Sunday, March 27, 2022
The first thing I did this morning was to go out and check for flat tires and thankfully, found none. Today we are going up to Bishop, the biggest town in the area (almost 4000 population) and about an hour’s drive north of Lone Pine. The plan is do an off-road drive on Buttermilk Road that Val and I had done quite a few years ago and really enjoyed it.
After everyone had their breakfast and gotten their things together, we were on the road by 9:30. We didn’t pack a lunch today as we had run out of sandwich makings and decided to eat out instead of our usual picnic. It was an easy drive to Bishop, but before we started our day’s off-road drive, we had to find a pharmacy as Janis needed some allergy medicine. The winds have picked up and are really causing her allergies to flare up.
Janis quickly got what she needed and we made our way to the start of Buttermilk Road that runs west out of Bishop up into the Sierras. The first part of the road is quite easy except for some washboarding. Several miles in, we were surprised to see a large number of cars, vans and trucks filling up a parking area and along the road. It turns out it was a very popular rock climbing area and on a beautiful Sunday morning, the climbers were out in large numbers.
Past the climbing area, we saw very few cars and the road became a narrow single track and got considerably rougher. It was nothing difficult, but we did get a good shaking. Val and I were a bit disappointed as the road wasn’t what we remembered, there were some great views especially as we got closer to the Sierras, but remembered a lot rock of formations similar, but not as extensive as the Alabama Hills. In retrospect we think we have gotten the road mixed up with another drive we took, but we did have an enjoyable time.
As we got up to the snow line the road got continually rougher with the rock obstacles getting much larger. At that point we decided to turn around and go back, it was almost the end of the road anyway, and I didn’t want to beat up my brand new 4Runner up any more than I already had.
Even though it wasn’t what we remembered or expected, it was a nice drive and we all enjoyed it. We returned to Bishop and filled up on the first gas we had seen in the area under six dollars a gallon and headed to the famous Erick Schat’s Bakery. Schat’s is very well known in the area by locals and tourists alike. They have a wide selection of breads, cookies, pastries and anything you can imagine.
They are always very crowded particularly on Sunday morning and when we went through Bishop before our drive there were people lined up to get in and cars lined up to park. It was a little better when we returned and we decided to give it a try this time through town. We found a good parking place and inside the lines were not too bad. It was getting near mid-afternoon and we were all hungry and that is a very bad time to visit a bakery, especially one with such a large selection of goodies. We did buy too much, but we can freeze it and eventually it will all get eaten.
After our foray into Schat’s, it was time to head back towards Lone Pine and find a place for a late lunch / early dinner. We had seen a place called Copper Top BBQ in the town of Big Pine when we passed through heading north so we decided to stop and give it a try. It got excellent reviews and when we arrived there were cars and people everywhere, it was very popular. We debated a bit, but we were all hungry so we found a place to park and went and got in line. The line actually moved pretty quickly and the food came out equally quickly, they have a very efficient system. They had picnic tables outside to eat at so we had an enjoyable meal sitting out in the nice weather. The food was very good and we all had a great lunch.
From the Copper Top, it was back to Lone Pine and out house to spend our last evening before heading home tomorrow. We are all feeling a bit tired and spent the afternoon relaxing.
Since we had such a late lunch, we decided that everyone was on their own for dinner. I took the opportunity to try some of our purchases from Schat’s Bakery, that’s my kind of dinner. We talked for a while, but everyone was tired and we wanted to get up earlier than usual as we had to pack up and load up for the trip home, so everyone headed off to bed early.
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