Fortunately there was not much time to mull over the qual and its somewhat mixed conclusion . The next morning I was up " early " at 11 AM , and after quickly grabbing my stuff was out the door not long after to head off to the Sierra Nevada for this year 's astronomy department camping trip . The site this year was the Lodgepole campground near Lake Alpine , in between Lake Tahoe and Yosemite . This is not really a new place for me ; I actually camped there just last summer in a much smaller group ( four ) .

Question: What type of area is the narrator traveling in ?
They are in a mountainous region .