Debbie and Duane

We were in Mammoth on Easter weekend; it’s the closing weekend for the east side of the mountain.  They stop the lifts at Eagle and Canyon after Easter; usually because the snow is waning, and of course because it’s economically unfeasible to run the lifts when the crowds, like the snow, wane and there are fewer people.   Usually, right about Easter, the mountain holds the annual ‘Pond Skim’ where crazy skiers and snowboarders wear costumes (some of them very skimpy…) and rush down the hill on their skis and boards to a (man made) pond of water in front of Canyon lodge where they skim (or not) across the water in hopes of making it to the other side of the pond.  Usually a goodly number of the participants are successful.  This year it was windy, snowing, and cold and for whatever reason, a goodly number of the participants were unsuccessful.  They ended up in the water freezing their asses off.  It was so cold this year I didn’t even bring a camera, but in the past I’ve taken a few good pics (including one where one well endowed young lady lost her bikini top) of the dubious event.

Anyway, we came back on Mother’s day, May 8th, to MORE snow and freezing temperatures.  The pics you see in the post “Mother’s Day 2011” were indeed from May 9; Mother’s day this year.  You’ll see three photos of the Forest Chapel there but, alas, you couldn’t see anything but snow.  We could not figure out where this purported chapel is/was.  Obviously it was buried in snow, and we could not make out where the place is where we are purportedly getting hitched.

So we thought we’d wait a few weeks and see what transpired.  It’s now May 28th (Memorial day weekend) and things haven’t changed much.  At least the bridge to the chapel no longer has a foot of snow, but as we wound down the path, Deb said, “This isn’t the place, there’s nothing here.”  Well, I told her, “Yes, this is the place; follow the trail into the snow.”

Sure enough, there is a chapel here.  And yes, beneath the 10-15 feet of snow we trudged through, there are benches and a rustic gazebo made of logs under that snow.  We trudged on, no snowshoes required, and sure enough, someone had been trying to get to the log structure with a snow blower.  All I can say is, as soon as the snow clears (hopefully before July 2012!) I’ll get a few shots of what the place really looks like.   I can’t even find any good pics on the web;  which seems odd to me, but I’ll post the ones I found along with Deb standing on 10-15 feet of snow and pointing down at the spot we THINK is the place we’ll be married.

Enjoy:

These are web pics I found (not very impressive photos..)

These are my photos from 5/28: