Eastern Sierra Weekend 3-Hike out

We woke at day break. Venturing out of the tent, I was startled by the amount of snow that had fell over night. Where the grounds were bare when we went to sleep, there were about 3 inches of snow.

We debated a little about spending another night in the wilderness or start hiking out. H was concerned because weather forecast for Sunday evening calls for as much snow as Saturday evening. If the same amount of snow fell, the trails may be covered by so much snow that we would be unable to find out way out.

Given the safety concern, it was thus decided hiking out was the better option. We had a leisure breakfast, then started tearing down the tent.

When going into the wilderness, it was prudent to reach one's campsite before dark and setup tent/boil water. Coming out, the pace was more relax. As long as we could reach trailhead before dark, we would be fine.

The 3 inches of virgin snow overnight had partially covered the trail, so footing on the hike was not very good, but since we were mostly going down, it was not too tiring. Also, H brought along gaiters, so snow did not get into our boots.

We stopped for pictures several times on our hike out. Here one of me in front of some bristlecrone pine.Here's another at the foot of the rail tracks. Going down the tracks was quite an adventure. With less sure footing due to the new snow, I walked sideways down the tracks.

Since we had planned to spend two nights in the wilderness, we did not make hotel reservations. Given it is Memorial Day weekend, we decided to spend the night at a camp site opposite the trailhead.
There was still some daylight left, so we travelled around the Eastern Sierras. First stop was Mono Lake South Tufa. I was always fascinated by the tufa since reading about them in a few years ago, so this was quite a treat for me.
Snow began to fell again when we left Mono Lake. Our next stop was Mammoth Lake. Whiskey Creek restaurant offered a 5-6pm happy hour where food and drinks were half off, and we were there to take advantage of the deal.

The restaurant brewed its own beer as well. We had salmon and crab cake, buffalo wings and fish taco. Food was decent, and at half off prices, could not be beat!

Since it had continued snowing somewhat heavily, we were concerned how our tent would hold up. We left before dark back to the campsite to setup for the night.