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| Hiking | 4.83 Miles |
1,742 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.83 Miles | 3 Hrs 13 Mns | | 1.50 mph |
| 1,742 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | After hiking nearby on Saturday, I knew the inner basin was looking ok for fall. The forecast was beastly, calling for winds over 60mph on the peaks and as much as 4 inches of snow... you don't get to experience life by watching netflix in the valley, so I set out to spend the night camping in Lockett Meadow, hoping to awake to a scene I hadn't previously enjoyed.
I was expecting to have to huddle in my tent (or truck) all night due to the extreme wind and cold temps, but was happy to find a spot to camp that was so sheltered that I felt totally comfortable setting up a pop-up canopy and even have a fire! The winds howled through the treetops with frightening ferocity, but at the surface, only an occasional light gust of wind blew through my camp.
Then it started to snow. Hard. And the wind picked up. And lightning flashed closely. A lot. Bang!! Thundersnow!  I took refuge in my truck for about half an hour until the storm lessened. I put the fire out and set up my tent under the easy up. I awoke numerous times overnight to the sound of the wind pushing my tent. It was never as bad on the ground as it sounded in the trees above.
As dawn slowly broke, my hopes for a sunrise through breaking clouds illuminating the inner basin were thwarted by being socked in the clouds, driving snow continuing to fall, and severe winds. The temperature was 21. Oh well. I crawled back into my sleeping bag for a couple of hours.
It didn't get warmer or less windy. But it was light out so I decided to pack things up and go for a hike. It's nice making the only footprints in the snow in a place as beautiful as this. There was an inch or two more snow than forecast. There were a lot of leaves polka-dotting the surface. Plus small branches. There were a handful of mature trees that had been snapped by the wind about 30 feet off the ground. The waterline road had a stretch that looked like a tornado had been through. I kept my eyes pointed upward as the wind continued, looking to avoid the next tree to fall.
The clouds still settled in the basin so I didn't continue beyond the waterline as I figured there wouldn't be anything to see anyway. There were maybe four or five people getting on the trail as I finished, having ventured up the mountain in the morning.
The clouds showed some signs of breaking. I didn't want to wait. But I was hoping to get that great view into the basin with snowcapped peaks from Sugarloaf. So I started heading up, hoping it would clear a bit before I got to the summit. It never happened. Oh well. You don't catch that rare moment if you're not in position to catch it! I'll try it again another time.
I opted for the long way around the peaks for my route back home. I stopped in a couple of spots along the way to soak in a few really enjoyable scenes.
It was a cold night. What I was hoping to see never materialized. And it was still fun af. I'd do it again tomorrow if the same conditions presented themselves! |
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Autumn Foliage Observation Substantial
Technically early. Still good pockets of green aspens. But 60mph winds stripped a lot of leaves and more, so much of the existing yellow was on the ground. |
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| I'm not sure what my spirit animal is, but I'm confident it has rabies. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
. Also practiced self-arrest in all positions but head first. Started at FR552 and went a little ways past the Inner basin TH. Then climbed up and down in diferent areas playing and practicing.
.We had lunch up on top and we were rewarded with some pretty sweet views. The trip down was fun on some of the steeper slopes. We headed back and did some more climbing and did some more sliding. We ended up on private property and backtracked a little after some more sliding. This was a fun trip. I was great meeting Joel(nonsnowuss) and he even wore is 5 fingers. Thanks for driving.
We did a couple of these climbs and slides back down.
