Eastern Sierras 4th of July weekend trip, 2013. Day 1.

Day 1 (well day 0 and day 1).

Petaluma to Alpine Lake

Alpine Lake to Topaz Lake, to Mt Patterson, to Masonic Ghost town, to Lake Leavitt.

Left work on wednesday night, and made it through to Alpine Lake on hwy 4 (which is incredible with its single windy lane). Warm until late (like 88 at 9pm). Camped in the parking lot and got going early the next day. Headed further east and summited Leviathan Peak, taking in a look at the look out tower. Took a dirt road down a steep and loose decent before landing in Topaz. Fueled up with coffee and gas and headed south to take on Mt Patterson. Went up the west side which was pretty straight forward. Hard climb but the bike did all the work. Some loose, steep and techy sections. Lots of fun, especially on a loaded bike. Summited around 11am, and took some pictures before being chased off by threatening thunder clouds. Didnt really want to get caught out up top. Quick decent down the eastern side which is a lot longer then the west side.

Back on the main road, I headed to Bridgeport to fuel up and figure the route out to Masonic ghost town. Mostly easy flowy dirt roads lead to an abandoned and well shot up site. Pretty neat but small and not well kept like Bodie. Good to check off the list though. Back to Bridgeport and then up hwy 108 to Lake Leavitt to visit some friends and camp out. The road up to Leavitt is a somewhat technical climb and would only suit high clearance vehicles. There is no sign post for the lake. Passed a bunch of hikers on the way up and there were quite a few campers spread around the lake. John and Cary arrived an hour later and we all set up around a Bristlecone Pine making dinner and swapping stories. Pretty amazing site, with the lake all surrounded by mountains. The sunset was quite a show too. Glad to have been able to hang out with the Sweeneys for a night in the wilderness after talking about it for so long.

Packed and ready to roll at work in Petaluma

Woke up early after arriving at Alpine Lake around 9pm on HWY 4. This was my morning view.

Camp site numero uno.

Alpine Lake. Pretty awesome spot. Theres a paved footpath all the way around the lake for wheel chair access. Some campers but not super crowded.

Ebbetts pass.

Monitor Pass, leaving hwy 4 to head down towards Topaz. Saw this ramdon sheep out in the middle of the road.

Leviathan Peak look out tower.

View from the Leviathan Peak look out tower.

Some super rock formations heading south toward Bridgeport.

Arrived at the dirt that leads to Mt Patterson summit.

On the way up the west side.

Some steep and loose sections. Nothing big green couldnt handle.

Epic views. Kinda like being on another planet.

Selfy.

Checked out the miners hut on the way up. Short but steep side detour. Worth a look.

Made it to the top. Whoop!

If you knew the road that comes up the west side, you might realize how f**kin big a deal this is.

These three showed up to escort me off the mountain.

Belfort on the way down. Couple of log cabin buildings that I can only assume were left overs from mining or cattle herding.

Made it to Bridgeport to refuel and chill. Thunderheads were developing quickly. No rain or thunder yet though.

Wound my way up HWY 108 to the access road to Lake Leavitt. Found a pretty epic camp site.

And found these two about an hour later. Great to have the Sweeneys company in the woods.

Sunset was epic with the large thunderhead clouds developing and passing us by.

Route from Petaluma to Lake Leavitt taking in HWY 4, Leviathan Tower, dirt road to Topaz, Mt Patterson, Masonic ghost town and then back to Leavitt Lake.