Sunday, November 8, 2009

Mammoth and Mono


I've spent the last six weeks on my general surgery rotation and now I'm heading to six weeks of sub-speciality surgeries before Christmas. But this weekend I celebrated the end of g-surg with a great trip to the eastern Sierra Nevada. I went with a group from a local Bible church where many of my friends in med school attend. We stayed in Mammoth Lakes Friday and Saturday night. On Saturday I got my first taste of fly-fishing at Lake Mary and then in the Owens River. I didn't catch anything but I learned a lot about casting with a fly-fishing rod and look forward to trying it again in the near future.This morning we started the day with a time of worship and Scripture reading and then a few of us headed up to Mono Lake. Mono is a very unique place - it is a large alkaline, hypersaline lake at an elevation of 6,300 ft surrounded by peaks of the Sierra Nevada. The lake has areas of interesting rock formations called tufa formed by precipitation of calcium carbonate from underwater springs. Here are some pictures from the trip:

Learning to fly-fish at Lake Mary outside of Mammoth Lakes.

The banks of the Owens River where we spent the afternoon fly-fishing. One of my classmates caught a couple of fish in here.

A chilly morning on the banks of Mono Lake.

Some tufa towers at Mono Lake. It's hard to see but the moon is in between the two towers.

5 comments:

Anna said...

Matt, looks like a great trip and a well-deserved break. I am taking my youth out into the woods this weekend for a retreat and I must say I'm excited, though the environs aren't quite the Sierra Nevada--more like a reservoir + deciduous forest--but still nice. :)

Matt said...

Hey Anna,
You're a brave woman... taking your youth into the woods. Having lock-ins just about did me in when I was a youth pastor. Good to hear from you and still reading your blog.

David Goran said...

Yes, fly-fishing is like cold water in the desert of med school. Drink deep Matt! I love fly-fishing. No surprise you didn't catch anything. It's really, really hard. I tried probably 4 times before I caught a single fish. Peace.

Matt said...

hey David, thanks for your encouragement... I plan on trying again as soon as possible. A classmate of mine went on that trip too and caught two small brown trout and it was his first time. Maybe someday we can fly fish some stream together. I think maybe I went fishing once with you in seminary... don't think I caught anything then either. Good to hear from you bro.

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