Loon Lake Winter Fiasco

“Thanks for checking in Navi. I made it home to. Only one hour for me.

Paige, Did you all have a radio? we missed you all this weekend. We ended up passing up the trail head and camping in a meadow at about 3 miles in. We kept checking for you on radio but no response. :'(

Thanks to all my new friends that showed me the ropes and helped to keep me warm. What a great bunch. Looking forward to many more hikes with you all.”

“Wannabp left the house about an hour ago. Hikerchik said she'd do the trip report so probably after work today. Now I have to do all the chores I left to go have fun with you all. Sure was a great trip. Thanks to all for great companionship. I'll get my pics on later in the week too.”

“I posted an album of our trip. The pictures never come out as I want but still fun to look at. I'll try to post one on the thread just to see if I can.
http://www.thebackpacker.com/pictures/album/h2jcpp7j.php”

“Very nice pictures, Songbyrd! Any idea what critter made the tracks?”

“Great photos songbyrd!!

wanderer and I went up toward Loon Lake on Sunday just to keep the meaning of this thread alive. We took my 3 dogs and all 5 of us had a great time. The road was clear as a whistle and the snow was perfect for snowshoing. We just went as far as Union Valley Resevoir though, not sure what happened after that. The dogs are becoming real snow dogs. It is great for a day trip from Sacramento!”

“Great pics..That looked too cool..I'm so jealous..loved your sleeping pit Rockman..”

“I'm home. Thanks, JVZ and Debbie for letting me be a 2-time overnight guest.
Great pictures, Mama T! We took a bunch of the same shots :)
Navi, glad to see you're home safe.
Pepper and Wanderer, good news about the road to Loon Lake. I'm glad you we're able to get out. We're you concerned about the slopes sliding or able to find safe-enough routes?
When's the next one? I am so hooked.”

“Great pictures Songbyrd. Mine won't compare. Did you hear anything from Paige? I got some of Ricks pictures in the mail. What a stalwort soul Nav is. Got to Lodi at 9 pm and headed home to L.A. area right away. I'll bet you sleep for days Nav.
I'm glad Pepper and Wanderer got away to the snow too. Dogs would be great fun to watch in the snow. No visible critters to chase but we saw prints here and there.
You'll have to save up some winter time to come out here with us Trekkngirl. Same place just colder.”

“Good shots, Kid.
Good trip!

We did see a Vole jumping around. Don't know if that's who those tracks.”

“Sorry we missed you, we headed up to Dewey Point and camped fairly close to it, hopeing to bump into you on the way. Forgot our radios :(
We would of tried to find you guys but ran out of time on Saturday and figured you were already headed out on Sunday not to mention that the rangers said that a large group hadn't picked up a permit the day before, so not only did we not know where you guys were but also weren't even sure if you guys even made it! Anyway sorry we missed you, had a great time, but would have been even better if we all hooked up.
I'll post my pics too, when I'm done uploading them.
Off to check T's shots.”

“Here's my new album:
http://www.thebackpacker.com/pictures/album/9c9cl7on.php”

“wow, it looks like you had a great time. How far down the road did you get? Was it groomed all the way to Glacier Point?”

“Sorry we missed you guys. I was out with paige's group. Theresa - I don't think I've seen you since the diva campout! I wish we would have caught up with each other! I didn't bring my camera - can't wait to see paige's photos, especially of sunset from Dewey Point.
last edited: 1/17/05 9:31:38 PM”

“wing, we got to the Bridalvale campground road. About 3 miles.

I don't know about a great time.
Turns out there are some people on Trail Talk that imbibe and stay up late into the night making way too much noise.
The gentleman that I am, I will not be nameing names. Rest assured that I do know what the 5th admendent is.”

“It was a great trip! We started at jvz’s house in Lodi and I believe that was the first time that I was ever late for one of these things. It was great seeing everyone again since July! Oh and songbyrd is such a nice gal! It was my first time hiking with her. It was nice meeting you mamma T! I think we left around 8:45am. Played musical cars and decided on two instead of three. The six of us were jvz, rockman, songbyrd, wannabp, the naviguessor, and myself. I drove with jvz and Rockman in jvz’s beautiful grey truck (I just love that truck). Navi road with wannabp and songbyrd.

