Last weekend I had the opportunity to show off the pleasures of the Bishop area to my friends and fellow conservationists, Dean, Sam, and Steve. With the goal of summiting Matterhorn Peak, near the northern boundary of Yosemite, our weekend was based around one main activity, but we accomplished much more along the way.

Dean and Steve arrived in Bishop Thursday evening and we took a “warmup” stroll along the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power built canal and through the desert to check out some local flora and make our way up Agony Hill; a small sandy bump in a valley between 14,000 foot tall mountains, named by the high school cross country team. Albeit small, this mound goes to show how little elevation change it takes to get a vast view in the open landscape of the Eastern Sierra. Agony Hill, just above 4,000 feet the tallest mound in a few square miles, compared to Matterhorn Peak, 12,285 feet the tallest peak in the craggy Sawtooth Ridge range and the northernmost 12,000-foot peak in the Sierra Nevada. We had a good ways to go.

Friday we got a nice early start to a fairly relaxing day. We began with a short bouldering session and followed it up a refreshing swim via rope swing into Gull Lake. Then we payed a visit to the newly opened June Lake Brewery for some after lunch refreshments and foosball, nobody could beat Steve. That evening we finished our drive north to Bridgeport where we met Sam and found a place to camp with the Matterhorn looming in the backdrop.

While no technical mountaineering expertise is needed, this is still a fully strenuous day hike. It is 14 miles round trip and some 6,500 feet in elevational gain that ends in a windswept, craggy summit.  The hike starts with a calming path though fir and pine forest along Horse Creek, but before the 2 mile mark the route cuts off the main trail toward Horse Creek Pass. Shortly after this point the lush vegetation gives way to snow, gravel, and loose, sharp rocks for what feels like a really long time before the mountain of interest and the route up it comes fully in to view. With the varying degrees of physical fitness and route-finding experience, by this point, our group of 5 had become split up along the trail within about a half mile of each other. This allowed each of us to choose our own individual routes to the summit and thus provided some time with a greater sense of serenity and exposure. On that note, if those of you reading this do happen to make this adventure someday I won’t take out any more of the uncertainty than I already have. I will say that we made it and that the burgers and beer at the Mono Village at the trailhead went down with smooth satisfaction.

Tyler    BLM – Bishop Field Office