L2H Day 5 – 10/7/16
26 miles (99 total)

Today took us from Saline Valley up and over the Inyo Mountains and just starting to drop down the other side into the Owens Valley.   There was lots of historic junk to see along the way.

First up, the mining ghost town of Cerro Gordo. Before we started this hike, we’d called ahead and spoke to Robert, the site’s caretaker of 19 years for permission to visit the site (it’s on private property), which he not only granted us, but also offered to give us water when we came through!  We made sure to give him a donation in appreciation.

I’m not really into historic junk, but Cerro Gordo was kinda cool.  Once a major lead, silver, and copper mining operation from the late 1800s to early 1900s, what’s left of the town is ready to disappear in flames the next time lightning strikes.  Robert knows everything about the history of the the site and local area, and eagerly told us many facts such as that it was home to three brothels.  This seemed like a lot to us until we found out the population  of the town in it’s hay day was over 2,000.

The day was tough mentally after leaving Cerro Gordo.  Having only glanced at the elevation profiles, we’d thought the mine was our high point of the day.  Instead, we traversed along the spine of the Inyos the remainder of the day, which included quite a bit more climbing.

Another neat pile of historic junk was the Saline Valley Salt Tram, which was built to haul salt out of the Saline Valley (where we started the day) up and over the Inyo Mountains and down the other side to the town of Swansea at Owens Lake to go to market.  I find it inconceivable that this was cost-effective.

We now have great views of our final destination, Mt Whitney and enjoyed a spectacular sunset. Though we’d hoped to get a little closer to Lone Pine tonight, it became dark just as we turned off the dirt road to begin our descent into Long John Canyon.  Navigating this section in the dark seemed like a recipe for inefficiency, so we camped at the first flat spot we found.