I think we arrived about 1:30pm at Badger Pass parking lot. I think we all were anxious to get out the cars because it seemed like a long but beautiful ride into the park area because we had to chain up right after the entrance. It was so beautiful driving amongst the huge granite mountains of snow. Actually, we were surprised because there wasn’t as much snow as we thought there would be. I was really excited. I felt like a little kid. After getting our gear organized in the parking lot, we stepped up to the snowcovered road to our destination which was Dewey Point. Most of us hooked our sleds to our belts and others picked up their heavy packs full of winter gear and we started ‘shoeing on down the road! It was absolutely gorgeous with the heavy snow weighing down the trees. Some trees had perfect little icles on each tip of the branches. And it was so colorful! Not made by nature but the road was filled with all sorts of people, every size, shape, and color you can imagine. And so many colorful outfits, funny outfits, retro-style outfits, and some topless…….fortunately for us girls it was a guy. There were groups, couples, family, friends and different languages spoken. Everyone was having such a great time! The sky was blue with a few drifting clouds and the sun was shining away. I love the way the snow looks on the ground with the blue shadows of the trees in between the sun rays. It’s funny that even with all that business going on, I seem to be able to get into a very sublime mindset when I’m walking alone behind the others in single file instead of side by side.

Most of the 3 miles to our campsite was downhill. Nice! Although, my sled kept sliding into my heel or appearing right alongside me so I opted to push it down the hill. Hey, it worked. I couldn’t find my pvc poles since I moved. Anyway, Navi went ahead of us and when we caught up with him he said he thinks that we passed the turn off for Dewey Point. It started getting late so we decided to head on down the road just about 200 yards to McGlure or McGurk meadow. I just couldn’t keep that name in my head! We had this huge beautiful white meadow to ourselves! (until the next day) We each picked a spot and set up camp. I brought my humungis shovel because that’s all I have at home. But rockman made quick use of it by digging what looked like a grave. I think it was about 5 ft deep by 3 ft wide by 8ft long. He covered it with a green tarp so it made it look pretty cool on the snow. Green snow! Much better than yellow snow! Jean started with the kitchen right after setting up his tent. That’s Jene. Always wanting to do something….plus he was hungry. So everyone else followed him. Navi made some killer mac and cheese. He added dried tomatoes, extra jack cheese then shared it with everyone! Yum! Thank you Nav! We talked for a while and everyone went to bed early except Navi and I. We looked at the stars and talked about how great grandkids are because you can give them back. We went shortly after everyone else.

We all woke up the next morning with most of us saying we were cold and did a lot of tossing and turning except wannabp. She was the lucky one! She said she slept just fine. We started “paiging page”as rockman was saying it into the radio. Never got a response. After breakfast, wannabp, jvz, and myself went snowshoeing to Dewey Point and to watch for Paige and her group. Rockman, songbyrd, and Navi stayed at camp. Rockman said he wanted to make a quinzy and play in the snow. Wannabp was on a mission, boy! She was the lead, then jvz and myself. I was tired since I literally only slept about 15 minutes the whole night. I just didn’t have the energy but I kept on because I wanted to take some gorgeous pictures plus I was enjoying myself. I was just a little slow that day. Jvz said he was feeling the same. We told the others back at camp that we’d turn around at 1:30 whether or not we made it to the point. As we were getting closer to the point, Wannabp asked someone how much further to the point and they said about a mile. She asked us if we wanted to go another mile or sit and have lunch and then turn back. Boy, did Jvz answered in a hurry! He said no way because he just didn’t have the energy to go another mile and I second that. So, we had lunch and turned back. It seemed much faster on the way back. Oh yeah! I just remembered. Three quarters of the road back to camp was downhill. That’s why we were so tired on the way to Dewey Point. It was almost all uphill. We ended up going 7 miles total in that little hike!

We came back to a beautiful new kitchen! Jvz was hurt because they disgarded his first kitchen. Navi said he wanted a bigger one. Isn’t he always saying that? Anyway, it was sooo nice! Songbyrd carved six chairs with armrests, Navi carved out the kitchen counter, and I think rockman just drank. I’m not sure. I never saw a sign of any quinzy. I think Bill was lazy and didn’t make one. I think he just drank. We had dinner then Navi shared something else with us. He told us earlier that he’d have a treat for us when we got back. It was a blue ball of ice cream! We had to toss it around for a while. It was so good! Thank you Nav. That Nav’s such a generous guy, isn’t he? Always thinking of us kids. I started drinking my Tanquerey & tonic. Navi had his takillya in his REI mug, jvz had his jack in his pretty blue flask, songbyrd with her baileys and kaluah, wannabp with her water, and rockman just drank whatever he could get his hands on.

We had a great time! Great conversation, lots of laughes and acting silly. I guess we weren’t as entertaining as we thought because songbyrd and wannabp went to bed first. You could tell who the drinkers are! Wannabp and songbyrd, right? J I don’t think we stayed up too much longer after them. Or did we? Ok, maybe an hour? As everyone went to bed, rockman had to burst out one more yell from his snow coffin.

The next morning everyone was a lot perkier than the morning before. We all got a good nights sleep and everyone stayed warm enough………………...exept rockman. He didn’t feel so good. AND I forgot to mention! It was his birthday Sunday! Happy birthday again Rock! Anyway, his tummy was giving him grief so he just sat around for about an hour and half sitting and then laying on the snow on a mattress soaking up the rays.

