Sunrise light on a grove of tufa towers emerging from the water of Mono Lake with soft green and dusty-red wild grasses in the foreground, Canada geese in the shallow water with reflections of the rocky towers, and desert hills in the distance.

Another Mono Lake canoe season put to rest

Sunrise light on a grove of tufa towers emerging from the water of Mono Lake with soft green and dusty-red wild grasses in the foreground, Canada geese in the shallow water with reflections of the rocky towers, and desert hills in the distance.

This post was written by Julia Frankenbach, 2013 Canoe Coordinator.

The morning of September 5 began like any other Thursday morning as Canoe Coordinator for the Mono Lake Committee. I poured coffee, grabbed my notebook and canoe keys, and walked the two blocks through Lee Vining to the back door of the office.

Interpretive Tour Associate Duncan King and Canoe Coordinator Julia Frankenbach guide canoes toward South Tufa. Photo by Molly Hucklebridge, American River Conservancy.

Now that Labor Day weekend is past and fall is on its way, the morning commute is becoming a bit crisper. The subtle change in the air signals change at the office as our guest numbers dwindle, interns depart, summer programs end, and work priorities shift. After finding my email inbox completely devoid of canoe-related questions, there was no longer any doubt. It was time to put the canoe program to bed for the season.

Mono Lake Intern Julie Curtis captains this canoe on an especially clear morning.

We gave our last public canoe tours of the season last weekend on the Saturday and Sunday before Labor Day. We were fortunate to have full tours, calm waters, and vast flocks of Eared Grebes—a wonderful way to finish up the season. Ever since driving the canoe truck back to its parking spot in Lee Vining on Sunday afternoon, I have been putting off doing anything about the life jackets, paddles, and flotation cushions sitting netted and brine-crusted in the back of the truck. Normally a quick rinse-off and reload would suffice—enough preparation for a soon-to-follow subsequent weekend of canoe tours. But this time around, there is no next weekend.

Canoe Coordinator Julia Frankenbach launches a canoe for a group of eager teens from Epic Sierra.

Recognizing this on Thursday morning, I realized for the first time how much I have come to relish the weekly motions of the canoe program—lead-up days of emailing and reminding participants of the details, then early morning drives down to Navy Beach, six tours from the back of a canoe, paddle-sore canoe rinses, and a two-day rest before beginning again. The people are my favorite part—people of all ages and origins who come to this west-most edge of the Great Basin usually in search of something. Many of them seek new and interesting landscape, distraction, family time, instruction, or entertainment. I like to think that some of them are here for the same reason I am—to breathe and let the mind expand into a wide-open space. I will miss sharing this experience with so many wonderful folks.

Canoe Coordinator Julia Frankenbach catches shrimp with three teens from Epic Sierra.

But winter work awaits. So I traded office clothes for shorts and a T-shirt and spent an afternoon dragging the nets from the back of the truck and washing away the brine and dirt of a summer season at Mono Lake. The canoe gear now sits nestled into our canoe shed, tucked in for winter and the long wait until next June. To all who joined us on our canoe tours this season: thank you so much for a fun and rewarding summer.

A canoe approaches an actively bubbling tufa tower close to the shore at Navy Beach.

For me, the highlight of the season was the two tours we did with Epic Sierra, a program of the American River Conservancy that takes teens ages 14–18 on two-week educational adventures in the Sierra Nevada. The kids from Epic Sierra were some of the most intrigued and engaged guests we had all summer. To top it off, the July morning was perfect, with no wind to mar the reflection of the mountains in the water. After catching shrimp and checking out an underwater bubbling tufa tower, the kids demonstrated their sense of adventure at the end of the tour by wading into the lake and gleefully floating on their backs. The included pictures are from this tour.

Mono Lake’s unusually high surface tension causes its uniquely glassy and reflective appearance. This beautiful late-July cloud cover demonstrates this phenomenon well. All photos by Molly Hucklebridge, American River Conservancy.

Canoe tours will be starting up again in late June of 2014. We hope to see you then!