Snow levels west of Tahoe

[Wandering Daisy]

We drove up the Foresthill Road Saturday to check out the snow level. The campground at Mumford Bar trailhead is open. We walked down the trail about half a mile. Snow is basically gone but lots of debris in the jeep road/trail. Some patches of snow on north facing slopes. Up the road, the Beacroft trailhead was also free of snow. A few more miles, at about 6400 feet, the road had snow. We did not dry to go further. That level would mean that the Loon Lake area may becoming free of snow too.

Talked to a FS worker who said that the North Fork trail from Mumford Bar up to Sailor Bar may be cleared this summer- at least it is on the list. This was a great trail that I loved to use but was destroyed in the big fire several years ago. Right now they are working on the Western States Trail, which a large chunk was destroyed from runoff.

[Wandering Daisy]

[rimg]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg23 ... _small.jpg[/rimg]
Start of snow on the Foresthill Road at about 6,400 feet about 2 miles before the Sailor Bar road junction and past the Beacroft Trailhead.

The snow is amazingly gone and then suddenly appears- a very distinct melt line.

[wildhiker]

Thanks for the info, WD.

Your observations on the ground seem to match up with this great website I just found:
https://www.fs.fed.us/r5/webmaps/SierraSnowDepth
The Forest Service is geo-referencing the satellite snow depth estimates on a Google-map style interface.

If you scroll up to the French Meadows Reservoir area, this satellite estimate starts the pack right about Sailor Flat, at a few inches deep.

-Phil