It was time to pack up and get going for our semi long drive home. I think we left around 12:30. Stopped at a place in I don’t know where and ended up at jvz’s place about 8:30.Songbyrd, Navi, rockman, and I took off pretty quickly. Wannabp stayed till the next day. I got home at 11:00pm, hopped in the shower went to bed to get up at 5am. Did I miss anything guys? It was a great trip!”

“"Did I miss anything?"

We saw Olive Oyl and her friend, who are friends of Pepperdog and hiked to Showers Lake with us when Ladyhiker came to visit. We had an interesting stove and fuel exchange. The temperature the first night was very cold. My water froze in the Nalgene and it was right by my head. There were incredible frost formations on things in the morning, kind of like ice feathers.

The area gets a lot of traffic during the day, and another group actually camped in the same meadow that we were in, almost out of sight behind a grove of trees. Wingding, I bet it is groomed the whole way to Glacier Point. The distance we went would have been a blast on cross country skis. It was a gentle slope for at least two miles.

I'm putting my photos on Webshots, and each one is taking forever to load.”

“Aaaargh, each photo is taking 10 minutes!!!
While waiting, I found a GORP article on ski/snowshoe trails. http://msn2.away.com/gorp/resource/us_national_park/ca/ski_yose.htm”

“Finally, got my photos on Webshots. http://community.webshots.com/album/253938515FLTIVU/0”

“

"We're sorry!
The Webshots page you have requested has either moved or no longer exists.

Click here to visit the community.webshots.com
If you are looking for the Webshots Desktop Software, visit the download page."

Try Yosemite Snowshoe, Badger Pass, January 14-16, 2005
last edited: 1/18/05 4:29:17 AM”

“Now your link is working and mine is not. Webshots only showed me the first three pictures, after I found the album under your name. So after viewing them, I then looked at Winterfest 2004. It looked like lots of fun in the snow.

Then I tried the links again and found your link working with all the pictures. Enjoyed all the pictures.”

“Thanks, Nowslimmer. Webshots became a pain last night. I see your from Florida. Not much snow there, huh?”

“Hi Calipidder, Paige,
Sorry we missed you too. Maria and I are planning on the trip in Feb. to the big trees. How about you?

Can't wait to see your photos paige.

Great trip report Hikerchic.”

“It turns out that it was our group that invaded your meadow. We got a late start at the trailhead as some people we were waiting for never showed. So we hiked until we got to the campground meadow.

I believe Jim snowshoed over and asked your group if it was okay if we stayed in the meadow and someone there told him it was. I know we were trying not to make too much noise and disturb you all. I will say that it sounded like some one was having a great time over there. We retired into the tent fairly early to play Liar's dice. Every now and then we would hear a shout. Was it not perfect weather?!

Anyway sorry if we were too close.”

“Snowdancer, how funny! You were not too close. We just kept reassuring ourselves that you guys chose to join us ans so if we made too much noise, we did not need to suffer any guilt. What a small world. And yes, perfectly beautiful weather. Post a link to your photos on this thread, too, okay? I liked your Winterfest ones.

Nowslimmer, that's a lot of snow for Florida. Snowdancer must have done it.”

“No, sandy, you were OK. Permission was asked and given. But, 2 TT groups camping next to each other and not introducing themselves as such. There's the sin. Would like to have met you. Was there anyone else from TT there?
Hope we didn't make TOOOO much noise that night. GAWD, we were having fun!”

“hikerchic, did you get a new e-mail address with your move?

I sent you something and it can back.”

“Wannabp, loved your photos, we took some of the same shots! :)
Loved the candles and ice cream.
We had an awesome sunset at Dewey Point. Take a look at the two albums here.
http://community.webshots.com/user/sierrapaige”

“Wow! All of the pictures are great. I am so envious you guys. I've only seen deep snow like that on one occasion. It was in 1973, a long time ago,too long. One of these days I'm flying out for a winter TT trip. I couldn't do a January trip because usually I'm saving time for summer but if there is ever a 2 or 3 day trip in December I'd love to go.”

“Sol hiker, that wasn't deep snow, those guys wussied out of the original destination, Loon Lake, because "there was too much snow"!

Pepperdog & I day-tripped up to the original general area on Sunday, it was GREAT!


(JK you guys, I'm just pi$$ed that I couldn't make it!)”

“Paige, our kitchen was better than yours! neenerneener

sol, thet're planning a trip for Feb. in the Sequoias.

I'm just pi$$ed that I couldn't make it!)”
wanderer

MOOOhaaaahhaaaaahhaaaa”

“Hey now Wanderer ;) Loon Lake is another 20 miles in on windy/higher/icier roads. Not to mention that Union Valley Reservoir is at 4,900 feet and Loon Lake is at 6,400 feet.
Why didn't you go all the way? hee hee”

“Navi, I noticed that! Songbyrd put her final touches on it and made it girly with arm rests and all ;)
I am really bummed that I missed the ice cream!
I saw those ice cream makers at REI, do they work well? What do you need to bring to whip it up?”

