January was another skiing and snowboarding month, including the big New Years trip. With the lack of good deep snow this time around, we not only managed to get in some mountain time, we did a some local hiking around the actual lakes Mammoth Lakes area is named for, and got to take a day trip into Yosemite too.
We rang in the New Year at one of our favorite local places, Z Ranch. (Walking distance to the house - New Years bonus!) it's pretty low key there, but they jazzed things up a bit with a band and cleared the tables out to make room for dancing. And of course, we couldn't miss the disco ball installed for the occasion! After celebrating, we needed to get the booze out so we decided to hike around one of the main Mammoth Lakes just outside the village. We had the "Brilliant" idea to hike ALL the way around the lake, after scaling the initial boulder field that starts to the trip
It was upon reaching the shady side of the lake the we realized the hike might be a bit more than we'd planned on. And Hercules didn't really appreciate that his reward for making it through the boulder field was a continued trek through fields of ice and snow over freezing streams and through super low underbrush. Everyone loves low clearance! Especially giants like Ryan....
(frozen waterfall above / low underbrush to deal with, below)
In spite of it, I will admit it was absolutely beautiful and well worth it. Until...Herc fell in the lake through the ice. It was a very appropriate close to the day, and he was handsomely rewarded for his struggles once we got home by the fire!
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