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| Hiking | 6.70 Miles |
1,183 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.70 Miles | 24 Hrs | | 0.28 mph |
| 1,183 ft AEG | | 24 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | I ended up with some unexpected extra time off work, so I decided to squeeze in one last backpacking trip before the new year. I wanted to see some snow and I didn't want to drive very far, so I decided to return and hike the Horton Creek trail again. The ranger I talked to on the phone told me to expect "almost no snow" along the trail. I am glad I didn't fully believe her.
After arriving at the trailhead, it was quite apparent there would be lots of snow and that a storm was coming. It would be overcast the entire trip. I like hiking in snow, so I had a nice afternoon making my way down the trail. The forest certainly looked much different than it had in late October. The first mile had intermittent snow and spots of either frozen or muddy ground. As I continued on, the snow grew a little deeper, but the trail was still easy to find.
I had expected the snow to slow me down more, but I reached Horton Spring in just 2.5 hours. I guess I kept moving to keep my feet and hands warm. The snow around here was quite deep, almost to my knees in some places. Horton Spring was gushing as always. I hiked around the area a little bit and found where I had camped last time. I thought of camping in the same spot again, but the snow was quite deep there. Plus it was still kind of early so I decided to start my hike back.
It took me awhile and a couple miles, but I finally found a small, level, and snow-free place to make camp. I had to cross the creek to get there (which was quite cold, by the way), and I was near some obscenely large man-made structure. But my site seemed fairly well protected from wind and safe from deadfall so I was happy. By this time, the storm looked ever closer. I made myself a hot meal, drank a nice cup of tea, and then heated up some water to make a hot Nalgene bottle. I then crawled into my tent, read a little bit, and fell asleep. After a couple hours, I woke up to the sound of a light rain. And then a couple hours later, I woke up and realized my tent was much darker than normal. This was because it had been covered in snow. I banged off a bunch of the snow and went back to sleep. This continued for the rest of the night as the snow just kept falling. I would see a low of 25 degrees inside my tent that night but I stayed ridiculously warm.
By morning, it had stopped snowing so I quickly packed up camp and hit the trail. I was amazed at how much different the forest looked. The fresh snow was gorgeous! It only took me a little over an hour to hike back to my car (which was covered in snow), but it sure felt good getting inside and turning up the heat! This trip turned out to be a great little adventure. I was glad I went. Surprisingly, I saw no one the entire time. |
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Route Editor
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