“Songbryd?! And just WHO do you think taught her?
Arm rests, girly!?! I'll have you know that was a manly man kitchen!!!!
Dang kids!


Ice Cream
1/2 pint whipping cream
1/3 cup + 2 Tbl. sugar
1 tps. vanilla extract.

Put that in one side.
On the other side, fill with snow and 8 tbl. of rock salt.

Shake, toss, roll for 10 min. Check, scrape from side, shake, toss, and roll for another 10 min.

Yummy!
last edited: 1/18/05 1:19:06 PM”

“Yummy indeed! How much does it weigh? ;)”

“Not too much if you have a sled and TOO much for a backpack.”

“Hey navi! No, my email address is the same; hikerchic5@yahoo.com. Oh, I bet you used my old one at kaiser. No longer there. No Kaiser up in Truckee.

Oh yeah, navi, I'll send you an email regarding the sierrapalooza video from last year.

And yes, Solitary hiker, for sure come up on over to one of our winter trips. They are always a good time!

Sorry we missed the rest of your group paige and how funny we were camping next to another tt group and didn't even meet them.

I should be posting my pics tonight or tomorrow.”

“Well,
We were going to come over on Sunday after our day hike but you guys were already gone. We wanted to do a kitchen comparison. If only we had known yours would be so elaborate or that fresh ice cream was being served we wouldn't have dawdled!”

“hey great pics everyone! I just had a chance to check 'em out. Gotta go back to work now! Wish we would have made it to the point with you guys!”

“Sandy, I was pushing everyone so we could leave at the crack of noon. It was a long way to Lodi (and I didn't want to get stuck) and then to L.A.
And we would have shared the ice cream too.”

“Paige, you took almost the identical burned tree shot as Songbyrd, and mine is pretty darn close. What's with us? You guys did good getting close to the sunset. I wanna do that next time.

Did anyone check out the GORP link I posted. Yosemite is full of options.”

“That GORP site is most excellent, wannabp, I've saved in my "favorites" list. Thanks for sharing!”

“wannabp, yes thank you for that gorp website with the trails! I printed it out but haven't looked at it yet.

Here are my pics from the trip (hope this works):

http://community.webshots.com/album/254627391gyhuyd”

“How funny that the other group was also TT. Small world.
The kitchen (with armrests) was Navis design. Hikerchic put in her trip report that I had done that. LOL , She was gone when he and I made it, so she probably thought it was my idea. Credits go to Navi. BUTTTT, I did build 1/2 of that kitchen all by myself, and danced on the table when I was done. So there!
Gonna go look at Hikerchicks and Paiges pictures now.”

“An explanation of the snow on my Florida car is contained in the thread, Disclosures by nowslimmer. A link to the trip report and six pictures is located near the top of the third page.

If you have not seen the story, you might enjoy it. The first page contains a link to an explanation as to how I became in contact with my old flame after 30 years.”

“Nowslimmer, I did enjoy the trip report. Isn't it about time for an update?

Hikerchic, I enjoyed your photos, especially liked that snow-laden tree.

NorCalers, let's do all the GORP hikes........... maybe not this winter, but soon.”

“You can almost see Dewey Point in Hikerchic's Yosemite View2 photo, the Tunnel View Parking area can be seen from Dewey Point which is above the Three Brothers on the right of her photo. It was cool to be able to see the parking area from there. Kinda gives it all perspective.
Congrats on your successfull snowtrip, Songbyrd and your 1/2 kitchen was fabulous!”

“Too funny about the girly kitchen Paige. And thanks for the assist on telling wanderer about real hiker snow travel. I vow to never get on your bad side.
Sandyann(snowdancer). Did your bunch have a large tent over there too. Looked like one that would fit several people or it was just the meadows dimensions that made it look that way. Sorry we missed you. One of our group(initials begin with rock and end with man)kept hollering out a gals name that was used to ask where your group was. We figured she was up all night in her tent wondereing when that axe murderer was comming after her. Very funny. Sorry if we got too noisey but damn we had a good party that night.
The only regret is we didn't make Dewey Point but it wasn't from lack of trying. Some other time.”

“My pics posted.
http://thebackpacker.com/pictures/album/cwmb7xs0.php”

“OK I just finished looking at everyones pictures. Loved it. Paige, really loved (and sorry I missed) those sunset photos. Umm Man! Gotta go back to see that. Hopefully we will all be together on this next one. Was so great to see the photos of all you together. I do miss you guys.
I am looking into some down booties and a few other things to make life easier in the snow. can't wait!”