Summertime in Mammoth means being more spontaneous than normal. Powder days are traded for jam packed adventures filled with multiple activities and experiences. As soon as the temps start rising, we start pushing the bounds of things that we can do outside and thats when things get real interesting, real quick.
A few weeks ago, after an early morning snowboarding session with Signal family members Keoni Kaimuloa and Danny Salazar, I went to the pool for a little bit of R and R. Soon after that, I headed home for a quick bite to eat, and grabbed my bike and skateboard for an afternoon session. After a quick pit stop at the Fun Shop for some ice cream and the liquor store for some tall cans, I rode my bike over to the skatepark. The park was packed with homies, felt like your typical early summer hangout.
Two hours and tall cans later, I was spent. It was one hell of a good day and I was ready for a shower and to call it, but as it turned out, early summer in Mammoth had other activities in store for me. As I biked towards the parking lot, Keoni and Danny, along with the rest of the crew were all meeting up to go to the hot springs on the outskirts of town to camp for the night. They extended the invite to me, and without hesitation, I threw my bike in the back of one of the trucks and hopped along for the adventure.
When we arrived, half of the homies were already there, and in total there were about 25 of us camping out there for the night. This is that time of year where most mountains have closed down, and everyone makes the pilgrimage to Mammoth to squeeze in the last bit of snowboarding they can before it really is over.
We unpacked the necessities (chairs and beers) and hung out, chatting with old friends we hadn't seen in a while. Danny decided to scale up the side of the hill we were sleeping next to with a buddy, and lost his sandals in the process. Another friend pulled his drone out to check out how many people were sitting in the neighboring spring, so we could time our takeover. At some point someone brought out a speaker and the boys started a rap battle.
While the sun was setting, we all changed into our swimsuits and walked down the dirt road to the hot spring. The people who were already there quickly realized how big of a group we had and they all dispersed, heading back into town. We squeezed all 25 of us into the tub and hung out into the night. Once we were fully cooked, we headed back to camp, built a fire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. We spent the night goofing off, finishing off the last of our beers and moving onto whiskey, and enjoying the first of many nights under the stars, celebrating both the start of summer and end of winter.
As we got into the late hours of the night, we all started dropping like flies, and found a place to rest our heads for the night, whether it be a hammock by the fire, one of the few tents that were pitched before we started raging, or crawling into the cars that got us there.
We woke up early the next morning and jetted back into town, changing back into our riding gear quickly, and heading back up to the lifts for some more sunny laps. We were exhausted, but it didn't stop us from taking advantage of the summer slush the mountain had in store. I couldn't have asked for a better summer kickoff and adventure with the homies, and I look forward to more summer nights like that!