Thank You Weather

Day 6: Mono Lake to Moro, OR

The full moon, although beautiful, was NOT my friend for the night.

I woke up about every 2 hours thinking it was daylight. The crazy part was that each time I felt ready to go. Finally, by about 0430, I decided to roll out of my campsite and work my way around the lake for sunrise, since sunset was a little bit of a bust. 

We checked out the city of Lee Vining, saw an upside down house in the city park/museum yard, and eventually settled on the park where it seemed like most would use to swim. Jasper & I walked the boardwalk towards the shore, again stopping short, despite his pulling. We were able to get some decent sunrise photos.

Finally, we departed from Mono Lake after having checked out the cemetery, and moved up 395. We crossed into Nevada, through Carson City & Reno, and then back into California. As we neared the CA/OR border and my potential stopping point for the day, I was intrigued by signs for Lava Beds National Park. So, off I went to see what those were all about. At first, I was minimally impressed. Then, I started realizing a lot of the park is made up of of these lava tube caves, and I hit the visitor center to get more information on the caves.

While at the visitor center, they screened me for white-nose syndrome so the bat populations at Lava Beds are kept as safe as possible from death. Screening purely consists of reporting whether you or any of your clothing has been in any other caves, mines, or bat habitats in the last couple weeks. Luckily mine has not been, since I had already peeped in a couple caves. 

While in Lava Beds, I made reservations at the only hotel in Moro, OR for Saturday & Sunday night. This would give Jasper a reprieve from being always available and around my friends and their 3 kids. Then, I looked at the weather for the next couple days...snow!

So I messaged my friend about pushing my way to her house tonight. She said she would make sure everything was ready for my arrival and would stay up to wait. The weather had been sunny and dry for the day, and she agreed with my plan to push a long day to avoid weather. 

I arrived to Moro, OR about 2130 to a string of weird red blinking lights flashing over a vast empty landscape that seemed to perpetually be going uphill. 

The town is a blink, so thank goodness my eyes were wide open as I came to town. We got me settled in her parents' camper for the night, and we passed out.