started eating the edges of my pit, so that didn't work out too well. The wind was fierce at times, so I had to keep an eye on my fire, which I did. And I finally got to make dinner over a fire. I dissected an onion, then stuffed hamburger inside. I wrapped a potato in tinfoil. I put them both in the fire, as close to the coals as possible.



I wasn't sure if the hamburger was still good, but I ate it anyway. The onion was tiny, so that part of dinner was gone in seconds. The potato didn't seem to be cooking, but when I cut it open it was soft. There was black stuff inside, and at first I thought it was burnt, but then I realized it was mold. Ugh. I made hot cocoa for dessert.

I spent a half hour or so putting my fire out--I was not interested in causing a forest fire. The coals sound like broken glass as they're moved around, and they look like hot orange stars in a sky of ash.



The night was awful. There were no bear boxes around, so I was certain an animal would try getting into my car. At every sound I woke up, car key close to my hand so I could push the panic button in an attempt to save my car. I woke up every hour or so. The wind got crazy, and while I was warm when curled up, the noise was too loud for me to sleep through. But the tent made it through the night.



In Mono, Daniel tried bending my alloy wheel back into place. It seems to have worked. He charged me $20, but Ricky (?) the guy at the register only charged me $15. It's going to be weird when I get older and the kindness of guys just stops. But for now I'm enjoying it.

No comments:

Post a Comment