Finding Nirvana in the Golden Trout Wilderness

Wow over a month since my last blog posting. So many things to share so will plunge right in. Packing by horseback in the wilderness with strangers turned out to be one of the best things ever.
To begin with,  I LOVE Lone Pine, California. Such a strange, Western, natural, homey kind of place. It is a jump off to so many wilderness areas - the desert, the mountains, lakes and rivers -  so the place is full of backpackers, campers, fisherman and people on their way to other vacation spots.

The biggest claim to fame in Lone Pine is that every Western movie in the world seems to have been made there. My hotel was a mecca for Hollywood during the filming hay days and the lobby is chock full of cowboy and, mainly, John Wayne memorabilia.

Very funny and quite charming. Ate at a good restaurant called Seasons which made a fabulous martini and perfect lamb chops with a cabernet sauce.

On my return to the Dow Villa Motel I was greeted with the bleats of fun-yons jumping into a postage stamp sized pool trying to outdo each other with splash of their cannonballs. So it didn't seem at all strange to wake up at 5 AM and hop in my car packed with my saddle and camping gear and head up the mountain for the back country adventure. On the way, double rainbows over the Sierras and incredible rock formations known as the Alabama Hills.

Arrived at Horseshoe Meadows to a full breakfast and coffee prepared by Penny the cook for our group.

We ate bacon and pancakes and eggs while packing mules and saddling horses. First day was a 5 hour ride through glorious meadows and streams - which was only an inkling of the beauty which lay ahead

The ride was only made more exciting by a fierce storm which pelted us with rain and hail the size of garbanzo beans. A challenge to be sure but I didn't play Annie Oakley in college for nothing.

We arrived at our campsite and I asked for help putting up my first-ever tent and joined the group around the campfire for the first of many wonderful meals. 

 Here, I would like to feature Penny's California Gold Rush. Now, imagine making a pineapple upside down cake using parchment paper in a cast iron dutch oven surrounded by coals taken from the campfire under the watchful eyes of 14 hungry people and the camp dog. It was ready in 20 minutes and delicious. Here is Penny's recipe exactly as she wrote it in her cook book/memoir Thru a Mule's Ears of which I now own an autographed copy

 California Gold Rush
1 stick butter
1 c brown sugar
1 t vanilla
16 oz. crushed pineapple drained.....boil 5 min
yellow cake mix to directions. using juice as liquid. in lined D.O. warm mix in bottom cake on top. bake med hot, rotate, flip upside down when serving.
(Got that??)

 I highly recommend trying this experience out for yourself. There is a trip for everyone and there is no one better than Craig London and the Rock Creek Pack Station to take you. All that yoga and meditation you are doing (to find peace and confirm that there is something more important than complaining about traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway) simply will never do what one week in the wilderness can with the Rock Creek Pack Station.
Add Penny's great meals into the mix and you have found nirvana!