Turtle Mountains, Castle Rock

13-Apr-85

By: John Leonard

Cancellations were high on this low sign up trip. Maybe we should have guessed why. Friday night was warm. Saturday morning was hot. After looking for one participant and pulling him from the sand we held a caucus and decided to do Castle Rock on Saturday. Loaded with every climbing aid known to man we started toward the peak. We had pitons, nuts, bolts, you name it. Actually a road off the Turtle approach gets one near the rock. After making one and a half revolutions around the plug we decided to call it off. This thing is held together by mud. Every hand hold we tried could be removed Protection was non-existent. We did see the memorial to Jack Pepper-????uor of Desert Magazine. Also saw a ????????????---??????????????? three baby hawks in it. Being as hot as it was it was voted to scrub the trip and we headed for the river for a swim. One of the participants had trouble making it home after leaving his wallet in the van unknown to me. Don't schedule this trip this late in the season. GENE/TED Published posthumously by request of the family.

WHERE TO EAT IN . . . LONE PINE: BO-BO'S B0NANZA

This isn't your usual tourist watering hole. Anyone looking for the Whitney Portal road would miss it. Big breakfasts aren't the main attraction, and if you pine for the savory barbecues of the Smoke Signal, forget it.

Bo-Bo's is just north of the traffic signal on the Mt. Inyo side of the street. With its corner location and full glass windows on two sides, Bo-Bo's offers its patrons an excellent view of who is visiting the lawyer across the street, buying groceries at Joseph's Bi-Right Market. or trying to find some excitement at Gardner' a Home and Sport Center. The locals get to play I-Spy at Bo-Bo's. It's no surprise that the Lions Club meets there once a week.

Early on a Sunday evening in late September a dozen DPSers wandered into Bo-Bo's after a strenuous climb of Waucoba and a bumpy drive out of the Saline Valley. We were seated in the back near the kitchen, away from the favorite booths in front. Someone's kid sister got a chance to practice being a waitress and put dozens of items on a single bill. The coffee was good and kept coming throughout the meal. Tom Neely at our table let go with stories of his college fraternity's visits to the local diner. His tale of the single order for 36 eggs (over easy) kept us laughing as our food came and quickly disappeared.

For aficionados of fried delicacies I can recommend the Westerner sandwich of toasted cheese and ham. The menu has variety, reasonable prices, and Maris Valkass swore he had a **** meal. As I walked across the street still chuckling from our celebration, I thought it isn't what you eat that makes a place memorable.