step it up in Bishop

accidental shutter snap ~

on Wednesday, after a night of interrupted sleep because i was on-call for the hospital (and yes, i did get a call to come in at 1am...  but i'm not going to dwell... sometimes people need a little hand-holding in the middle of the night) i went to Bishop for a skate ski with the dogs.  actually, i drove through Benton Crossing by the Green Church to Mammoth and as i was looking up at some particularly spiky peaks, i thought to myself, "those look like the Minarets." and indeed, yes, once i got to town and started seeing things like, The Minaret Cafe, the Minaret shopping plaza, etc. i determined that those were the Minarets but i had just never seen them from the East, only from the West when i was in Lake Basin several years ago on a backpacking trip, and never realized just how close to Mammoth i had been at the time.

but back to my story:  i was in Mammoth on Wednesday for a skate ski with the dogs, and went to the Ranger Station/Visitor Center as instructed by my friend who is now a "local" in Bishop and knows the skate ski scene well, and was remiss to find out that the "welcome" person at her post was very fond of informing me that "dogs must remain on-leash in all Forest Service managed areas and on groomed winter trails."  she went on to add, "oh, and you have to pick up their poop."  (she said that about three times.  yeah, lady, i get it.  thanks.)

Hrrrumph!  well, i called my friend back and told him what the "welcome" lady had said, and he said, no just head to the end of the road in that area, park the car, and there is a groomed snowmobile road outside of the actual designated nordic area and people take their dogs off-leash there all the time.

oh, Artemis!

i saw a local lady with a couple of dogs and asked her, "so is this cool?  if the dogs are running off-leash here?  it's kinda hard to skate with the two of them on leashes." (and in fact, i only had a couple of short pieces of webbing because i hadn't planned on having the dogs on-leash at all).  and she confirmed that yes, it was actually not frowned upon.

i ran into so many people walking their dogs, or just strolling without dogs, who greeted my dogs with open arms.   we even saw a couple of Forest Service sleds and the rangers didn't stop to bitch me out for letting my dogs roam free (i held on to their collars as the snowmobiles went past, just in case the dogs thought it might be a good idea to dart out in front and cause a curfuffle... )

squeeky skate ~ with my warm pants on, because it was chilly.

i had the post-call hangover going on, and the skate seemed extra hard due to the fact that i had warm/wet wax on my skis and not cold/old wax, but we had a great time stepping through the woods despite that fact.

i drove through Bishop on the way back to Tonopah and stopped at the hospital to visit my friend who was on the evening shift and give him a latté.  it was a great day, and i'm glad i motivated to get out of Tonopah for the day.  the dogs and i definitely stepped it up.