Page 1 of 1

Snow Camping Trip Report

Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 12:35 pm
by Fly Guy Dave
Yeah, this was last year when we had a ton of snow...so unlike this year, but I thought you folks might appreciate this. I mostly find myself up in the Sierras in pursuit of the elusive trout-fish, but any excuse to go up into the high country is good enough for me. Every year some friends and I venture out a do some snow camping for a long weekend. There are usually four of us, but due to various circumstances, only two of us went last year...two of us and my friend's malamute.

Image
Yes, she carries her own weight on these trips...well...her food at least...

Image
PLENTY of snow at Echo Lake Lodge last year

Image
The lake was frozen over thick as well.

Image
It always takes a few hours of digging, but we finally dug out a big enough snow cave to sit, cook and sleep in. The outside view...

Image
...and the inside view.

Image
After all of that hard work, a good dinner and a toast with an appropriate beverage was in order.

Image
The next day we did a lot of sledding, cross country skiing, hiking and picture taking, with views like this of some cool looking lenticular clouds.

Image
The sunset on a very fun day. But I figure the whole adage of "red sky at night, sailor's delight" applies only on the ocean and not in the mountains, as the next day we woke up to this:

Image
It was more windy that snowing, we've dealt with a lot worse in the past, but it made for a rather grim hike out.

We're going again this year, hopefully with a larger crew (more to help with the digging), but it might be more of a camping trip than a SNOW camping trip.

Enjoy!

Snow Camping Trip Report

Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 2:22 pm
by ScoobyMike
I was on Echo lake super bowl day. I had planned a long snow shoe hike out past the end of the lake. Turns out that a fellow stuck his 4WD pickup (with bald street tires) on the unplowed access road to the lodge. He had been there over night. It took a couple hours to bring my Jeep in and pull him out. There was actually a couple of feet of snow and the lake had plenty of ice.

Re: Snow Camping Trip Report

Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 4:35 pm
by Fly Guy Dave
Good to know about the snow at Echo. We usually choose a spot that has some elevation, to ensure maximum snow depth. We've gone around Loon Lake before, as well as the Carson Pass area. I was at the Sno Park lot at Echo two days ago and I saw around a foot of snow in the areas that hadn't been enhanced by plowing. Yikes!

Now that I look at that "sunset" picture in my post, I realize what a dumb @$$ I am...that's the SUNRISE, not sunset. DOH! #-o

Snow Camping Trip Report

Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 9:23 pm
by ScoobyMike
Super Bowl Sunday

Snow Camping Trip Report

Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 9:28 pm
by ScoobyMike
Buck Lake the week before: