Mammoth

Lake Mary was the lake we camped at, but the area is Mammoth Lakes. There is a strange feeling when camping at a forest campground and there is a bus stop right across from you.

Throwing your bike on the free trolley is really a nice feature of this over civilized campground. The bike paths are way overdone as well. Miles of paved paths with even a center line painted and its own tunnels.

However camping on the lake is still not city living, even if the 10 space campground is called Pine City.

The lake is close enough to walk the boats down, which has become a feature I look for. It is nice to not have to load up each day. The lakes up here are rimmed with beautiful mountain views.

All the lakes are beautiful. Check out Twin Lake and Twin Lakes Falls

Then there is the bizarre Horseshoe Lake with Co2 killing the trees around it.

The Mammoth area is open enough for some great off road areas for the motorcycle. With the civilized theme there are roads well marked with signs like Mammoth to June and Mammoth Loop so one can easily go for miles with no GPS. As an old guy who rides alone it is nice to know there are other people on the trails.

There are enough free places to mountain bike that we had great fun. We did not venture in the Mammoth Ski Area. It was just overwhelmed being a holiday. However I look forward to trying this lift served bike trail someday.

We were able to get away. Even on a crazy weekend the Inyo Crater is only a short hike. We did have to take the 2 wheel drive Sportsmobile on a little dirt road, but all was fine.

Another place with no crowd was the Hot Springs. Older people may remember when we could soak in them, but it is all closed now.

I am getting a bit tired of having only one battery for the Sportsmobile. We idled for four hours just to have juice for the fridge and a couple of hours of tv. Otherwise all our equipment worked pretty well.

Saw a bunch of other Sportsmobiles, more than any other place we have been.